With the cost of living crisis, inflation and rising energy bills posing huge challenges, it is vital now more than ever that housing associations listen to their customers.

At Thrive Homes, the message from our customers is clear: they want a simple, accessible and workable way of reporting issues and sharing feedback. Most importantly, they want to know their feedback is being listened to and acted upon. 

Across the sector, there is clear scope for improvement in this area. Most private and social housing providers in the UK are still relying on antiquated and inflexible panel-led practices to hear from a handful of their customers, which is unreflective of the wider customer base.

All input received is then shared with our senior leadership team and board to consider before actions are implemented. 

This has been very successful and Thrive Homes’ customers have been very keen to get involved.

In the past year, we have received feedback from nearly 700 customers, which has ranged from requests to re-tender cleaning services, queries on building safety and comments on the repairs service. This feedback has reported high levels of customer satisfaction, especially in how Thrive Homes is dealing with repairs and emergency issues. 

In total, approximately 3,000 people have registered interest in being involved in the Thrive Customer Voice model, including 140 offline customers. This exceeds our original ambition of 50, which is testament to our work to ensure that customers feel involved and heard in our business. 

The more engagement and information we receive, the better the model works.

Already, hundreds of Thrive Customer Voice members have been helping us improve our ability to solve customer issues, maintain homes and deliver positive change, such as Mrs Dunham, a Thrive customer who has been involved in Customer Voice since it first launched.

She said: “The way Thrive is going about customer engagement now is much better, it will benefit customers. If it isn’t too far to travel, I’d love to be involved in some focus groups. It was really easy to get involved and I’m excited to get involved in further activities.” 

What’s more is that the model has allowed Thrive Homes to act quickly on customer feedback. At one online event, a customer voice member suggested we promote our translation and assistance tools to help customers read important information on the customer portal. Thrive Homes did this through its customer newsletter, which increased usage by 32%.  

The online member said: “It’s amazing how one piece of feedback can make such a big impact. Thrive acted quickly and this is really helping our diverse community.” 

To date, members have: 

• Helped shape the contents of our annual report for customers 
• Met with us to discuss the safety of their building
• Voted on whether we should renew our communal cleaning contract now, or wait 12 months considering price increases and cost of living concerns

The biggest and best achievement for us is that we are now listening to more of our customers, genuinely understanding their concerns and then taking action. Most importantly, we have enforced a ‘close the loop’ protocol to let customers know how what they have said has influenced business decision. This helps us build open relationships and trust with our customers.  

We’re grateful for the industry awards that recognise our efforts. We believe this new model will contribute to Thrive Homes’ success in the years to come and inspire positive shifts across the industry as we enhance our focus on being better listeners. 

This post was originally published by Inside Housing on 4th October 2023.