Customer Engagement Strategy 2026-2029

Our strategic objectives:

• Doing more for residents and communities
• Creating a great place to work
• Building resilience and capacity
• Being a place-based leader

Own it – Make it happen

• We take responsibility, and get it done
• We solve problems, not pass them on

Improve it – Move things forward

• We find ways to make things better
• We learn and adapt

Live it – Show understanding and compassion

• We build strong relationships based on honesty and trust
• We listen and support

Customer engagement is a central part of us knowing and understanding our customers and our services well. Over 80% of customers have said this is important to them. Our homes are more than just a roof over our customers’ heads; they’re
places where people feel safe, supported and comfortable. In our first year, we have engaged with customers on a range of topics and in a range of ways. Continuing to work in partnership with our customers will mean we can design and deliver services that are shaped from customers’ views and experiences.

Why is customer engagement important?
All of our services must start with the customer; ensuring services are designed by and for customers. Their feedback drives change and improvement.

What should customers be engaged about?
Customers should be involved in a range of areas from repairs to paying rent. Customer engagement should shape key decisions, but also everyday services and neighbourhood priorities.

How should we engage with our customers?
We should have a flexible, broad range of ways for customers to get involved that align to our values.

Only by working together to understand our business through our customers’ eyes can we really create places that people are proud to call home.

How our services are designed and run should start from our customers’ needs, feedback and priorities; ensuring they are customer focused.

Our objectives are:

Provide a range of inclusive opportunities for all customers to be heard

• Our customers have a wide range of life experiences, backgrounds, needs, and circumstances.
• We are committed to ensuring every customer has the opportunity to be heard in ways that are accessible and meaningful.
• To achieve this, we will always look to engage with a broad range of customer views by offering a variety of ways to get involved, including enhancing our digital engagement options.

Drive organisation change through customer feedback

• Customer feedback will be embedded in decision making at all levels.
• Customer engagement will routinely drive change across our business to improve our services.
• We will ensure that we listen, act and measure the impact this has had.
• Our engagement will always consider customers’ priorities.

Strengthen accountability and trust

• We want our relationships with customers to be open and based on two-way trust.
• New ways to get involved, such as a Scrutiny Panel will ensure we are accountable in a number of ways.

Connect with our regions and communities

• Our homes sit at the heart of wider communities.
• Customer engagement is key to our regional approach, with teams regularly working within local areas.
• Through partnerships and lived experience, we will deepen our understanding and shape how we best support our communities.

Expand customer data and intelligence

• We will ensure we hold a good range of data about our customers, and use this to make sure we are engaging with a broad range of customers, for example.

Strengthen building safety and compliance

• We will build on our existing resident engagement approaches in high-rise buildings, for example, as a key tool for supporting building safety and compliance.
• We will strengthen and expand these approaches by connecting insights across our regions and using them to inform wider strategic priorities.

To inform our Strategy we have reviewed the data about:

• Our customers by age groups, ethnicity, tenancy length
• Satisfaction by the above categories
• Engagement by the above categories

The biggest difference in satisfaction and engagement is across different age groups. Whilst around 77% customers under the age of 75 are engaged with us through surveys or other ways, this decreases to 47% for those over this age. Our customers under 65 years old are also more likely to be dissatisfied with our services overall than customers over this age. We have used this information to shape our strategy and consider our customers by age groups (based on an approach known as 7 Generations). The table below shows Housing Plus Group customers by these groups the best ways for us to engage with each group.

We are committed to using this information to shape our engagement and using it to check that we are
reaching a range of customer views. This will be a key part of improving our services. We will expand the data used during the next 12 months. (Source: The generations defined – McCrindle)

When we talked to customers about our merger, we asked how they prefer to get involved. 3,500 customers who responded told us their top preferences for engagement were through surveys and then in person and online meetings.

We will have a range of ways to get involved whether that is through a formal focus group or on the doorstep as we do a repair.

We know some customers may be less likely to get engaged and we will work will them to ensure they know, and feel confident, with how to get involved. We will also target engagement where customers have recently used a service, for example.

Our plans to improve

How will customers know what has changed?

We will always communicate back how we are using customer feedback and how customers’ views have driven change. We will do this in a number of ways and look at the impact of customer engagement each year.