Tolling Today: It’s All About the Customer

Kevin Hoeflich, Toll Market Practice Leader at HNTB Inc., leads the customers and communications track for IBTTA’s 82^nd Annual Meeting and Exhibition, September 14-17, 2014 in Austin, Texas. In this interview with Tolling Points, he points to the value of communicating across generations and listening to all the voices in the room—particularly if we don’t expect to agree with them.

TP: What are the most important industry news and trends in your track?

KH: The customers and communications track comes directly from our president, Mike Heiligenstein, and his theme for this year. It’s all about being customer-centric and delivering excellent customer service. This is a new track at the Annual Meeting, so we’re trying to do some things differently. Our customers are changing, new communications techniques and technologies are all around us, and we’ve built a series of sessions that reflect what’s going on in the field every day.

TP: How are those content priorities reflected in this year's Annual Meeting program? 

KH: One of the sessions is set up as a focus group. You’ll hear directly from customers about what they think about toll roads, and particularly express lanes. The session will be moderated by Ben Wear a local transportation reporter with the Austin American-Statesman who’s very familiar with toll road issues around Austin, which didn’t have a single toll road less than a decade ago. The panel is a diverse group which will include a business owner, a Millennial, an infrequent user and a tolling skeptic, so it won’t be restricted to pro-tolling people, and that’s intentional. You’re going to hear directly from the customers, not a polling firm or a consultant.

We also wanted to look at other businesses, not necessarily transportation related, that have a high level of customer service. Companies like Internet based vacations rentals Homeaway and institutions like Texas A&M do a great job at customer service and branding, and we’ll be looking for lessons that can be applied to the toll industry. Our moderator, Michael Tamer, does a lot of work with toll agencies on customer service and branding, and he’s going to sprinkle in the best and brightest of what’s going on in our industry.

And then, there’s a whole new generation of customers that we don’t necessarily believe the toll industry is interacting with. Millennials will be our primary customers in 10 years. They use information differently. They seek information differently. They expect it instantaneously customized to meet their specific needs. My daughter won’t walk into a restaurant without checking it out on Yelp.  Surely she will not drive your toll road without first checking her transportation app. We’re starting to see new applications that include toll roads, non-toll roads, and transit, telling you which is the fastest route and what it will cost you. Third-party entrepreneurs are coming into transportation and, more importantly, into tolling, and that tells you two things: They see a need, and they see a way to make money.

TP: The Annual Meeting is one of the main opportunities each year for the IBTTA community to gather from around the world. How will the networking and informal conversations during the conference help advance the industry in your specific track area?

KH: When you bring all of these folks together in one place, under one roof, and they hear a common message, it creates dialogue around the industry’s most important issues. We’re hoping to generate some conversation about how well we’re using social media, how well we’re communicating with Millennials, and whether we’re using the latest techniques and reaching out across the whole spectrum of media. It’ll be a good place to get some of the best practices that other agencies are using.

TP: Is there anything you’d like to add?

KH: The Annual Meeting, in particular, tends to recap in a lot of ways what’s gone on across the whole year. You typically have the executive director and the senior level there, so it’s a great opportunity to share information and tee up our ideas for the coming year. The customers and communications track will generate some great ideas from other businesses and draw some parallels to what can be done in the toll industry.

Click here to learn more about IBTTA’s 82^nd Annual Meeting and Exhibition, September 14-17, 2014 in Austin, Texas.

photo credit: keirstenmarie via photopin cc