A framework to optimise resident feedback

The five-stage framework has been developed following extensive research into existing resident feedback processes used across the social housing sector and is included in our report, Optimising Resident Feedback, which is published today.

The framework for resident feedback consists of five stages:

1. Why are you collecting resident feedback?
2. Who are you collecting feedback from?
3. How are you collecting resident feedback?
4. Which metrics are you using?
5. What are you doing with resident feedback once you’ve collected it?

We are now working with social housing organisations to test their resident feedback processes against this framework.

In January 2021, HACT will be hosting a webinar to discuss the five stages of the framework in, with particular focus around the use of resident sentiment analysis and how we can collaborate around a new set of customer satisfaction metrics.

We are also developing data standards around resident feedback and customer complaints: to find out more please contact Billy Holt.

The report can be downloaded from the HACT website.

[notes to editors]

The report was commissioned by Network Homes at the end of 2019. It is based on the findings from:

• an online survey answered by 39 social housing organisations, asking how they approached and used resident engagement;
• interviews with 20 housing association employees involved in resident feedback, insights and business transformation;
• roundtables with 14 housing association representatives, exploring the role of resident feedback in their response to Covid-19.

The five stages of the framework are:

1. Why are you collecting resident feedback? To use feedback to improve your services you need an organisational culture that values ongoing resident feedback. You also require resourcing not only in terms of the number of staff, but also staff with the relevant skills to analyse and apply the findings to the business.
2. Who are you collecting feedback from? You collect feedback primarily from your residents, but inaccurate and outdated data about residents results in misinformed business decisions. You can resolve this through resident profiles, resident journey mapping and data standards.
3. How are you collecting resident feedback? Different types of surveys can provide useful insights about your residents. The challenge is how you make every contact count. Resident sentiment analysis is one tool that can facilitate this process, although we need to create a new taxonomy for it based on the experience of social housing residents.
4. Which metrics do you need to use? The metrics you use should be able to reflect the different shapes and sizes, focuses and priorities of every housing association. Concerns about the metrics currently used in the sector are well known. We need to develop a new set of metrics that cover the breadth of social housing’s activities.
5. What are you doing with resident feedback? Instead of benchmarking, shift your focus onto your residents and create a virtuous circle of feedback: you provide a service, they respond, you improve, you tell them how you’ve improved the service, they respond, and so on.