Guide for Customer-Driven Benchmarking of Maintenance Activities (with A Primer: Customer-Driven Benchmarking for Highway Maintenance)

This report provides state and local roadway maintenance managers with guidance on how to evaluate and improve their agency's performance through a process called "customer-driven benchmarking." The objective of benchmarking is to identify, evaluate, and implement best practices by comparing your agency's performance with those of other agencies. Customer-driven benchmarking defines best practices as those practices that provide the highest levels of customer satisfaction, measured by customer surveys and other performance indicators. This guide leads the user through the benchmarking process, providing details on how to select partners, establish performance measures, use those measures to assess performance, and implement best practices. The guide is accompanied by a primer that promotes and encourages the use of customer-driven benchmarking. The primer, which is geared toward senior executives, summarizes the main concepts, success factors, and potential benefits that can be accrued by an agency willing to implement customer-driven benchmarking. Also available on-line.