In late 2023, County Housing conducted its second annual review of customer service. The survey asked nearly 2,300 public housing residents, Housing Choice Voucher residents, and property owners about their satisfaction with the housing authority’s processes and their experiences with staff in customer-facing roles.
The results confirm that the new approach County Housing is taking toward customer service and operational efficiency will be beneficial. Those changes will address some of the challenges identified in the survey, including timeliness of staff responses, quality of interactions, and clarity of processes.
While the 2022 survey focused on defining what great customer service meant to respondents and what they felt they needed from County Housing, the 2023 questions were geared to establishing a baseline for satisfaction—for example, asking public housing residents about maintenance and repair response times, communication, and quality of work.
“Positive or negative, these results provide important data to staff on whether specific interventions are working,” said County Housing Executive Director and CEO Shannon Koenig.
Among the results:
- Quality of interactions and communication between staff and their customers (both residents and landlords) leaves room for improvement across the board.
- Timeliness of staff responses needs improvement.
- Landlords reported an increase in satisfaction on three indicators: staff knowledge, biannual property inspections, and good experiences leasing to housing authority residents.
Participation among residents was lower in 2023 than in 2022, while the number of property owners who responded increased.
“In public housing, 2023 was largely a foundational year as we brought property management back in-house and worked diligently to make quality hires in the maintenance department,” said Chief Operating Officer Katrina Sommer. She added that all staff have now received two trainings on understanding County Housing’s residents and how to provide great customer service to them.
To address the perception that staff are hard to reach and information is hard to access, County Housing has rolled out a new website with increased functionality that will be a better resource for all customers, staff, and partners. It is also adding an organization-wide phone tree and walk-in hours at its headquarters.
Another important change is the addition of two Housing Choice Voucher generalists whose sole responsibility will be answering resident questions relating to the program in order to relieve pressure on caseworkers.
Public housing locations will add property managers whose contact information is available for residents’ questions and concerns.
Finally, County Housing is implementing a comprehensive communications plan to stay in touch with residents more regularly through a variety of methods. The staff is already strategizing ways to increase the response rate for the 2024 survey to ensure that it elicits feedback from a representative sample of County Housing’s residents and landlords.
