COMMENT
Housing associations need to make customer service a boardroom priority Jo Causon, Chief Executive at the Institute of Customer Service, sets out why customer service is so important in social housing.
In 2019, we held an All-party Parliamentary Group meeting bringing together policymakers, the regulator and housing associations to understand what was required to drive forward a deeply ingrained culture of service, how this should be measured and how to shape the future orientation and purpose for such an important sector. Little did we know what the future would hold. Since the onset of Covid-19, the concept of ‘house and home’ has arguably never been more important – and it’s crucial social housing continues to find better ways to serve and satisfy customer needs. There’s no doubt the sector has faced significant challenges over the past few years. The tragedy of the Grenfell Tower disaster, combined with the ongoing impact of Covid-19, has placed intense pressure on every aspect of organisational operations. But I’m encouraged that in the midst of such tragedy and disruption, we’ve seen a greater focus placed on customer experience and relationships. Within our own membership we’ve seen a significant shift in mentality (although there’s still more to do) and a real desire to understand the underlying data behind the factors that influence customer satisfaction. Many of our housing sector members have put in place formal strategies for customer service, looking at benchmarking to help customer satisfaction levels become a key measurement criteria for business success. Government policy, too, has helped to drive a move in the right direction. The recently released Social Housing White Paper places an increased focus on resident needs – setting out, amongst other things, better communication between landlords and residents and tighter processes for complaints management, resident engagement and performance communications to ensure residents’ voices are heard.
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These moves are an indicator that the sector is moving away from the outdated idea that customer satisfaction is a matter only for customer service teams, and I’m pleased to see service increasingly being seen as a strategic imperative for the industry. Across all areas of our economy, strong levels of customer satisfaction are intrinsically linked to business performance – and as such, should be viewed as an imperative business priority, for which executive boards are called on to be committed and accountable. It’s clear there’s still much work to do. The results of our latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index, published in January, revealed the sector still lags behind in several areas, including speed of service/responses, keeping promises and organisational reputation.
“We must continue to push beyond the basics and the bare-minimum tickbox approach of years gone by”
This indicates that a trust problem still exists within the industry, which can have a knock-on effect (for example, greater reluctance to provide personal data) that can further strain the customer relationship. Yet we’ve also seen some real examples of great leadership, service excellence and employee engagement – as well as remarkable agility and innovation. Our challenge is to help replicate this across the whole sector. I believe excellent service will be central to navigating the ongoing challenges facing our country, and successfully rebounding from the economic challenges of the crisis. Whilst great strides have been made, now isn’t the time to take our foot off the pedal. We must continue to push beyond the basics and the bare-minimum tickbox approach of years gone by, and make customer service a core pillar of business activity. In doing so, we can increase satisfaction, boost productivity and drive better financial performance. We’re committed to working closely with government, the regulator and housing to help all providers improve their service.
