EDI series: Customer voice in policies and procedures

“But, I completed the EDI tick list, I thought that was enough?”

Let’s admit it. We’ve all heard the collective sigh when the latest ‘tick list’ is created, with the best of intentions, but often with little buy-in or understanding of what it is trying to achieve. The Executive Team will flick through a pack of information: a new policy, some rationale for change, and ticks in the box to confirm that they’ve ‘thought about the customer’. But what does that really mean?

As a sector, the information we hold about our customers is rich and varied.  Yet, all too often the most insightful and useful data, the data which really helps us to get to know our customers, is ignored, left to stagnate, and devalued. In a time when budgets are pinched and customer expectations are high, housing providers are reflecting on their policies and processes, wondering where they can find efficiencies and improve customer experience without increasing costs.

As a sector, our behaviours of working are well established, often only delivered in a finite number of ways. But do we really understand the impact, often the unintended impact, of our processes? We know what the desired result is, absolutely. But if we don’t know about the people at the receiving end, how can we really ensure we are delivering the service people need?

Families, their lives, their cultures – how do we use our knowledge of them to ensure we are not unintentionally disadvantaging people within our communities? We see an application for one of our homes and go through the standard vetting approach. Do we know, in that moment, that black Britons are almost six times as likely to live in an overcrowded household than the white population? (Census 2021, ONS). Do we know that 56% of people suffering from long-term or chronic health conditions have faced housing difficulties? (ONS, 2018). If we developed our understanding of how systems can disadvantage people, how would it change the service we deliver?

“It is vital that, as a sector, we lead the way in enabling equality through the services we deliver.”

It is not enough to simply acknowledge, through tick boxes and the like, that processes are inclusive across the diverse demographic we serve. We need to understand our customers. And I mean, really understand our customers. This is more than just looking at who’s made a complaint this month. This means valuing the rich data source we hold to shape and inform how processes could, or most likely will, result in some demographics being left at a disadvantage.

We need to be bold, and brave, and establish ways and means of designing services in true collaboration with the people who are most impacted by the changes we make.

We can’t do all of that overnight. But we can start now.

Begin to understand your customer by getting to know your data, both what you already have, and what you are missing. Then find out how people want to be involved; talk to people about their experiences and use this understanding to collaboratively ‘design out’ those unintended consequences.

Until we start acknowledging that we don’t always understand who our customers are, or how our activities affect them, we can’t ensure that our processes enable inclusivity at their core.

If you are interested in joining the conversation and exploring EDI and the tenant voice, please contact:

Rebecca Taylor, Principal Consultant
Rebecca.Taylor@altairltd.co.uk

Anne-Marie Bancroft, Principal Consultant
Anne-Marie.Bancroft@altairltd.co.uk

Jenny Brown, Director
Jenny.Brown@altairltd.co.uk