Strengthening Customer Insight to Support Strategic Decision-Making
Client: Murrumbidgee Irrigation
Murrumbidgee Irrigation (MI) is one of Australia’s largest private irrigation companies, delivering essential water services that support one of the country’s most productive agricultural regions. With more than 3,000 delivery points and over 2,300 shareholder customers, MI plays a vital role in supporting growers and communities across the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.
A strong customer listening program is central to MI’s commitment to transparency, responsiveness, and continuous improvement. The Customer Experience (CX) Annual Survey is a key component of this work, providing a structured, evidence-based view of customer sentiment and expectations.
Challenge:
MI wanted to modernise its customer insights approach, improve survey accessibility, increase the depth of insights gathered, and strengthen the way customer feedback informs strategic decision-making.
The objectives included:
- Capturing reliable, representative feedback across MI’s diverse customer base
Building year-on-year comparability to track shifts in sentiment and trust - Understanding the drivers behind satisfaction, including the role of clarity, responsiveness, and collaboration levers
- Linking insights to MI’s CX Strategy, customer personas, and CX Guiding Principles
- Ensuring the Board and Executive had a clear, actionable view of customer expectations and emerging risks
- Establishing a repeatable and future-proofed method for MI’s annual customer
Approach:
Change Playbook partnered with MI to design and deliver the Annual CX Survey using a contemporary customer insights methodology aligned to market research best practice.
The approach included:
Best-practice survey design: A structured, mobile-friendly survey using a mix of quantitative and targeted qualitative questions designed in clear customer language. The tool was created to uncover both current sentiment and the core reasons behind it.
Modernised research delivery: Transitioned from the 2024 outbound phone model to a secure, anonymous, self-paced online survey, reflecting contemporary best practice for increased reach, accessibility, and respondent comfort.
Representative segmentation: Ensured the sample reflected MI’s core customer segments, with analysis explored by service usage, satisfaction level, and channel preference.
Integrated Insight Framework: One of the most impactful elements of the project was MI’s integrated approach to insights. Where, Change Playbook:
- Mapped survey findings to MI’s customer personas: deepening understanding of segment-specific needs and MI performs across different customer types
- Aligned insights to MI’s CX Guiding Principles: Collaboration, Clarity, Responsiveness, Ease to track performance where it matters most
- Connected results to the CX Strategy and three-year Roadmap: ensuring insights directly informed prioritisation and action
This approach created a more holistic and actionable understanding of customers than a traditional survey alone.
Executive & Board engagement
To strengthen organisational alignment and drive adoption of insights, Change Playbook facilitated structured engagement at senior levels, including:
- An Executive-level insights briefing, highlighting key strengths, risks, trends, and immediate priorities
- A Board-ready Executive Summary, ensuring findings were accessible, strategically framed, and aligned to MI’s governance needs
Clear, accessible reporting
Delivered a complete insights pack including a Board-ready summary, detailed insights report, segmentation analysis, “You Said / We Heard” customer communication to close the loop, and recommended focus areas for the next 12–18 months.
Outcome:
The Annual CX Survey strengthened MI’s customer listening capability and delivered a deeper, more strategically aligned evidence base for decisions across the organisation.
Key outcomes included:
- A clear understanding of customer sentiment, including areas where MI continues to perform strongly and where expectations are rising
- Improved visibility of drivers behind satisfaction, helping MI prioritise effort where it will matter most
- A holistic view of insights through the integration of survey findings with personas and CX Guiding Principles
- Strengthened alignment between customer insights, operational planning, and MI’s CX Roadmap
- A modern, scalable survey methodology MI can now repeat annually to track progress
By embedding this contemporary, insight-led approach into its annual cycle, MI is deepening its understanding of customers, supporting transparency, and strengthening its capability to respond proactively to the region’s evolving needs.