The Three Elements of Improving Resident’s Customer Experience

The customer experience for local authority and social housing residents will become increasingly important under the New Deal for Social Housing. There is a perception that many residents are not having their voices heard and that this situation needs to change.

The big question is how residents can have a genuine role in shaping the service, and a stronger voice when it comes to safety and ensuring homes are maintained to a decent standard. We believe there are three key elements:

• Consider the whole experience
• Keep it personal
• Be open and honest

So often, consultation looks at individual elements of the customer experience in isolation. To get it absolutely right you have to look at the entire experience. Asking somebody if they were happy with how their telephone call was handled will tell you nothing about whether they would have preferred to use an alternative method.

The personal approach is also vital. Processes and systems are important if you want to deliver a consistently good experience. But everyone has their own history, experience and perspective and it’s important that operatives are sensitive to this. Residents will assume that whoever is sent to carry out a repair is technically competent, so the quality of the experience is all about how they are dealt with as a person.

If something doesn’t go according to plan, people have the right to an honest explanation. If somebody thinks they are just being given excuses, the message they really pick up is that you’re more interested in covering your back than in learning or resolving their problem. Once that type of trust disappears it’s hard to get it back.

Customer Journey Mapping

When we design a new repair and maintenance service we aim to start with as few assumptions as possible. We engage residents in a customer journey mapping process that considers the entire experience, understanding their preferences and potential frustrations at every stage.

This process has two major benefits. Firstly, it ensures that the service is designed from the ground up with residents’ interests at the heart. Secondly, it opens up a dialogue process where residents know that consultation isn’t just a box-ticking exercise. Their voices will be heard and what they say will be acted upon.