The Morgan Trusted Brand Awards have recognised Sydney Water as the 2024 most trusted utilities brand in Australia.
The awards are informed by the Roy Morgan Risk Monitor, a comprehensive survey that gathers insights from approximately 25,000 Australians annually (or 2,000 per month) about which companies they trust or distrust and why.
This open-ended, unprompted survey evaluates companies based on at least 20 nominations from Australians throughout the year to qualify for the Roy Morgan Trusted Brand Awards.
Sydney Water Managing Director, Roch Cheroux, thanked customers for their support and said he’s proud to accept the prestigious honour on behalf of everyone at Sydney Water.
“We wouldn’t be Sydney Water without our customers, who are at the heart of everything we do,” Mr Cheroux said.
“We’ve spent the past decade understanding and responding to what our customers really need and value, and being named the most trusted utility brand in Australia is a great honour and testament to the hard work and dedication of every one of our team,” Mr Cheroux said.
Sydney Water launched its biggest ever customer engagement initiative – Our Water, Our Voice – more than two years ago, which connected with more than 13,000 customers to find out their priorities and expectations. These insights have then been used to shape long-term planning and business strategies.
Sydney Water has also invested significantly in customer-first initiatives, including cost-of-living programs like pensioner and concession rebates, BillAssist schemes and WaterFix programs, which deliver discounted water efficiency checks and plumbing repairs to help customers save water in their homes, schools and businesses.
“By directly connecting with our customers not only were we able to empower them to provide valuable insights, but we listened to their feedback,” Mr Cheroux said.
“This has built growing trust with our customers, who have been able to help us rethink how we provide essential services.
“As an essential service provider, the challenges we’re facing require significant investments now to secure our city’s water and wastewater services for the next generation and generations to come,” Mr Cheroux said.
Sydney Water’s Long-Term Capital and Operational Plan has identified critical infrastructure required to accommodate the population boom, a changing climate, upgrades to ageing infrastructure, and the rising cost of living.
Over the next ten years, Sydney Water will invest more than $30 billion to upgrade existing networks and deliver new infrastructure.
In addition to the Roy Morgan survey, Sydney Water conducts its own research into its brand health, via a regular ongoing brand tracker.
This research monitors key metrics over time. One of these metrics is trust, and Sydney Water said that it continuously performs very strongly on trust, outperforming all the other benchmark organisations to which it is compared and has done so since the inception of the brand tracker in 2020.
“This recognition confirms Sydney Water is not only reliable within the utilities sector but is also trusted when compared to all brands across all sectors and industries in Australia,” Mr Cheroux said.
“We are grateful for this award and look forward to continuing to build our customers trust into the future and beyond,” Mr Cheroux said.
Featured image: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/shutterstock.com.
