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Jahanara RajkoomarJahanara is the Director of Customer Services at Gateway Housing Association with a track record of delivering strategic and innovative ...more
We need to move to an adult-to-adult relationship with residents
Social landlords are used to seeing 80% tenant satisfaction scores as positive, but that may have normalised a situation where one in five residents is having a negative experience, says Jahanara Rajkoomar
The housing sector in England is gearing up for imminent regulatory changes aimed at strengthening the accountability of landlords across three key areas: safe homes, quality services and treating residents with respect.
There is a lot of talk about listening to the “customer voice” and the need to demonstrate how that is shaping and improving services. However, customer engagement, or resident involvement, has been long established across the sector, ranging from resident reps on boards to local, informal residents’ groups. The difference is that now the regulator will measure how we are doing that through the proposed Tenant Satisfaction Measures and new consumer standards.
“The dynamics of our relationship with residents can often be described as parent/child. We need to move to an adult-to-adult relationship if we are ever going to improve residents’ perceptions of us, which will also help us to provide better services as a result of a better and more equal relationship”
The challenge and the opportunity are in acknowledging that even if we know that our current performance levels across core services are over 80%, that still leaves 20% or so of our customers who are not receiving the level of services we want to provide. Anyone who has talked to residents will have heard the frustration they have when we get things wrong, or when they have had to chase us repeatedly to get a response on an outstanding issue. Every bad or below-par experience will undoubtedly influence each and every one of those resident’s perception of us.
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Of the proposed 22 tenant satisfaction measures, 12 are perception-based. The measures have two aims:
- To provide tenants with greater transparency about their landlord’s performance.
- To inform the regulator how a social landlord is complying with consumer standards under a proactive consumer-regulation regime.
In the past 12 months, national media coverage of the poor standards of homes would suggest that the sector has a long way to go to provide good, safe homes for all the people to whom we provide much-needed homes. Colleagues across the sector are working incredibly hard to achieve this, but are doing so whilst managing competing priorities, such as fire safety work and decarbonisation targets, to name a few.
The dynamic of our relationship with residents can often be described as parent/child. We need to move to an adult-to-adult relationship if we are ever going to improve residents’ perceptions of us, which will also help us to provide better services as a result of a better and more equal relationship. In our communication with residents, we can be more comfortable in sharing the challenges we are dealing with when there are dips in services. Being open and transparent on the things that matter to them could help to build a two-way relationship of trust and accountability.
“We need to pay attention to the known indicators of dissatisfaction and take the right incremental steps to show [residents] that what they tell us is taken seriously and we are doing something in response”
We may have normalised the dissatisfied feedback and looked at the percentage as a number rather than recognising that it equates to one in five of our residents. However, we have the opportunity over the next 12-18 months to really look at what our residents have been telling us and do something about the things that matter to them. The tenant satisfaction measures are designed to bring the customer experience to the forefront of our business practice. We have to see the faces behind residents’ voices, moving to meaningful engagement and response that is respectful and honest.
As part of that reset, let’s also be clear about our role and residents’ responsibilities. Managing expectations is fundamental in this cultural and operational journey. We cannot address all the issues that affect residents, and having clarity about what our primary responsibilities are can help to reset the starting line.
There’s a lot we know about why they may not think highly of us. We need to pay attention to the known indicators of dissatisfaction and take the right incremental steps to show them that what they tell us is taken seriously and we are doing something in response – even if it is that our staff will respond within a certain number of days or be more courteous when they talk to them. Every little bit will help to start building back a better relationship and ultimately improve their perceptions of us.
Every customer experience expert will tell you that shifting perceptions takes a long time and lots of good experiences. We have 18 months to get there, so let’s make a start.
Jahanara Rajkoomar, director of community investment, Metropolitan Thames Valley
