Nottingham City Homes
Customer Insight Strategy
2014-2017
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Contents
Introduction
3
Developing the strategy
3
Context
4
Vision
7
Delivering the strategy
7
Information governance
15
Key risks
16
Resources
16
Monitoring and reviewing the strategy
17
Links to other strategies
17
Appendices
Action Plan
18
Nottingham City Homes summary customer profile
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1. Introduction
Nottingham is a diverse city and Nottingham City Homes serves a diverse customer base.
This means that our customers continue to change, and our future customers are likely to
have differing needs from those we have today. Our customers will have ever changing
views on the services we provide too.
In this context it is important for NCH to understand who our customers are and to identify
our future customers. We need to do our best to find out what their needs are, and what
are their opinions and expectations of the services we provide. It is important that this
information is used to help NCH develop its business. Customer Insight is all about helping
to answer these questions.
Customer insight is more than just data. It is a multi dimensional view of customers
obtained from analysis of various sources of information about customers that can include
demographic data, dialogue, surveys and consultations, operational data, staff knowledge
and customer feedback.
Customer insight can be used to inform strategy and policy, to help allocate resources, to
understand and manage performance, to promote services and inform service design.
This Customer Insight Strategy aims to set out how NCH will keep up to date with
changing information about our customers and their opinions of our services. It sets out
the sources of information that we will use and the way in which NCH will use this
information to develop and improve its business.
Successful outcomes will be:
• Providing better services (increased satisfaction of customers, with needs met
first time, thus reducing avoidable contact and duplicated costs)
• Faster and improved decision making
• Helping customers respond to the challenges they face
• Using our resources most effectively to have the most impact
• Providing inclusive and sensitive customer services that ensure equality of
access
All of this will serve to embed the principles of customer insight into NCH culture and
practice.
2. Developing this strategy
This strategy has been developed through an assessment of good practice that includes
the use of the former Tenant Services Authority Tenant Insight Toolkit1 and Chartered
Institute of Housing (CIH) guidance on use of tenant insight to improve services. This
includes participation at a regional CIH Customer Insight seminar in autumn 2013. Ideas
from these sources have been included in this strategy.
We will consult tenants and leaseholders, partners, stakeholders, employees and trade
unions where appropriate on implementation of this strategy.
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TSA, CIH, HouseMark: Tenant Insight – A toolkit for landlords; 2010
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3. Context
There is a much broader context in which this approach is put forward. This has both
national and local dimensions.
3.1 National Context:
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Central Government’s Housing Strategy for England
Co-regulation
Social Housing Equality Framework
Reduced public expenditure
Welfare Reform
Technological development
The Government set out its desired direction for housing in its Housing Strategy for
England2. Whilst much of that is not relevant to this document, its approach to driving up
service quality is highly pertinent.
The Government sees a much more important role for customer satisfaction as a driver for
service improvement and quality (compared with the previous approach driven by external
inspection). This is the approach of co-regulation. As the Homes and Communities Agency
(HCA) states: “Co-regulation places responsibility for meeting our regulatory standards on
the landlord. It is the principle that underpins our regulatory approach3”.
The effect of this is that more emphasis than ever before is placed on the social landlord
itself to maintain and drive up quality. A role that NCH is happy to embrace.
All of this is generally part of the government’s ‘Localist’ approach, where local people,
partners and decisions makers know what is best for the services they use and provide.
The Social Housing Equality Framework also sets a broader context for this strategy4. This
has been developed by the Local Government Association (LGA) from origins in the
guidance for ALMOs about meeting the Equality Framework for Local Government. Now
provided for all social housing organisations it was brought up to date to take account of
the Equality Act 2010.
As the LGA states:
The Equality Act 2010 consolidated and enhanced the previous legislation, in
particular the general public sector duty to promote equality. The new equality duty
requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination,
advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations in the course of
developing policies and delivering services. The aim is for public bodies to consider
2
CLG, 2011: Laying the foundations – A Housing Strategy for England.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laying-the-foundations-a-housing-strategy-for-england--2
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HCA Regulatory Functions
http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/ourwork/regulation-functions
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LGA Social Housing Equality Framework
http://www.local.gov.uk/home/-/journal_content/56/10180/3476545/ARTICLE
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the needs of all individuals in their day-to-day work, in developing policy, in
delivering services and in relation to their own employees.
The focus has moved from encouraging progress on equality through external
pressure to encouraging progress through internal motivation and momentum.
Social housing providers themselves will need to find ways to ensure that
mainstreaming their work to promote equality and diversity remains a priority, for
example, in the standards they set themselves in conjunction with their residents.
In addition, there is the context of reduced resources for public services in general. This
has an impact directly on NCH as a landlord, but also on our customers as aspects of
other policies (like Welfare Reform) reduce the income provided by government to some
households who live in our homes.
This creates an incentive for ever more focused use of resources to help those most in
need of assistance. This demands more detailed knowledge about customers and their
views, about those of their households, and about the needs of future customers.
Beyond this, developments in technology, customer service and information management,
in both the public and private sectors afford opportunities to increase the level of
knowledge about our customers that is at the disposal of NCH. It makes strong business
sense to put this knowledge to good use.
3.2 Local Context: This strategy is informed by the changing profile of the City of
Nottingham, and the changing views and expectations of NCH’s customers. We know from
the last census in 2011 that Nottingham changed considerably in the previous 10 years.
The city’s younger population increased, and it became more multi-cultural.
This strategy is also designed to complement our role in helping the City’s Housing
Strategic Partnership deliver the Housing Strategy for Nottingham. In addition, it is
designed to help deliver NCH’s Corporate Plan.
The City’s strategic approach is set out in the Nottingham Plan to 20205, and the housing
objectives are delivered by the Housing Strategic Partnership as set out in the Housing
Nottingham Plan6.
These documents set out in clear terms the route that Nottingham wants to travel in.
Housing is a key component of a successful city, and social housing makes up a
significant proportion of the homes available for Nottingham residents. Nottingham City
Homes provides in the region of 20% of the city’s homes, housing around 28,000
households. Being aware of the profile of those residents, their views and expectations, is
an important part of ensuring that NCH maximises its' contribution to the city’s objectives.
3.3 How the strategy meets NCH’s Corporate Objectives
This Strategy is designed to link to the three corporate goals which are set out in our
Corporate Plan. These goals are designed to help us continually improve our business.
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Nottingham Sustainable Communities Strategy: http://www.nottinghaminsight.org.uk/insight/scs/scshome.aspx
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Housing Nottingham Plan: http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=41261&p=0
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1) To be a first class housing organisation in the eyes of our tenants and
leaseholders. As a first class landlord NCH needs to deliver excellent services. We must
understand customer needs and expectations in order to deliver that standard, and
measure how we match up to them. This involves driving up customer satisfaction by
identifying the key drivers behind it. It involves providing sensitive and tailored services
that recognise and respond to individual needs. We must measure to what extent we
achieve this goal in the eyes of our tenants and leaseholders through our customer insight
work. Customer insight is a key part of continuous improvement in customer service and
helps put customers at the heart of the organisation and helps to ensure services are
driven by customer expectation and need.
Our Corporate Plan commits to this with a target to improve tenant satisfaction that NCH
listens to their views and acts upon them to 80% by 2015. Currently 72%, up from 65%
two years ago.
2) To be a major player in transforming the quality of life in our neighbourhoods.
NCH seeks to fulfil its role and wider contribution to the success of the neighbourhoods
where our residents live. To achieve this we need to understand what residents think
about those neighbourhoods and be sure that we are aware of residents’ ideas for
improving them.
For some time we have ensured that residents’ views have helped inform decision making,
for example through the way that our Secure Warm Modern decent homes programme
was designed and prioritised.
Good Practice: We have used a combination of our information
about the construction of the homes we manage with a range of
customer insight tools to design our neighbourhood based solid
wall insulation programme, drawing on data about deprivation, fuel
poverty and ill health to see where investment to help keep homes
warmer would deliver the most impact for residents.
3) To be a great place to work, widely respected as an efficient and professional
organisation. Information can and should be used to cut waste, it helps inform better
decision making and it can ensure resources are targeted where they will have most
impact. Besides this, understanding customers is a key aspect of professionalism and a
vital tool for staff at all levels.
As NCH develops its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) approach there will be
improvements in the way we work that sit alongside the cultural changes that go with
embracing CRM. This facilitates improved levels of tenant involvement and consultation,
and the more immediate feeding back of customer information and opinions through the
approach to Customer Insight outlined in this strategy.
As we develop our new Corporate Plan beyond 2015, customer insight will be an essential
input to help shape our future strategies and services.
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4. Our vision for the Customer Insight Strategy
We are ambitious for Nottingham City Homes. We want to be recognised as one of the
best housing organisations, a leading innovator in social housing, whilst delivering an
excellent range of services in the eyes of our tenants and leaseholders. Customer insight
is at the heart of this.
Insight is about having a real understanding of what customers want based on who they
are and what their views are. Meaningful customer insight is provided by evaluating and
translating information, gathered in a variety of ways. Different types of information must
be linked together to achieve the maximum value from it. For example customer
demographic information can be looked at alongside information about customer actions
(what customers do) and opinions (what customers think) to help improve services.
By implementing this strategy we will gain a clearer understanding of our customer base.
This will include breakdown by age, ethnicity, disability, gender, sexual orientation and
faith, where residents are happy to disclose this information, and will also include
information about service use.
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We will use our approach to customer insight intelligently and sensitively to ensure
our obligations are met to provide services that are equitable and fair to all
members of the community.
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We will use customer insight to support our short, medium and long term business
objectives, including our ambition to attract and secure new business.
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We will use customer insight to help deliver existing and new projects across NCH,
helping our customers respond to the challenges they face.
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Customer insight will help us better understand ‘customer behaviour’, in terms of
how customers respond to changes that affect them, and how we can design
services to meet those changes.
By delivering this vision we will ensure a high level of knowledge about our customers and
anticipated future customers, their needs and their views of our organisation and our
services.
We will use this knowledge and information to provide better and personalised services,
improve customer satisfaction, reduce complaints, measure change and achievements,
help forecast future needs and use our resources effectively to have the most impact.
5. Delivering the strategy
We will carry out a variety of tasks and link to existing corporate initiatives to deliver this
strategy - most notably our CRM system, our rolling quarterly tenants STAR survey, the reintroduction of periodic tenancy visits and our 4 star promises.
The approach will involve the whole company, with different sections contributing in
different ways through the work that they do. For example, front line staff already help
gather information about our customers, record information on our systems and update
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systems as part of their work. Back office staff already interpret information that comes
from those systems and make use of it, helping to inform decision making processes,
others maintain those very systems. Overall responsibility for the approach to customer
insight lies with the Business Improvement and Development Team but it is envisaged that
all staff will contribute to and benefit from this strategy.
We will use existing systems and approaches to gathering and presenting the data that
gives us an insight into our customers, and we will investigate the use of new and
innovative techniques and technology that may become available during the life of this
strategy with a view to enhancing our levels of knowledge.
Resource implications of delivering this strategy can be minimised by improved analysis
and publication of existing information already held by NCH about customers and the
services they use. It is therefore recognised that improved co-ordination and distribution of
information that is already collated by NCH, or provided by partner organisations, is key to
providing greater levels of customer insight without dedicating significant additional
resources to the task.
5.1 Achieving delivery
Delivery will be achieved through:
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analysis of information collected and held by Nottingham City Homes for various
purposes
analysis of local data sources
analysis of national data sources
seeking customer opinions on services, wider priorities and issues
tracking customer opinions on services expressed via social media
measuring customer satisfaction
holding and maintaining accurate and relevant data, in line with our data protection
obligations
geographical aggregation of data and effective use of GIS and community profiling
sharing data through appropriate data sharing protocols with other partners, and
benefiting from data from other partners with whom we have areas of common interest
maintaining a culture where everyone in the organisation understands the importance
of gathering relevant customer information, ensuring accuracy and using it
appropriately
making use of customer feedback that comes through our various approaches to
tenant involvement
making use of staff knowledge about customers and their views and opinions that
comes from the wide experience of those who work at NCH.
This information will help deliver improved operational processes and procedures as well
as inform strategic planning and decision making through a strong evidence base of
customer information.
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5.2 Delivery Objectives
1. Knowing about our existing customers and anticipated future customers
(forecasting future needs)
This is all about knowing more about the people who live in the homes we manage, and
those who seek to live in our homes.
Our systems already record much of this information, especially for those who are already
tenants, or those on the housing register. However we don’t always know as much as we
should about the overall household profile (other residents in addition to main tenants).
Improving this level of information will help inform service delivery. For example, knowing
about older people who live on their own would help ensure that services like care alarms
can be offered to those who would like them, to support independent living, and offer
reassurance to friends and relatives. Knowing that young children live in the property can
ensure that initiatives to prevent accidents in the home are well targeted.
As we develop and implement our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software it
will be easier to gather and update information on customers through the contacts we have
with them. This will enhance efficiency in both information collection and, in turn,
knowledge outputs. We aim to ask our customers only once for personal information that
would not change.
By analysing the Housing Register we can ensure that we are aware of the types of
households that are seeking our accommodation and their personal circumstances. This
can help plan future service delivery, and housing provision (for example our new build
programme).
We already provide information based on outputs from our systems. This is typically
provided ‘on demand’ for specific projects or enquires. A move to integrating customer
insight into our performance management and reporting arrangements will help embed
understanding and use of available information into our day to day activities. .
This can be augmented by other published information of relevance. This would come
from such sources as the census, Mosaic7 population profiling information, and information
shared with partner bodies where appropriate. By analysing these we can see how the
population profile of Nottingham is changing, and be sure that we react to and plan for
those changes.
Key Tasks
• Ensuring that records systems that staff use are accurate, and completed as fully as
possible
• Keeping information records on systems staff use are up to date
• Encouraging tenants and residents to check the records we hold about them for
accuracy and completeness
• Annual reporting of key information using appropriate presentational techniques
(data tables, charts, maps).
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Mosaic is a commercial system of ‘geodemographic segmentation’. geographical area. It breaks down the
population into ‘types’ and ‘groups’ based on typical demographics and behaviour, and illustrates their
dispersal across a geographical area. Public sector partners in Nottingham have access to Mosaic Public
Sector through a subscription managed by the City Council.
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Key Tools
• Northgate Housing and associated reporting models
• Housing Register
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Population trends from the Office for National Statistics
• Census data from the Office for National Statistics
• Mosaic profiling information
• CORE Social Housing Data (COntinous REcording of social housing lettings)
2. Understanding customer needs, opinions and behaviour
This is all about knowing what our customers, and their families and carers, think about
our services, and those we propose to introduce.
Surveying customers is an important part of the way in which we gain knowledge about
customer satisfaction, and how our services are being delivered. Beyond this we have
other mechanisms through which we obtain customer feedback, this includes tenant
involvement structures, groups of customers that consider service design and delivery, the
work of tenants and residents groups and other such activities. It includes the informal
feedback from our customers that staff receive on a regular basis, as well as our more
formal ‘Compliments, Comments and Complaints’ 3 C’s procedure.
At the time of writing this strategy we are reviewing our systems for capturing customer
feedback. We intend to introduce a variety of feedback mechanisms for our customers to
improve response rates and enable improved analysis and reporting capabilities.
We will work with customers to make sure these mechanisms are widely accessible, easily
understood, clearly communicated and effectively publicised and promoted. Customers will
be involved in future choices around customer feedback methods and systems to ensure
our approach is fully accessible and inclusive.
We will also work to understand customer needs through research, data analysis and
information from key partners, helping us complement surveying and feedback with
relevant primary and secondary data sources to ensure robust and accurate information is
at our disposal.
Customer behaviour must be understood in terms of service delivery. In this context,
‘customer behaviour’ means how customer react to the way services are designed and
delivered, and do we have processes in place to help customers when changes are made.
For example, if an objective is to increase the number of customers who make rental
payments via the internet, because that offers a more convenient service and a more
efficient payment process, it is necessary to monitor how people respond to this, how
many take up the opportunity to use it, and whether there are barriers to use and access.
These processes help us to improve the design of existing services, as well as design
future provision. Where appropriate they help us react quickly to customer opinions,
altering service provision and responding to situations as they arise.
Key Tasks
• Regular customer surveys, both about specific surveys and more general issues
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Robust 3 C’s procedure (Compliments, Comments and Complaints) including
learning from the issues raised by customers
Information from elected representatives gained as a result of their
representative role
Monitoring customer behavioural responses to changes in service provision
Needs analysis via data analysis and research from primary and secondary
sources.
Key Tools
• Customer satisfaction surveying:
o Survey of Tenants and Residents (STAR) surveying
o Vision Management System (VMS) surveys of service activity
o Bespoke surveys for particular purposes and active seeking of customer
views and opinions
• Citizen Surveying:
o Nottingham Citizens Survey
• Customer Journey Mapping
• Customer focus groups
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Compliments, Comments and Complaints (3 C’s) procedures
• Tenant Involvement Structures
o ACE Inspectors
o Tenants and Residents Associations and representative bodies
• Analysis of tenancy termination
• Staff feedback measures
• Primary and secondary research and data analysis
• Data published by partners via the Nottingham Insight data warehouse8
• Data sharing with key partners to help use information to understand customer
need.
Good Practice: Preparing for the impact of
welfare reform by working with City Council
Benefits section to establish exact details of
cases affected by ‘bedroom tax’, then helping
customers by checking social security benefit
entitlements, helping maximise income and
other help.
3. Comparing with others - benchmarking
An important part of developing our approach to insight involves comparing our customer
views with the results obtained by other organisations carrying out similar roles. In
particular this involves comparisons with the views and opinions of broadly similar groups
of customers in relation to similar services to those Nottingham City Homes provides.
We carry this out through our work to benchmark and compare our services and the views
of our customers with comparable organisations.
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Nottingham Insight is a shared evidence base, providing access to data about Nottingham and its
surrounding areas www.nottinghaminsight.org.uk
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We will also seek to understand more about wider trends by comparing our customer
profile with information from social housing providers in comparative local authority areas,
through such tools as the CORE lettings recording system.9
Key Tasks
• Satisfaction Scoring
• Trend Analysis
• Outcome comparisons
Key Tools
• Housemark housing benchmarking activity
• Other benchmarking activity carried out across service areas
• CORE Social Housing Data (COntinous REcording of social housing lettings)
4. Measuring change and achievements
An important part of insight is establishing how things are changing, both from the
interventions we make, and through other things that affect our customers. This is why we
are committed to an ongoing process of customer insight.
This helps us respond to new developments as they emerge, and to use our approach to
customer insight to gain a clearer understanding of changes, and use that knowledge to
inform our various strategies and service plans. It is important to ensure that consistency is
used wherever possible such that change and achievements can be measured and
accurate comparisons reported on over time.
In addition, our work on analysing the impact of our activity, in various areas of our work, ,
plays a strong part in helping us design and implement services and investment plans that
maximise the prospects of positive outcomes for customers. There are clear areas of
connection between our approach to Customer Insight and Social Impact.
Key Tasks
• Trend analysis
• Learning from our Social Impact analysis to help us design and improve services
and target delivery
Key Tools
• Outputs from our data systems
• Findings from work undertaken on the Social Impact of our activity.
5.3 Organisational Culture and Staff Training
Delivery will require a company wide approach to customer insight. Not only will this
involve widespread appreciation of the information and knowledge that customer insight
can bring, but also ensure that where staff deal with primary data held within ICT systems
that NCH controls and operates there is a strong presumption of responsibility around
checking accuracy, and updating and completing missing information. This is something
that staff will want to embrace and customers will expect to see.
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See: www.core.communities.gov.uk
CORE is a rich source of data covering new lettings and sales in the
affordable housing sector. The data is collected from Local Authorities and registered social landlords
(RSLs). It is a regulatory requirement for providers to submit CORE data.
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Our staff training activity will continue to ensure that staff are trained to deliver the right
service at the right time to our wide range, and diverse, base of customers, with due
regard to individual needs.
5.4 Embracing new ways of gaining customer insight
During the life of this strategy Nottingham City Homes will continue to develop new ways
of gaining customer insight and sharing that throughout the organisation.
It is likely that technological developments will provide new opportunities, and generate
additional resources and information. Partners may have more detailed information that
can be accessed, and new methods of presentation can help us interpret material.
We will seek to present customer insight information in clear terms, making use of
appropriate techniques and technology. This includes powerful visual aids and
presentational techniques like Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping.
5.5 Successful outcomes
The outcomes from delivering this customer insight strategy are designed to assist
Nottingham City Homes in a number of ways that connect directly to the objectives of our
Corporate Plan.
1) Providing better services
Performance reporting focuses on customer satisfaction and is a key driver to
improving services. This is supported by a suite of performance indicators with a
strong customer satisfaction element to help ensure delivery. This feeds through to
team performance analysis and the results are used to inform team planning.
We will integrate customer insight into our performance reporting at all levels from
the Performance and Service Improvement Committee through to Area
Committees, EMT and team level.
2) Faster and improved decision making
Customer insight provides us with the basis of necessary information to help
decision making based on intelligence and fact. It provides important evidence for
use in the design of services, and to inform key decisions about the future of service
provision and investment priorities as the organisation undertakes its business
planning processes.
For example, data on a range of indicators designed to predict levels of fuel poverty
was used to prioritise Asset Management decisions about investment to insulate
‘hard to treat’ solid wall homes that are particularly costly for residents to heat.
3) Helping customers respond to the challenges they face
Our customers face many challenges in a changing society. Part of NCH’s role is to
help the people we serve face those challenges, and make the most of the
opportunities available to them as residents of Nottingham.
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Customer insight is a vital tool for helping link people with services that can be of
value to them, and to help target services most effectively.
There are many examples of this. To cite a few they include helping unemployed
residents access skills and training advice and assistance, targeting money advice
for those who need help with financial management, analysing fuel poverty to
inform insulation expenditure, focussing investment to reduce the effect of crime
and anti social behaviour on those who need it most.
4) Using our resources most effectively to have the most impact
In an era of severe pressure on expenditure, and ever increasing necessity to
obtain the very best value for money, customer insight will help deliver the
necessary focus on efficient and effective use of resources.
For example, improved knowledge of how customers favour communication helps
prevent avoidable contact from service delivery teams. Analysis of trends in internet
use and digital familiarity helps target promotions for on line rent payment provision
or other web based types of service delivery.
A good practice example is the way in which NCH sought to help residents prepare
for and tackle the impact of the ‘bedroom tax’ – customer information was used to
identify households where the changes in payments of Housing Benefit would have
an impact, and these households were contacted, called on and given assistance
with money advice and income maximisation. This targeted approach allowed
limited resources to be aimed at the households most in need of help. In addition to
a properly targeted awareness raising campaign, the resulting home visits resulted
in establishing instances where residents were actually entitled to more social
security benefits, or hardship cases where discretionary financial benefits could be
applied for.
An alternative approach that only warned residents of the changes and invited them
to contact us for assistance would have been likely to have resulted in the most
vulnerable not making contact, or might have involved time spent talking to
customers not necessarily affected by the changes.
Good Practice: When reviewing Housing Patch
Management areas, a range of social and housing
management indicators were used as evidence to help
consider the differing resource requirements of
potential patches. This helped design patch areas
based on factors relating to predicted levels of
workload intensity, rather than simply creating patches
of equal size or geography.
5) Providing inclusive, sensitive and personalised customer services that
ensure equality of access
Customer insight is at the heart of our approach to equality issues. It helps us
understand individual and collective needs, by using profiling information effectively
and sensitively. It helps us keep up to date with population trends, and informs our
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work to meet our obligations under the equality strands. Providing customer insight
is an important part of the support work required to help the activities of our
Equalities Forum and is fundamental to helping us deliver our Equality and Diversity
Strategy.
Good Practice: An example of how we have used customer
insight is our magnifier initiative. As part of this, all tenants and
leaseholders who had recorded a preference for Large Print
material were sent a magnifier sheet. As well as helping our
customers read NCH information, this reduced the costs
associated with additional mailouts and provided a useful tool to
assist customers in their everyday lives.
6. Information Governance
Information governance has an important role within this strategy. This is because of the
importance NCH attaches to the private and confidential information it holds about its
customers, the responsibility we have to maintain the accuracy and relevance of that data,
and the importance of sharing data only within agreed legally compliant data sharing
protocols with partner organisations. Pursuant to the Partnering Agreement, NCH agrees
to manage all data on behalf of Nottingham City Council and comply with its obligations
under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
These relate to the key areas of:
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Data protection
Information governance
Data sharing
All of this must be in compliance with relevant legislation, principally data protection law.
Nottingham City Homes’ approach to our legal obligations is set out in the company Data
Protection Policy10.
Other pertinent guidelines and information that will relate to this strategy is contained
within NCH’s Document Retention Policy11.
It is important that staff handling personal data are appropriately trained about their
obligations under these policies.
Further discussion is being undertaken with Governance to fully assess appropriate legal
and risk issues.
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7. Key risks
There are important issues associated with risk management that apply to this strategy.
They primarily relate to data management and security, as detailed above under
Governance.
This includes:
• maintaining the accuracy and security of data
• ensuring out of date information is not used to inform decision making
• being aware of the consequences of missing data
• being aware of the consequences of misinterpreting information
• making sure customer insight information is used appropriately
There are significant considerations for the impact of Data Protection issues surrounding
customer insight and given that customer insight information and data will be shared
across the company, and with partner organisations there is the potential for significant
risk issues that relate to matters like:
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use of the data for the purposes for which it can be collected
whether individuals can be identified in instances where this should not be
permitted
ensuring robust data sharing protocols are in place
We will have due regard to ensuring that sensitivities about neighbourhoods or groups of
people are properly considered due to the risk of misinterpretation of information, negative
associations, and stigmatisation.
However, it is important that these issues do not restrict the delivery of better services to
customers. This can be achieved through ensuring data security and compliance with
statutory requirements.
NCH’s approach to risk management will be used to minimise risks associated with this
strategy.
8. Resources
The lead responsibility for delivering outputs from this strategy lies with the Business
Improvement and Development (BID) team. Resources are allocated within that team to
support provision of information and analysis to help deliver these outputs.
The BID team also supports relevant areas of work operationally, for example designing,
conducting, commissioning and managing various customer surveys that lead to important
customer insight findings.
However, given the much wider responsibility that exists within NCH for collecting and
using data, keeping it up to date, ensuring accuracy, and supporting the systems that
ensure the information is accessible for both operational and analytical purposes, there is
much broader resource input into delivering this strategy.
Whilst not an exhaustive list, this includes contributions from:
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Front line and back office teams that collect, update and check customer
information as a part of their wider role
Staff that help customers complete information, from which insight is extracted
ICT resources that maintain systems, support, back ups and restorations of data
and help ensure data security
Shared ICT resources with Nottingham City Council in relation to relevant services
Tenant involvement staff
3 C’s customer service team staff
The work of Customer Relationship Management
Governance staff who help to ensure compliance over data handling obligations.
It is clear that to deliver an effective Customer Insight Strategy it is necessary for
resources from across the company to be dedicated to contributing and supporting NCH’s
approach. The Action Plan gives further information on where key contributions come
from.
It is envisaged that the Strategy and related actions can be delivered from resources within
existing company budgets - notably staffing. Developments may give rise to additional or
enhanced IT software requirements, but the anticipated costs are not thought to be
significant and hence shall be sought, in the first instance, to be funded from IT
development budgets.
9. Monitoring and reviewing the strategy
The success of the strategy will be measured through developing a range of targets linked
to the Action Plan. These will be available to view through our performance management
software (Covalent).
This action plan will be regularly reviewed to monitor progress and delivery of the strategy.
The strategy itself will be reviewed biennially to see if updates are required to the delivery
process and objectives.
An ongoing process of review will ensure that new and emerging data sources and
information can be incorporated into our approach to customer insight, should these
become available to us.
10. Links to other NCH Strategies
Aspects of the customer insight strategy will be of value to all part of the company, and the
strategies that are set out to deliver our objectives. However, the following other NCH
strategies have particular linkages.
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NCH Corporate Plan
Customer Service Strategy
Equality and Diversity Strategy
Youth Involvement and Engagement Strategy
Information Systems and ICT Strategy
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Appendix 1 Customer Insight Strategy Action Plan
Outcome
Action
Providing better services
(increased satisfaction of
customers, with needs met
first time, thus reducing
avoidable contact and
duplicated costs)
Review of customer feedback system
Faster and improved
decision making
Helping customers respond
to the challenges they face
Collection and updating of data as a matter of routine,
and regular review at customer contact points
Provide information from customer insight to managers at
various levels to inform future service development and
team planning
Create and publish clear baseline information on
customer insight
Review of customer diversity profile information held and
action to ensure data integrity
Link customer insight information to presentation and
visual outputs (e.g. GIS mapping)
Integrate customer insight into existing performance
reporting at all levels
Use of customer insight in developing next NCH
Corporate Plan
Publishing a digest of key customer insight data on a
regular basis
Maximise levels of feedback from customers (e.g.
tenancy exit information)
Ensuring data collection systems maximise efficiency via
LEAN approach
Improved use of data from our existing resources
Increased knowledge and data collection of household
profiles
Source and analyse data on the needs of our
communities
Responsibility
Business Excellence
Manager
Front line services
Target date
June 2014
Ongoing
Head of BID
2014-15 team
planning cycle
BID Team
May 2014
BID Team / ICT Team
March 2015
BID Team / ICT Team
TBC
Performance Manager
From April 2014
Head of BID
March 2015
Strategy and Research
Manager
Front line services and
BID
BID Team
September 2014
NCH Company Managers
Ongoing
Front line services, ICT
Team, BID Team
BID Team
Ongoing
Ongoing
June 2014
September 2014
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Using our resources most
effectively to have the most
impact
Review use of various information sourcing tools (e.g.
‘See My Data’)
Explore use of customer insight in high cost delivery
areas to assist prediction and reduction of costs (for
example, voids, rent collection, responsive repairs,
missed appointments).
Explore existing ICT functionality to help produce relevant
customer insight outputs
Staff training on service delivery that helps people make
Providing inclusive and
sensitive customer services use of info on diverse range of customers and their needs
Ensure relevant vulnerability fields are flagged to front line
that ensure equality of
colleagues when records or works orders are displayed
access
Help illustrate and explain how our customer profile
differs from city population as a whole, embed this
knowledge
Launch Customer insight strategy at NCH Leadership
Embed the principles of
Event
customer insight into NCH
culture and practice.
BID Team, ICT Team
June 2014
BID Team
Commence pilot
April 2014
BID Team / ICT Team
From April 2014
Learning and
Development. E&D Team
ICT Team / CRM Project
Ongoing
Strategy & Research
Manager, E&D Manager
Ongoing
Head of BID / Strategy &
Research Manager
June 2014
(pending sign off
and Board
/committee
approval)
TBC
TBC
Use of CRM to maximise customer information, and help
embed benefits at all levels of NCH
Staff training programme on handling personal data and
data quality
Develop procedures and guidance on data quality
ICT Team / CRM Project
Participation and use of national schemes to share
information (e.g. LA CORE, customer insight
benchmarking)
Ensure existing processes (e.g. 3C’s) maximise the way
in which customer feedback informs decision making.
BID Team, Company
Managers
Ongoing
BID Team and Company
Managers
Ongoing
Learning and
TBC
Development/Governance
Governance Team
TBC
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Appendix 2 Summary customer profile information and
comparisons
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