Customer outcomes performance reports

Our purpose is to provide trusted water services for our communities and future generations. Over the past year we have continued to deliver this essential service to our customers every day.

Our customers rely on us to get things right. We recognise many customers have not received accurate and timely bills since our new system was implemented in May 2024. Failures in our systems, technology and processes have impacted our service performance, contributed to a decline in customer satisfaction and resulted in a loss of trust.

Over the past year, we have been focused on fixing the issues and improving the customer experience. More customers are now receiving regular bills and we’ve applied bill credits and waived charges in line with our commitments to the Essential Services Commission (ESC). We have increased capacity across our contact centre and back-office teams, helping customers reach us more easily. We have also maintained extended contact centre hours, including earlier mornings, evenings and weekends, and continued our local customer care days. Customers can also access face-to-face support at our offices during business hours.

While progress has been made, we know there is more to do. Rebuilding trust will take time, consistent service improvements and continued support for our customers. We remain focused on learning from these challenges, strengthening our systems and processes, and delivering the service our customers expect and deserve.

Our Customer Forum met to assess our performance on Saturday 25 July 2026. We have accepted their assessment and are reviewing how we can make improvements in the coming year.

The Forum’s overall assessment rated our performance as largely met, the same result as last year. However, the detailed findings show a decline in performance, with more areas marked red.

This is reflected in the outcome-level results for July 2025 to June 2026, where we didn’t achieve a met rating in any area. Three outcome areas were rated largely met, while two were rated not met.

Across all outcomes, we have not met our targets for customer satisfaction. This loss of customer trust is the most significant factor contributing to lower overall ratings.

To help the Forum reach a decision, we provided them with:

• performance data for each measure within the outcome areas
• our own self-assessment for all outcome measures
• in-person access to subject matter experts from across Greater Western Water to discuss the data and answer questions.

The Forum wrote and agreed to a collective statement for each outcome, using their own words to explain their assessment. We have included their statements verbatim in this report.

Overall rating achieved for this outcome: largely met.

When we meet this outcome, our customers experience:

• Water that tastes great, is high quality, and always safe to drink
• Water that is there when you turn on your tap
• A sewerage service that works without interruptions or blockages.

We track our progress using the following measures:

GWW comment:

Overall, for Outcome One, our Customer Forum rated GWW’s performance as largely met, reflecting mixed results across the assessed measures.

Recent changes to water quality standards and regulations resulted in elements of our reporting process not meeting the required standards*. However, drinking water supplied to customers remained safe at all times. Four out of 112,440 drinking water quality samples taken were initially recorded as non-compliant against the revised guidelines. Subsequent investigations confirmed all these samples were false positives, with errors in the sampling method identified as the root cause [1a].

For the second year, customer satisfaction performance was below expected levels across all measures [1b, 2d, 3b, 4a], including water quality [1b]. We have also seen an increase in water quality complaints across other data sources and are undertaking analysis to understand the root causes of dissatisfaction, with a focus on improving performance and working towards our target [1b].

While we made improvements to the number of unplanned water outages to customers this year [1c], we did not meet the target for sewer supply outages [1d].

Customer Forum statement:

'GWW complied with the expected drinking water quality and service standards, and the number of unplanned water supply interruptions remained well below target. Survey results were below target, potentially influenced by ongoing billing issues and feedback from customers contacting GWW about service concerns. The main area for improvement is the rising number of residential sewer connection interruptions, which exceeds target levels and continues to worsen compared to the previous year's.'

GWW improvement plans:

[1b] Overall customer satisfaction remains well below target across all measures. To address this, we are introducing new ways to connect and listen to customers and better understand their feedback. This will help us address the issues that matter most and make changes that have the greatest impact.

We’re also reviewing how we collect and analyse customer feedback to ensure we have a clear picture of customer experiences and concerns.

These actions are focused on rebuilding trust, improving customer experiences, and delivering the service our customers expect.

[1d] We didn’t achieve this target and are taking steps to reduce sewer interruptions and improve service reliability.

While results this year were affected by a small number of highly complex cases, we’ve started implementing improvements that help us identify risks earlier, and target maintenance more effectively.

These include strengthening how we monitor and analyse service interruptions, improving asset performance data and enhancing planning and coordination of maintenance works by bringing more field services in-house. This means we have greater oversight and control of the end-to-end process, helping us respond more efficiently and deliver better outcomes for customers.

We are also investing in improved sewer network modelling to better predict and prevent sewer interruptions.

Overall rating achieved for this outcome: not met.

When we meet this outcome, our customers experience:

• Water and sewerage maintenance crews who are responsive and efficient if disruptions happen
• Excellent customer service when you contact us.

We track our progress using the following measures:

GWW comment:

Overall, for Outcome Two the Customer Forum rated GWW’s performance as not met, because we did not meet expectations in three of the four measures, and were rated largely met in the remaining measure.

In 2025–26 we have not achieved our targets for time to fix a priority one burst or leak in main or trunk infrastructure [2a] or average time to fix reported sewer blockages/spills [2b]. This year, a small number of very complex cases that took a long time to resolve have significantly impacted the average (mean) time taken to resolve cases. However, our routine responses to priority one bursts and leaks have been well within our target timeframes (as shown by the median time taken) and demonstrate that our processes for responding to routine reports are working.

Complex cases involve infrastructure with a wide range of ages and conditions, high-risk locations, coordinating works and permits across multiple organisations and access and safety requirements.

Similarly, complex repairs also contributed to results just below target for the percentage of unplanned water supply interruptions fixed within five hours across our service area [2c].

Excluding these extreme cases, performance indicates customers generally received the intended level of service.

Overall customer satisfaction has continued to fall well below target [2d]. Technical and data issues associated with the customer billing system and ongoing bill delays and inaccuracies are likely to have been a large contributor to this decline. We know this has caused stress for many customers and we are committed to fixing the issues and rebuilding trust.

Customer Forum statement:

'We recognise that many faults are resolved despite increasingly complex challenges, and that some results were close to target. However, members feel the current measures do not always reflect performance accurately, as outliers and issues such as billing concerns can affect results. Improvement is needed in meeting service targets and reviewing how fault response and resolution performance is measured and reported.'

GWW improvement plan:

[2a, 2b] The improvement plans for Outcome Measures 2a and 2b have some cross over with those for 1d, as many of the underlying issues driving poor performance are shared across all three measures.

We will deliver some improvements to 2a and 2b by bringing more maintenance and field services in-house. We expect to see challenges continue for highly complex cases that require multi-agency co-ordination. We have taken steps to improve co-ordination with other agencies who own and manage infrastructure to manage responses to highly complex cases and will continue to progress this over the next year. We are also considering alternative ways to reflect this in our targets and measures that more accurately reflect the service our customers receive.

By aligning our improvement efforts across these related measures and focusing on the root causes, we aim to improve performance across all three measures.

[2d] We are improving billing and payment experiences for customers, including making accounts easier to manage and support easier to access. While we've made progress, we know there is more to do to rebuild customer trust.

To support greater transparency and accountability as we continue to improve our services, we will introduce two new billing performance measures in future reports. These measures were tested with our Customer Forum in 2026 and will be included in Outcomes Reporting from 2027 through to the end of the current regulatory period.

Overall rating achieved for this outcome: not met.

When we meet this outcome, our customers experience:

• With our partners, we improve the wellbeing of our communities by providing alternative water to irrigate public green spaces
• Support of the financial resilience of our communities and help you if they’re having payment difficulties.

We track our progress using the following measures:

*has been indexed for inflation (2.4%)

GWW comment:

Overall, for Outcome Three our Customer Forum rated GWW’s performance as not met, reflecting mixed results across the assessed measures.

This year we delivered our scheduled increase to the target for the number of open space assets irrigated with alternative water [3a] from 185 to 206. We have connected 18 new open spaces and exceeded the new target. The new connections cover a variety of public spaces, including reserves, schools and educational facilities, and a cemetery.

Among the issues caused by our billing and payment system, longer billing periods have led to higher amounts owed at one time for many customers when they receive their bills following a delay. We expect this has resulted in the understandable decrease in customers’ perception that our prices represent value for money [3b].

We have allocated just over one third of our target hardship grants to customers [3c]. While this falls well short of the target, the number of grants provided has increased significantly compared to last year. We have also seen another strong increase since streamlining the grant allocation process in March.

We are confident these initiatives will improve performance, and we are expecting to be closer to target in the coming year. In addition to hardship grants, we support our customers through flexible payment options, targeted relief measures and, in line with the enforceable undertaking related to billing, we have directly supported customers through providing credits and waiving charges. This included helping customers access more than $2.6 million in Victorian Government Utility Relief Grants.

Customer Forum statement:

'Customer satisfaction results appear to have been affected by ongoing billing issues, making it difficult to accurately assess overall performance. Hardship grant approvals remain well below target and may require a review of eligibility, application processes and customer support to identify barriers. Clearer communication is needed about the value of water services, including stable pricing over the past six years.'

GWW improvement plan:

[3b] Over the past year, we have focused on improving billing accuracy and timeliness and strengthening support for customers experiencing financial pressure. Our enforceable undertaking commits us to support customers and improve billing practices over the next three years.

We have started longer-term work to help customers better understand the value of water services and the benefits they deliver to homes, businesses and communities.

While improving customer perceptions will take time, addressing affordability concerns and improving billing experiences remain key priorities.

[3c] In March, we streamlined the grant allocation process and expanded financial authority to more team members. This helps us provide grants more quickly and efficiently. During the year, an independent review by Uniting Vic.Tas also examined our hardship grant process, providing recommendations that will support our ongoing efforts. Combined with other process improvements, we are confident we will reach our target next year.

From 2027, this outcome will include an additional measure to track how we support customers experiencing hardship. This measure was developed and tested with our Customer Forum in 2026 and will help us better understand and report on the support we provide to customers who need it most.

Overall rating achieved for this outcome: largely met.

When we meet this outcome, our customers experience:

• Excellent customer service when they contact us
• Support of agriculture with the right recycled water products for their needs
• Developers and applicants find us easy, timely and consistent to do business with to get new customers connected.

We track our progress using the following measures:

GWW comment:

Overall, for Outcome Four our Customer Forum rated GWW’s performance as largely met, reflecting mixed results across the assessed measures.

Understandably, ongoing challenges with fixing our billing and payments system had a direct impact on business customers’ overall satisfaction with us [4a]. Challenges included delays to bills and other important property information. While customer contact volumes increased as a result, we responded by increasing resourcing to manage the volume. Call wait times therefore remained consistently below our four-minute target throughout 2025–26, helping us respond to customer enquiries and resolve issues as quickly as possible.

We increased our target for supply of recycled water for agricultural use [4b] by 1,000 million litres this year. Heavy rains in November and March meant key customers needed less recycled water than we expected during peak irrigation season. However, the target was still met.

Processing of pressure and flow applications [4c] and processing of new customer contributions [4d] both met our targets.

We demonstrated strong improvement in standard plumbing applications completed on time [4e]. Last year we narrowly missed our 40% target, however in 2025–26 we delivered and exceeded our planned target increase. By improving our processes, 64% of our customers’ applications were completed within our eight-day target, which is two days faster than required under the Water Industry Standard.

Customer Forum statement:

'The panel recognises that GWW met four out of five of its targets in terms of enabling growth and helping businesses to thrive. Without the ongoing billing issues, GWW would have met its target. GWW needs to rectify its billing issues and possibly change the way it measures business customer feedback. Implementation of the pulse survey system should be considered.'

GWW improvement plan:

Business customer satisfaction remains below target. We know businesses rely on timely information, responsive service and simple interactions with us.

To improve the experience for business customers, we’re planning to better align our business customer teams and provide a more coordinated approach to customer support.

We’re also improving billing and payment processes to reduce customer effort and improve overall service experiences.

To better understand our business customers’ priorities and perspectives, we are currently implementing a monthly sentiment tracking survey that will provide ongoing insight into their experiences with GWW.

While these changes will take time, they are an important part of our long-term commitment to improving outcomes for business customers.

Overall rating achieved for this outcome: largely met.

When we meet this outcome, our customers experience:

• We limit and reduce our impact on the environment including from our treatment plants
• We will meet our net zero emission targets by 2030
• We actively support First Nations and Traditional Owners’ self-determination and provide access to water to achieve cultural value from our region.

We track our progress using the following measures:

GWW comment:

Overall, for Outcome Five our Customer Forum rated GWW’s performance as largely met, representing solid performance across three of the five measures.

We did not meet our target for beneficial reuse of biosolids [5a]. Around 3% was disposed of due to EPA requirements, and approximately 20% is currently being stored onsite for future reuse. Work is also underway to implement a long-term solution to better meet EPA requirements [5a].

Our EPA-notifiable sewer spills were well above target [5b]. Ongoing dry conditions throughout this year have contributed to incidents, with fats, debris and wet wipes causing tree root-related blockages across the network. We are continuing analysis regarding sewer network performance with the aim of identifying viable programs to meet this target.

The Statement of Obligations (Emissions Reduction) and GWW’s 2030 Strategy commit us to net zero emissions by 2030, and we continue to deliver on this commitment by exceeding targets this reporting period [5c]. As of 1 January 2026, all our sites are now powered with 100% renewable electricity.

We launched our first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2023 [5d]. By its completion in 2025, 89% of planned actions had been delivered, exceeding our target of 80%. We developed our second Innovate RAP in 2025 and launched in early 2026. Our second RAP has strengthened the ambition in our actions and is on track to meet our ongoing target of 80% of actions delivered. To support this momentum, we established a strengthened RAP governance structure with clear roles in driving and delivering our commitments.

We continue to work with Traditional Owners to support self-determined priorities at a pace set by Traditional Owners within our Traditional Owner Water Program [5e]. We currently have active funding agreements with two Traditional Owner corporations (Djaara and Taungurung) and discussions are underway with the remaining three Traditional Owner groups representing the lands and waters we operate on. Through these funding agreements, both Traditional Owner groups have initiated projects that support healthy Country outcomes.

We are in the process of seeking feedback on our self-assessed progress on the Traditional Owner Water Program from Traditional Owners. Customer Forum feedback will focus on the overarching intent of the program.

Customer Forum statement:

'GWW is performing well in several areas, especially reducing CO₂ emissions, delivering Reconciliation Action Plan initiatives, and progressing Traditional Owner Water Programs. However, GWW should prioritise a significant reduction in the number of EPA-notifiable sewer spills through increased preventative work and proactive maintenance.'

Traditional Owner statements:

Traditional Owner partner corporations have been invited to include a statement, which will be included at a time they self-determine.

 

GWW improvement plan:

[5b] Reducing sewer spills remains a priority for us. We’ve strengthened our maintenance engineering capability, and we are undertaking further analysis of sewer network performance to better predict and prevent spills and find opportunities for improvement.

We continue to invest in targeted maintenance programs, trade waste management initiatives and monitoring of network performance.

While this is a complex challenge that will take time to address, we’re committed to reducing future incidents and limiting their impact on customers, communities and the environment.