Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the need for social housing had tremendously increased due to government shutdowns and restrictions, a significant boost in layoffs, and a loss in overall income. While some may expect this trend to be slowing down, the need for social housing is still very prevalent, as well as profitable. Like the majority of other businesses, however, the key to boosting profits is maintaining a healthy customer relationship. After all, a satisfied customer tends to have a longer tenure, which not only enhances cost-effectiveness, but also serves to boost company reputation and enterprise value.
One of the most common ways to assess customer satisfaction is known as the CSAT, which simply stands for customer satisfaction score. As the name suggests, it primarily serves as a performance indicator of overall customer service and service quality for your business. Often quantified as a percentage, a CSAT of 0% would indicate extremely poor customer satisfaction while a CSAT of 100% would indicate the opposite. A CSAT is both beneficial to the client and business because it alerts other potential clients about the quality of your services and helps the business understand what needs to be improved.
How the CSAT is measured?
There is not one strict method to calculate a business’s CSAT; many variations exist each and each possesses certain advantages and drawbacks. For the most part, however, CSATs are developed by means of surveys and questionnaires distributed to tenants via phone, mail, or some other mode of communication. While the process may seem simple, the potential of response bias is quite high. Typically, response rates for surveys are low, and among those who do choose to participate, it is more likely that they have strong negative views as opposed to positive ones. Another drawback is that many responses, especially negative ones, tend to be unactionable – in other words, difficult to address quickly and effectively. This is because the responses arrive much later than the experiences that led to them occurred.
One solution many landlords are implementing is the use of automated, real-time feedback. By using more convenient modes of communication such as SMS, customer feedback following a repair or inspection can be performed much more efficiently. Clients will be more inclined to click a few buttons on their phones as opposed to more traditional methods such as filling out a physical survey.
Repairs and Maintenance
Anyhow, a question you may be asking is what exactly can contribute towards a high CSAT? For those in the social housing industry, one of the most impactful ways to boost CSAT is through repairs and maintenance. As mentioned earlier, a satisfied tenant is the key to the success and longevity of your business. The most frequent cause, however, of a dissatisfied tenant is a poorly maintained property. In subpar living environments, tenants are likely to feel unsafe and uncomfortable, which will lead them to feel less trustful of your business’s services. In fact, according to a recent survey carried out by the Housing Ombudsman, over a third of all social housing complaints derive from repair issues. As such, the availability of repair and maintenance crews to tenants are vital to a high CSAT.
While technology has enabled tenants to provide feedback and actionable insights at real time, it has also decreased the amount of genuine face-to-face interactions that occur between management and clients. Repair appointments are one the few valuable moments of face-to-face interactions between organisation and client. Such interactions help create a sense of trust and security amongst tenants, as they will feel more confident in their properties knowing that their maintenance issues can be quickly resolved. Not to mention, collecting data about how your client feels after a particular repair appointment will also help this feeling, as it demonstrates that your organisation is considerate of its clients’ feedback. This, in turn, will help to attract further potential tenants, extract insights for future development plans, and most of all reflect well on your organisation’s CSAT.
Conclusion
Social housing continues to be a wide necessity for people across the world. While the properties are intended for those of low-income backgrounds, social housing tenants still have basic living needs that need to be addressed. Through the combined help of modern technological tools such as SMS as well face-to-face interactions by means of repair appointments, such a goal is possible for landlords. By implementing such tools, your organisation will increase significantly in value and be capable of proudly boasting a high CSAT.