“…at the heart of the landlord/tenant relationship are the services for which the tenant pays rent.” This comes from Inside Housing, 7th December 2007, p. 25
The Housemark steps are those which any business needs to engage in. Housemark is working on structure which will look at:
1. Identify what is important from the tenant’s perspective
2. Identify performance indicators which will measure step 1.
3. Use these indicators in the association’s performance indicators, including assessment by tenants.
In other words, a system which measurers customer satisfaction! Perhaps this means 2008 will be the year of customer service within housing associations.
What will be key to this surviving is training staff to make customer satisfaction a priority – the skills and attitudes will need to support this to ensure that housing manages to create a system which not only measures but acts upon the needs of its customers.
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