How housing associations can improve resident engagement

In providing homes and support for almost six million people across England, housing associations play an increasingly valuable role in helping to support the national housing crisis by building new homes, creating shared ownership, and various other schemes to help people get onto the property ladder. 

Whether they do this by funding their operations through borrowing, supplementing government grants, or investing their own resources, a programme of effective and empathetic resident engagement must play an increasingly crucial role to ensure their work is successful.

The main priorities of a housing association when looking to enhance resident engagement should be to deliver safe, decent and affordable homes, and provide excellent housing services that put people first.

But to do this successfully means overcoming a host of very real challenges, not only of funding constraints, rising costs, and increasing demand for affordable housing, but of engaging with residents on a sufficiently personal level.

This demands a sound communications strategy that allows you to work more closely with your customers as an integral and helpful part of their journey. It also means you can build a stronger sense of community, addressing their needs in a much more personalised way.

The importance of developing a mobile-first service

Improving customer engagement depends to a great extent on optimising communications for mobile devices through the wider use of dedicated apps, professionally designed and highly responsive websites and digital services that are easy for customers to use. IT systems and other innovative solutions will help to provide the ‘people first’ service that delivers better accessibility and outcomes across the board.

Aim for a more personalised approach to communication

Show that you value the diversity of your communities by working towards designing services that meet their needs. By acknowledging the different needs, tastes and preferences of your residents (for instance, by ethnicity, age or mobility), and tailoring your communications to suit them, you show respect and empathy for them. You show that you’re working in partnership with everyone in your community.

Support your customers on interactive platforms

Resident portals, online forums and social media are all excellent ways to bring people together for shared communication and feedback, and to build a closer sense of community. They also offer you an opportunity to involve residents in the very decision-making processes that will affect them every day, and in which they will naturally have a personal interest. Building a bespoke intranet system can be a big investment, but it’s possibly the best and most measurable way to increase engagement and make residents feel like a priority.

Consider a resident panel

A resident panel can provide a direct line of communication between residents and housing associations, allowing for feedback and suggestions to shape service improvements. Resident panels foster a sense of community and build stronger relationships between residents and their housing association.

Create your own customer magazine

This is a great way to involve your customers in everything that you do on their behalf, besides making you a more highly visible presence in your community. It shows that you’re making a positive contribution to their neighbourhood, and can offer helpful advice, guidance and valuable content, packaged inside a well-branded and designed magazine.

Improving resident engagement with a magazine won’t come without a true understanding of residents’ lifestyles and interests, which is something that has to come across in the content and presentation. We helped Aspire Housing increase customer magazine engagement by 76% after taking on their magazine.

Involve your residents in local events

As a housing association, you can increase your reputation in the local area and build connections with your own residents by hosting events such as street parties or block parties on special occasions. By generating a vibrant and festive atmosphere with music, food and games that the whole community can join in with, this would be the perfect way to bring people together, besides introducing them to the real people who provide the services they receive.

Interested in finding out how we can help you boost your resident engagement? We’re ready to help.

Email hello@harrisoncarloss.com with your problems, and we’ll find the solutions.