We submit a new Pricing Submission every four years, and developing it provides us with a great opportunity to carry out an intensive review of our services and find areas for improvement.
One of the main ways we do this is through engaging with our customers.
We have more than 20,000 customers, and the services we offer them are highly varied.
However, in the coming weeks, all will have the chance to give feedback on our services.
The groundwork for this Pricing Submission began almost immediately after our previous submission.
In 2021, we began working with customers to create our service plans. Customers provided feedback about the services they received from us via online surveys and focus groups, as well as in-person workshops.
This helped us understand what customers’ priorities were for the different services, and subsequently allowed us to pinpoint the areas we needed to focus on during the Pricing Submission.
While developing our service plans, we also asked customers about their preferred methods of engagement.
What we heard from them — and what our water services committees members have since reaffirmed — is that there is now a strong preference towards online engagement.
This was welcome news to us, as we were already in the process of redeveloping our website.
As part of our website redevelopment, we launched a new engagement platform on our YourSay@GMW page.
This platform provides a simple way for customers to provide feedback on a variety of topics.
There are questions on the YourSay@GMW page about customers’ preferences regarding billing, capital expenditure projects, customer service point hibernation, and a range of other topics.
While this is a great way for most of our customers to engage, we want our engagement to be as inclusive as possible.
In coming weeks, our customer relationship coordinators will be seeking feedback on Pricing Submission topics with customers they meet in person.
We will also be holding drop-in sessions at our offices for customers who want to come in and talk about certain aspects of the Pricing Submission, and will have similar opportunities for customers at upcoming events such as the Seymour Alternative Farming Expo.
Furthermore, people are always welcome to drop into any of our offices or phone 1800 013 357, where one of our staff can take them through the Pricing Submission topics and lodge their feedback.
If you wish to give your feedback online, visit: https://yoursay.gmwater.com.au/pricing-submission-2024
Our draft Pricing Submission for 2024-28 is due to be submitted for review to the Essential Services Commission by the end of September.
— Charmaine Quick
G-MW managing director
