What if Communities Selected Their Next Resident? Test Update

At the end of October we published details of a concept our Community Squad were exploring:

It suggested that instead of matching customers to a home we matched them to the right community. The letting (and potentially the sale) of homes could be targeted to ‘recruit’ customers with the 'right' skills to help strengthen those communities.

It was one of our most popular posts , attracting lots of debate on our internal Yammer and also on Twitter. People were split about whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. We know one thing - when it arouses people's passions it's an area ripe for a bit of exploration!

Here's the details of the proposed test, lovingly presented in Sway..

Test: Do Customers Really Want #FreeWifi?

Yesterday Tom and I went on a visit to one of our older person schemes St. Albans Court, with the aim to find out whether wifi is an issue. Sarah Jones and Phil Simpson invited us to afternoon tea to have a chat over a brew about what they get up to each day and if wifi access would make any of that easier.

 Unlike the visits Tom previously went on (to Beacon Court and Vine Square), it was well known to our customers what the meeting was for. The word wifi was printed off and stuck on the door which of course then provides a room full of people with an interest in wifi. This meant that the hope of an organic approach where customers could slowly come to the idea of internet access being a help to what they do day to day was out the window. Instead of asking questions about their hobbies, interests and daily tasks we began with asking about wifi use as it stands.

The customers who regularly wish to access wifi do so through other means. They travel to café hot spots, their children or grandchildren pay for phone contracts with data, they travel to libraries or they pass on errands to people they know who can get on wifi to sort it. One customer explained that ultimately yes there is a way around the problem but they don't want there to have to be.

Customers took the opportunity to discuss other issues they have with the scheme with us such as phone signal. The signal, or lack of in their case, was of much higher importance than the idea of any new service. A more traditional form of communication is what they thought of first so when we spoke of how that problem might be helped with wifi (with the help of messaging apps and making calls that way) they seemed happy to discuss other capabilities.

The key points to take away from this visit are:

• Not everyone would find use for it.
• At what cost? Customers spoke of how most of them at the scheme don't have a landline because to them a mobile does the job and it cuts down on bills.
• Unlike with the younger schemes, these customers don't seem to use wifi to generally browse, say on YouTube. It was a tool for errands such as applying for a job or getting their shopping.

It was interesting to hear the difference between what these customers feel is important in comparison to other customers and the one thing we are sure of is that whatever we decide to test will be tailor made on a scheme by scheme basis. There isn't a one size fits all approach for this.

Amy

Getting Testing (Test Plans for Squads)

Yesterday we started taking practical steps for the community and home squad, mapping out how we're going to test some innovative new thinking... 

A morning group session focused around how best to investigate a 'community lettings plan'. That is, how best do we understand a community and can we match a new customer to this brief? Even better, how can we encourage communities to do this for themselves? We recruit colleagues, couldn't customers recruit other customers? Who would even benefit from this?  It's radical, we'll admit, but we've drafted out a plan to investigate the value here. 

Minimum Home Standard - Should we decorate? Do our properties help unlock potential? The discussion rages on, but we're going to try and actually test it...

Jason led the thinking on the home squad session in the afternoon. Re-imagining the letable standard and the possibility of graded repairs services (customers choosing how much they want to service their own homes) were discussed. We're pleased to say that initial tests for a home MOT are being drafted. These should help customers get to know their properties properly (i.e. stopcock location and when to use it) and save them from having to go through the contact center for simple tasks. 

We'll let you know more once we've fleshed the plans out a little, but what do you think of these ideas so far?  

Fuel Poverty Lab: Week Two

Apologies that our update is slightly late - we were out and about on Friday.

In fact, that's our update really. We have 10 more weeks to tame our wicked problem so we are taking time to talk to as many people as possible. Customers, colleagues and people who work in the field of energy efficiency. 

The one big thing that's emerging for us is we need to avoid onesize-fits-all solutions. Our customers all heat and use their homes differently with varying income levels - and our work needs to acknowledge that.

For instance - we visited a customer this week who was experiencing damp and mould. Seemingly she was the only person in her block to be having the problem. But the family were using fuel in different way to their neighbours. It would be easy to jump to 'blaming the customer' for this - when in fact it's more the issue that the property may need modifications to make it more suitable for their lifestyle. 

What if every customer could have a conversation with us about their lifestyle, income and attitude to warmth - that we could match with a bespoke offer?

In other news:

• We are avoiding going off and conducting separate tests and trying to tap into things we are already doing or thinking about. Watch for an update on some of these later in the week
• There’s a raft of existing partnerships that we have not fully tapped into. We’re now collating these for a quick wins action plan.
• Then there’s a list of future partnerships that need exploring – who are the high value ones we’d want to have more strategic links with?
• We’ve started the quick downloads with key colleagues and they’ve already unearthed some nuggets which we’ll include in a future update.

Generally things are starting to take shape now and by the end of this week we want to be able to present a timetable of the way forward, and the likely things we’ll be testing.

Beacon Court - Center for the Blind

Today I hopped on my bike and went to meet Jo Wright, scheme manager at Beacon Court. The scheme specializes in housing those with visual impairments and is linked by glass walkway to the Beacons charity center for the blind. Between the two building there's an amazing array of activities (from pottery to Xbox) and plenty of area to relax and 'bumping spaces' to meet neighbors. It was an impressive set up. 

I was there exploring whether wifi access at the scheme was an issue - though I didn't want to fire a loaded gun, so asked about any potential issues or aspirations they might have. Speaking to a couple of customers, it seemed that getting off site more was a top priority - trips to the countryside were mentioned. While Wifi wouldn't help you get out more, it could be used to transport you to far off lands with a smartphone and a google cardboard headset. I've been testing this out in the lab with some pics from Peru! Everyone likes getting together - so why not have this as a group session - VR storytelling?

Next door, the Beacon center provides free wifi hotspot - though this doesn't extend far into our scheme. They've been having some success using QR codes to provide more information on notice boards. Specialist phones are on sale that are set up to have big, easy to read displays. Its a sign that access is a crucial first step, but good ideas and a motivation to implement them are as vital. 

In summary - it doesn't seem like wifi is solving any problems there, the great utilities and tireless work from Jo does that. But it does open doors to new and exciting activities - group Youtube binge anyone?  

Tom

Click here for more info on Beacon Court

Click here for more info on Beacon Center for the Blind