Channel Shift Survey Results ReportWe ran an anonymous survey about attitudes to
channel shift in the social housing sector; here’s
what we found
www.prodo.com | 01244 335 361The Stables, Little Heath Road, Littleton, Chester, CH3 7DW
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We ran an anonymous survey about attitudes to Channel Shift in the housing sector.The survey was aimed at housing sector employees.
A total of 205 responses were received from respondents representing over 87 UK housing organisations.
Respondents came from all levels in those organisations - from CEO, Director and Head of Service level positions through to Managers and frontline Officers.
Most Housing business functions were represented within the responses too: individuals from Comms & Marketing, Customer Service, Finance, Housing, IT, Operations, Sales and Transformation specific roles all responded.
In terms of experience, or time served within the sector there was a broad mix. Our respondents were both new to the sector (26.35% had served from 0-5 years ), highly experienced (12.68% had over 25 years experience) plus everything in between.
“We surveyed 205 Housing professionals across 87 UK housing associations 17% were Csuite or director level 11% were heads of service 34% were managers and 38% were at officer level
Channel Shift Survey Report
Introduction
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Channel Shift Survey Report
We asked three questions to establish a quick picture of respondents opinions on channel shift as a concept and its place within their organisation and individual roles.
1. What does ‘Channel Shift’ mean to you?
2. Are you aware of any Channel Shift objectives your organisation has?
3. How involved are you in helping your organisation hit Channel Shift objectives?
88% of respondents said that channel shift meant “Making digital a “channel of choice” and freeing up staff time by automating repeatable processes.” Most respondents then, rejected the notion that channel shift is about replacing people, degrading customer service or simply moving contact to channels like email or online forms and away from phones and face to face.
Encouragingly, 89% of those surveyed were aware that their organisation had some kind of channel shift objective, with 80% knowing what those objectives were. Understandably, those in C Suite and Director level positions had the best knowledge of channel shift objectives for
Views on Channel Shift
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their organisation (96%) however 73% of those in Officer positions also knew what the organisation was trying to achieve.
Despite this, only 21% of respondents actually felt they were actively involved in helping their organisation hit their channel shift goals and 58% feeling little to no involvement in hitting channel shift objectives (58% of those were either Officer or Manager level employees).
Section 1 | Views on Channel Shift
“89% Aware that their organisation has a channel shift objective
80%Know what their organisations channel shift objectives are
21% Feel actively involved in hitting channel shift objectives
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Channel Shift Survey Report
Compared against the 89% of employees who had knowledge of the channel shift goals of their organisation, the high number of individuals who felt they weren’t involved in helping to achieve them (especially in ostensibly frontline Manager and Officer positions) is indicative of a lack of understanding of what the channel shift objectives actually mean.
This could highlight that a culture of channel shift is not well embedded within the organisations we surveyed which could be due to a lack of communication filtering down from higher up the chain.
That said, when looked at in conjunction with other questions we asked, could this highlight something deeper? To start with,
46% of respondents said they had little to no confidence in their organisations ability to procure and implement the right channel shift solutions on budget and on time because of negative past experiences, lack of buy in or lack of strategic direction.
To add to that, internal blockers (34%), working with third party suppliers (22%) and poor communication (13%) were cited as amongst the biggest frustrations during project delivery. IT system limitations (41%) and disagreements across departments or conflicts with other projects (18%) were cited among the top blockers preventing projects progressing from planning to delivery.
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With all this in mind – could the lack of perceived involvement in hitting channel shift objectives relate more to apathy or project fatigue across organisations?
This could highlight a need for more sweeping changes in Mindset and organisational culture and possibly some large IT infrastructure changes across these organisations rather than just better education on Channel Shift alone.
Section 1 | Views on Channel Shift
Biggest frustrations during delivery of digital Channel Shift projects
34%
4%8%
13%
19%
22%
Internal blockers
Working with third-party suppliers
Getting buy-in from customers
Poorcommunication
I don’t know
Other
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Channel Shift Survey Report
promote and grow the user base of their customer facing digital channels.This is indicative of a ‘build it and they will come’ attitude the like of which is rarely seen in the private sector. Commercially focussed organisations know it’s not enough to build a platform and simply hope people will find and adopt it. Just like their commercial counterparts, housing organisations need to build self-service platforms that customers
Over 55% (55.61%) of respondents said their customers were ready to self serve however 36% said that their organisation didn’t currently have a selft service offering for customers.27% of respondents said their organisation had a self service offering customers were actively using and 20% had an offering, but their customers weren’t showing any desire to use it.
Despite just over 46% of respondents having some kind of self service offering, 45.37% of respondents felt their organisation did little to no work to continually monitor and improve their customer facing digital channels and 47.8% felt that their organisation does little to no work to
Mindset
Channel Shift Survey Report
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want to use and keep iterating to continually improve them based on user behaviour. In order to get those users on board in the first place, they need to talk to them!
Perhaps housing organisations need to take the growth and promotion of their self service platforms more seriously and put more strategic planning and resources behind this activity? Would this help these organisations get better uptake on both existing and new platforms?
60% of respondents to our survey felt that customers should be involved throughout channel shift projects. 72% of respondents felt that internal staff should be involved throughout channel shift projects. Both these stats ring true with Prodo’s experience: if staff and customers understand and are involved with a project throughout, they become advocates of it which in turn contributes positively to channel shift objectives in the long term.
Section 2 | Mindset
“60% of those who answered said they’d focus on a customer self
service project
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Channel Shift Survey Report
Only 7% of respondents felt that projects were prioritised because frontline staff wanted or needed them and 30.73% said that customer needs dictated project priority.
When asked to choose any digital project for their organisation to focus on though, 22% identified an internal project. 48% of the projects highlighted among those related to IT with CRM, improving methods of communicating with tenants, mobile working and greater automation all getting mentions.
This is echoed by the 41% of respondents who said limitations of IT systems tended to be one of the biggest blockers to projects making it from planning to actual delivery. Perhaps the sentiment behind the internal projects our respondents identified was a desire for fundamental changes to internal systems rather than small, incremental improvements or extensions.
Interestingly, a very low 8% of respondents felt that budgets were a blocker to projects making it through planning to delivery but 20% felt time or resources was an issue. This is despite over 25% stating that their organisation typically spends over 12 months planning channel shift projects.
Planning
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Section 2 | Planning
41%
3% 3%
6%
7%
18%
20%
IT system limitations
Time and/or resources
Disagreements across departments and/or conflicts with other projects
Budgets
I don’t know
Combination of these
Other
Biggest blockers to channel shift projects making it past planning to being delivered
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Channel Shift Survey Report
Clearly, this is indicative that budgets are rarely an issue when it comes to getting projects off the ground but it’s interesting that almost 20% felt that time and resources were a blocker. Could this link back to competing priorities between departments being high? Are there too many projects going on and not enough people with the time, or willingness to take on new ones?
31%
2%
20%
29%
11%
7%
Changes in legislation require it
Customers want/need it
Frontline staff want/need it
I don’t know
The CEO or a Director wants/needs it
Other
Main reasons channel shift projects get prioritised
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Section 2 | Planning
Interestingly, 51% of respondents felt that their organisations communicated progress back to the organisation poorly or not at all during delivery of channel shift projects. Perhaps the long lead time for many channel shift projects and this lack of communication creates a sense of time being a blocker to progress despite work being done behind the scenes?
“Interestingly, 51% of respondents felt that their organisations communicated progress back to the organisation poorly
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Channel Shift Survey Report
Other low scorers cited negative experience with past projects, lack of strategic direction and low confidence in staff and tenants as justification for their low scores.
34% of respondents cited “internal blockers” as the biggest frustration during project delivery, 22% highlighted working with third party suppliers, 19% rated getting buy-in from customers and 13% said poor communication were their biggest frustrations.
“Managers had the lowest confidence with 60% of Managers surveyed scoring low
15% of respondents had high confidence in their organisations ability to procure and implement the right solution, on budget and on time. This is compared with 45% who had little to no confidence in this area (the rest were neutral).
Digging deeper – of those who answered this question, Managers had the lowest confidence with 60% of Managers surveyed scoring low. Even at C Suite level, almost 20% (17.24%) gave low ratings and this increased to 44% among those in Head of Service roles.
When asked why they provided these scores, 37.14% of those who’d scored the lowest said organisational mindset was the reason they answered this way.
Delivery
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Section 3 | Delivery
Confidence by job level in organisations ability to procure and deliver the right solution on budget and on time
0
20
40
60
80
100
Low confidence Neutral High confidence
CSuite / Director
Head of Service Manager Officer Other
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Channel Shift Survey Report
Or perhaps we need to go a step further back – perhaps these frustrations could be eased with a more consistent organisational mindset in which everyone works towards a common goal?
Whilst poor communication was among the lower scorers in biggest frustrations during project delivery – when asked specifically how well their organisation communicates progress during project delivery only 10% of respondents answered positively, with over 50% (51.22%) saying this was either not done at all or not done well enough.
So despite communication being regarded as poor during delivery by over half of those surveyed, it wasn’t seen as the most significant frustration. Both internal blockers and working with third parties were rated higher – but could these issues actually be resolved by better communication?
51% - poorly or not at all
39% Neutral
10% positive
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Section 3 | Delivery
How well do organisations communicate progress during delivery of channel shift projects?
51%
10%
39%
Poorly or not at all
Neutral
Very Well
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Channel Shift Survey Report
As we’ve already pointed out, most (45%) of our survey respondents felt that their organisations did little to no work to measure and continually improve customer-facing digital platforms. Equally, the view of 48% was that their organisation did little to no work to promote and grow the user-base of its customer-facing digital platforms.
This is solidified by the 56% of respondents who said their organisation either has a self-service channel that most customers aren’t using or that they simply didn’t have a self service offering.
Measurement
How well do organisations communicate progress during delivery of channel shift projects?
46% 42% 12%
Little to no work Neutral Continual improvement
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It’s clear that among those we’ve surveyed, significantly more importance needs to be placed on growth and improvement post-project delivery. In order to do that though – the organisation’s collective cultural attitude needs to be tackled much earlier in the process. If that can happen, then when it’s time to release a project into the wild, there may still be enough enthusiasm, knowledge and sense of ownership to recognise that launching is just the start of a continuous process of improvement and growth.
Section 4 | Measurement
Amount of effort to promote and grow the user-base of customer-facing digital platforms
46% 42% 12%
Little to no effort Neutral A lot of effort
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Channel Shift Survey Report
We asked this question right at the end of the survey and we’ve pulled it out specifically because it highlights some really interesting attitudes.
60% of those who answered said they’d focus on a customer self service project; 36% of those said they’d focus on repairs, 13% on rent and 18% on improving their current offering.
Of all those who said a self-service project would be a priority, only four specific subcategories emerged: rent, repairs, lettings and improving the current offering.
Despite our clear findings that mindset needed improvement, it’s heartening to observe that an area well over half of respondents were able to agree was on improving and developing self service options for tenants.
If You Could Pick One Digital Project, What Would It Be?
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Section 5 | If You Could Pick One Digital Project, What Would It Be?
6%
3%
8%
22%
60%
Self service
Internal systems
Website
Already in progress!
Other
Types of projects were:
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Channel Shift Survey Report
That might be because these improved services are easier to tackle, or perhaps it’s because they present an opportunity to improve things for both tenants and the organisation alike.
Interestingly, 22% of respondents said they’d focus on an internal systems project and within that, 22 different types of project were highlighted - from digitising map data to housing management systems right through to reducing paper and intranet and everything in between.
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Section 5 | If You Could Pick One Digital Project, What Would It Be?
Improving current offering
Adding lettings functionality
No specific reason
For rent transactions
For raising repairs
Of all respondents who said ‘self-service’ as project of choice - what was the specific business area they wanted to see this applied to?
18%
37%
8%
24%13%
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Channel Shift Survey Report
The organisations we surveyed all understand channel shift as a concept but there’s little sense of ownership when it comes to actually making it happen, especially in the most critical customer facing roles. When a channel shift initiative takes place, our respondents said their organisations tend to spend a long time planning and if those projects make it through the planning stage there’s low confidence that they’ll be delivered well and on time.
During delivery, legacy IT systems, poor relationships with suppliers and poor communication create blockers and
frustrations that impede progress and limit long term success.The channel shift projects that are delivered, are promoted little among their intended user base and remain static rather than being continually improved upon for the benefit of customer and organisation alike.
Clearly this isn’t the case for all housing organisations – we have seen the opposite of this picture in these survey findings and in person too - but those examples tend to be the exception rather than the rule.
Concluding Thoughts
“Based on the data we’ve gathered, the most logical and beneficial place to start would be with organisational mindset.
Section 6 | Concluding Thoughts
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originate. With a collaborative, forward thinking cultural attitude that permeates from the top to the bottom, housing organisations might be able to spend less time frustrated, blocked and static and more time communicating, iteratively improving and continually growing for the benefit of tenants and organisations alike.
So, how can housing organisations fix this?
That is a much larger topic than can be handled in this conclusion alone, but based on the data we’ve gathered, the most logical and beneficial place to start would be with organisational mindset.
Mindset is the place from which most issues our survey respondents highlighted
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Channel Shift Survey Report Section 7 | Notes
Notes
www.prodo.com | 01244 335 361The Stables, Little Heath Road, Littleton, Chester, CH3 7DW
