RECRUITMENT METHOD IMPACTS ON MANAGED LANE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY RESPONSE RATES AND RESPONSE DIFFERENCES ACROSS RECRUITMENT WAVES
PI: Randall Guensler
Co-PI(s): OT-02
Institution(s): Georgia Institute of Technology
Abstract
The Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) conducts regular customer satisfaction surveys of Express Lane facility users to assess customer experience and obtain customer input to help improve facility management. The 2021 SRTA Customer Satisfaction Survey was conducted in four waves, between August 2021 and November 2021 (1). A total of 6,012 SRTA customers took the survey, which represents a survey response rate of about 8.3%. The first three waves of survey invitations were distributed directly to SRTA customers via pre-formatted e-mail invitations, using the agency e-mail contact list. The traditional first two waves, an invitation and follow-up e-mail reminder, generated significant customer response (41% of the total responses). However, Wave 3 was a targeted invitation, designed to appeal to specific users that regularly travel on specific corridors. This invitation let each individual user know that SRTA was looking for information from customers who reside in their county that used their specific Express Lane. This third wave significantly increased customer response, providing almost 27% of total responses. The open invitation used in the fourth wave (in which customer identity cannot be tracked) yielded almost 32% of the total survey response; however, 99% of these responses came from open SRTA newsletter invitations (less than 1% came from social media). The demographics and use characteristics were somewhat different across these waves. In the anonymous response survey, the distribution of ages was slightly skewed towards greater proportions of older individuals. Customer satisfaction with Peach Pass customer service centers was generally lower in the anonymous wave, providing information that would not have been captured without this wave. Given that the customer satisfaction rates for some service elements differ across the direct survey invitation responses and the anonymous survey invitation responses, for other agencies looking to assess customer satisfaction, it is worth considering the use of direct survey invitations as well as an anonymous survey response option.
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