Jigsaw Homes: A Test-And-Learn Approach To Tenant Satisfaction Measures

Jigsaw Homes Group is one of the largest housing associations in England, with more than 35,000 homes across the North West and East Midlands. 

In response to Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) introduced by the Regulator of Social Housing, Jigsaw Homes saw an opportunity to develop a trial with Voicescape. The aim of the trial was to gain further insight into perception-based questions, customer engagement rates, and the most appropriate survey method for individual residents. 

The methodology 

Under the new requirements, providers must collect information from tenants via telephone, post, email, online, face to face, or in a combination of these methods. The preferred survey methodology must then be published in full by the organisation. 

Using Voicescape Feedback, Jigsaw Homes surveyed a randomised population of tenants, opting for an online version (sent via text), plus an automated telephone version. To alleviate concerns around customer survey fatigue, the questions were split into two parts. 

What is Voicescape Feedback? 

Voicescape Feedback is a tried-and-tested automation solution that ensures housing associations comply with the proposed TSMs. With it, you can create and send tenant satisfaction surveys, allowing you to collect more data from your tenants in line with the measures. 

The results 

Within five days of the trial going live, Jigsaw Homes had successfully contacted the selected tenant population – receiving 5,000 responses. Up to 89% of respondents completed the automated survey in full, and 52% completed it over the phone – reinforcing the power of the human voice to engage with tenants. 

Ongoing partnership 

Since the trial, Jigsaw Homes has worked with Voicescape to further refine the technical requirements of its surveys, and is considering additional perception-based questions. These questions will deliver further insight into what’s driving lower resident satisfaction in the areas the trial survey identified – such as repairs service delivery. The insights will help the housing association to engage with residents sooner, and enhance communication to deliver a positive tenant experience. 

“The decision statement highlighted some minor changes to the TSMs that we expected to see. The only question likely to need more work is the new separate question about whether residents consider their home to be safe. This question was previously a combined question with maintenance, asking it separately could trigger a different response from the tenant and it is important that we follow up any responses about safety concerns appropriately.”

– Sarah Chilton, Head of the Chief Executive’s Department at Jigsaw Homes Group. 

Key outcomes 

The trial gave Jigsaw Homes the opportunity to develop a core set of comparable measures for regular benchmarking ahead of April 2023. These measures will also be implemented in the organisation’s new corporate KPIs, offering transparency on how the association is delivering against the consumer standards.

Jigsaw Homes can now continuously monitor resident engagement rates, and tailor the frequency of transactional surveys to maintain outstanding response rates. 

“The benefit of our position from the trial is that we now have a working model in place with Voicescape Feedback, allowing us to repeatedly test and learn from our approach to understand how our customers interpret the new perception-based questions and where, as an organisation, we can take action to support customers during these incredibly difficult times and improve service delivery.” 

– Sarah Chilton, Head of the Chief Executive’s Department at Jigsaw Homes Group.