Learn how HAs can reduce tenant complaints with better data insights and improved communication from AI-powered feedback analysis. Real insights from 30,000+ interactions.
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Inflation, hikes in energy tariffs, global food shortages and the cost of living crisis that seems to be screaming at us from every news outlet, a la Sirius Black on the front of the Daily Prophet.
All these things are harder for tenants in social housing. But when Housing Associations’ hands are often tied from a financial perspective, how can you help your tenants through tough times?
The housing sector faces increasing pressure to improve tenant satisfaction alongside other struggles faced. New regulations requiring deeper insight into tenant feedback and housing associations are turning to AI-powered analysis to better understand what their customers need, and also how they can help them through tougher times and reduce complaints.
We used the Wordnerds text analytics platform to scrape over 30,000 tweets. These were aimed at 14 different Housing Associations with jurisdictions covering the length and breadth of the UK to get an in-depth handle on what residents actually care about - and what housing associations can do about it.
Traditional manual analysis of tenant feedback often misses crucial patterns and emerging issues. AI-powered analysis can:
It probably won’t shock you to hear that what came out of the Viewpoint Rent and Service Charge Consultation Outcomes Report at the end of February was not popular with tenants.
Following announcements of rental increases by a minimum of 2.9% and a jump in services by at least 2% (effective from April), we noticed a spike in volume and a drop in sentiment as tenants voiced their frustration.
You could also see that trend regionally - the regions with the highest rate of conversation about service charges (The South East, South West and North West) also had the lowest overall sentiment across all posts.
So far, so predictable. But there was a really interesting corollary to the reaction to the service charge increase: it led to an increase in other complaints. We saw a direct correlation between the increase in discussions on service charge, and complaints about other issues - including fire safety, hot water, repairs and hygiene. The data suggests an increase in expectation on a Housing Association when the charge goes up.
This insight enables housing providers to:
These situations can be very difficult, with no easy way to make it better. But there was one clear way to make it worse - not communicating changes with residents.
Data shows that lack of communication dramatically impacts complaint volumes. When residents feel uninformed about changes:
This reinforces the need for better communication and support during periods of change for tenants - particularly in difficult moments. Transparency should be encouraged in advance of when prices increase to inform and justify the reasons why that’s the case. These efforts can help to alleviate and minimise tenant anxiety.
Is there any positive news at all for Housing Associations? While costs, charges and services dominated the posts of residents, there was also recognition that Housing Associations positive elements, especially with regard to:
Sure, Community initiatives are great but it’s not like they actually help with complaints about charges, right? Well, amazingly, we did see an inverse correlation between the amount of community outreach in a region, and complaints about service charges. There were outliers, especially in London, where there was an above average proportion of both service charge and community discussion. But overall, the more likely an association was to be seen to be working with the community, the less likely they were to receive complaints about cost of living.
There’s no two ways about it - increases in charges will increase complaints. But we have seen several ways in which Housing Associations are reducing the complaints that they get, and improving tenants’ overall opinion of them.
The most important piece of advice. Get ahead of changes and make sure tenants are informed. You'll find they're pretty understanding.
Any raise in charges will also raise other issues. It’s a great time to bring on extra support measures, even for a short period.
Talk to Councillors, Community Groups, Schools. Being seen to be a part of the community will help when you need to ask something of them
Much of the positive press about Housing Associations is coming from this initiative.
The emails, messages, posts and complaints from tenants can often be overwhelming, especially when something big like the charge increase happens. But you can now access tools that can codify, categorise and collate the issues, allowing you to prioritise the most important and understand how things are changing.
Here's how housing providers can leverage AI-powered feedback analysis to reduce complaints:
Today's housing providers need to process more feedback from more channels than ever before. AI-powered analysis helps by:
As the housing sector continues to evolve, AI-powered feedback analysis will become increasingly crucial for meeting regulatory requirements, managing costs and resources effectively, improving tenant satisfaction scores and building strong communities
