Owning and managing around 20,000 homes across the region; Yorkshire Housing is the biggest housing association in Yorkshire. They’re dedicated to making it possible for people to have a place they’re proud to call home, and they’re Yorkshire through and through.
The Challenge
In late 2023, they asked AKD Solutions to help them achieve a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (we love those). They coined the term ‘Customer Obsessed’ and asked us to help to support them on this cultural transformation project.
Housing associations often have a bad rep when it comes to seeing their tenants as customers, and delivering the level of service that a ‘customer’ would expect. So the team at Yorkshire Housing wanted to change the narrative, transform their culture and get it right. More than that, they wanted to disrupt and change the industry for everyone in an attempt to improve Housing association standards across the board.
What we did
Our first task was to disrupt the status quo and help them see their tenants differently. We needed to tackle the stigma around social housing head-on.
Melissa, who ultimately headed up the AKD team, says, “Nick, the CEO, is passionate about changing the industry, and that began with hearing the stories of the people who live in their housing.”
We knew that there was often a certain ‘them and us’ view of people who can’t afford to buy or rent privately. But many of their customers are also people who have had successful careers, but for some reason have lost everything and found themselves in need of social housing.”
At first, even the idea of becoming ‘customer obsessed’ felt like a big step for many people. Obsession seemed like a bit of a negative word, but thanks to a courageous, determined client leadership, we got the go-ahead to rip up the rule book.
Melissa and the team started by training the 12 members of the executive team, 80 heads of service and 150 managers. In two conferences, we explored the idea of customer obsession and took a deep dive into the team’s knowledge of who lives in the association’s homes, through workshops, fireside conversations with customers, break-out sessions and activities including Lego (simple but so effective).
A proper challenge
We also looked at where, outside the sector, we could find inspiration.
Melissa and the executive team realised that to achieve their Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal, they needed to challenge and stretch everyone, to make them feel uncomfortable.
So we came up with an idea inspired by the TV show ‘Rich House, Poor House’, and set members of the team different challenges.
The executive team were challenged to stay in some of Yorkshire Housing’s properties. What did it feel like to be a customer? How do you top up your gas/electricity when you arrive? What stories do the neighbours have to tell?
Less keyboard, more cuppas
Others spent a day in the call centre, where they were challenged to get out from behind their keyboards and have a proper natter with customers.
Even normally ‘non-customer-facing folk’, like the IT department, were tasked with getting out of their workspaces and going to see customers. Real conversations with real people over a proper brew.
Talking to the enemy!
The plan was to gather feedback on the challenges at a series of workshops. Then Melissa had an idea that shook everyone up.
She brought in Kwajo Tweneboa, the young housing activist known for taking on housing associations (and winning) in the fight for tenant’s rights to safe housing.
At first, the idea had everyone panicking, but eventually they decided to go with it, which resulted in a series of podcasts and fireside conversations with CEO, Nick Atkin and CEO of LIVE HA (who is also on the board of Yorkshire Housing) to discuss the challenges.
Continuing the journey
In 10 sessions over the next few weeks, mixed groups of managers, section heads and executive board came back together to feed back on their challenge experiences.
What they brought was eye-opening, emotional and often disturbing. They told stories of people experiencing domestic violence, racism, and isolation. They found people who didn’t speak English well, and had been hung-up on when they tried to call, as they couldn’t be understood.
Through their courageous pursuit of curiosity, the team had uncovered a host of stories, experiences and problems. And they started to see their customers as people, rather than tenants or service users.
Through more breakout sessions, discussions and exercises we began to explore solutions.
How could we remove the blockages to addressing these problems? If prejudices exist, how could we override them?
The programme was a vital first step in Yorkshire Housing’s transformation into an industry-changing housing association with customers at its heart. Yorkshire Housing’s Executive Director of Culture and Performance, Nina Evison states “this is a goal we’re unlikely to achieve in absolute terms but with this as our North Star we will always get better”. We are excited to see what 2025 brings.
