“Putting the customer at the heart of everything we do!”

This has become an overused expression haunting the paragraphs of many Housing Providers’ bios.  It has become a generic one-step promise across multiple sectors, declaring that your organisation puts your customers first; your company is focused on building all your procedures, practices, and products around your customers’ needs, and of course, this should be the case.

Whether you produce a sparkling drink, footwear or fitted wardrobes, putting your customer at the heart of your design process, product and marketing, is not just an aspiration, it’s essential.  Without this your product simply won’t sell.

The same rules apply when your product is a service. Your main focus from the very beginning should be the needs of the end user, your customer, the same customer you have placed at the heart of everything you do.  Failing to do this usually results in a failed product and service, so it’s fairly easy to quantify who did or did not put the ‘customer at the heart of everything’.

So how can we measure the housing sector?  At what stage do Housing Associations put the customer at the heart of everything they do?

Development - Well this is going to be based largely on cost.  How many homes can be built on a chosen area?  What materials can be cheaply sourced?  What will the provider need to do to be permitted to build these new homes?  What type of homes are required?  As yet, the customer isn’t at the heart, but to a certain extent this is warranted as without homes there can be no customers.

Exchange - Paperwork has been signed, keys exchanged, promises on both sides have been made. With a housing shortage, was there much choice available?  Probably not.  Lists would have opened up and applicants would have registered in the hope of having a roof over their head.  Can anyone claim that at this stage the residents/customers were at the heart of everything?  No.  So far, the association has been paid to build new homes, said homes have now been filled by residents seeking a home.  Everyone is happy.  However, at this point the customer (now resident) is little more than a commodity, having been processed from a waiting list into a property.

Service Provider - Many providers do provide a great service.  Repairs are raised, timeframes are honoured, issues are resolved.  At this point, many of you can reasonably claim to put the customer at the heart of the service you provide.  What about everyone else?

Many residents go unheard, their issues unresolved, left in broken homes with no voice and nowhere to turn.  Residents who don’t have the skills or hardware necessary to access your online reporting portal or the patience to deal with your Chat Bot.  Residents who do report issues and don’t hear back so they give up, afraid to make a fuss in case they lose their homes.  Residents who are working two jobs to get by and don’t have time to phone within the very limited office hours available.

How many lives have been negatively impacted by a simple failure to respond appropriately?  Can service providers still sing their own praises knowing their residents are being failed daily?

And this brings us on to the next point - Customer or Resident?   Believe it or not, this is not just semantics.  Customers not at the heart of a product or service are free to find another product or switch service providers.  Residents are not.

Housing Sector Ltd really does put the resident at the heart of everything we do!

Honestly, we really do.

Founded by a Resident of a Housing Association (GreenSquareAccord) who was simply trying to hold that service provider to their own published standards.  Our team at Housing Sector Ltd. approach all issues or complaints from the same perspective: helping individual Residents hold their service provider to account, while also helping the Housing Associations become aware of communication blind spots and procedure dead zones.

The site was built with residents at the heart of it, with our resident support panel front and centre on our home page.  Our directory provides the Resident with a quick and easy path to their own provider, while our straightforward reporting portal leaves them free to focus on more important things; their children, the day job, school runs, supporting friends and family.

Housing Sector Ltd. report the issues and seek a positive resolution through constructive, open and honest engagement with the service provider, the Housing Association, you.

We offer both the residents and you the chance to have a third-party mediation that enables both sides to address the issues without the raised emotions, allowing your customer service agents the chance to process, address or escalate issues as appropriate.

If the main lines of communication fail, Housing Sector can then seek external support for residents via local MPs, appropriate governing bodies up to and including the Housing Ombudsman.

We really can claim to put the customer at the heart of everything we do.

Why not introduce yourself - ben@housingsector.co.uk