What does it mean to be ‘customer obsessed’? In this episode, we sit down with Louise Swain, CEO at Alliance Homes Group. Alliance is a customer-focused housing association providing housing in the West of England.
Louise shares the story of her lived experience that led her towards working in social housing. She gives her thoughts on how the sector has changed in the last 20 years and how Alliance has evolved with it. In line with its customer-centric approach, Alliance are looking to implement an ‘MOT’ model that allows them to be more proactive rather than reactive to issues that customers are facing.
We also speak about hiring, and how Alliance were able to rally teams behind their mission, whilst also becoming Great Place to Work certified. Alliance began offering agile working options pre-pandemic, and Louise speaks about how this has evolved.
It’s a challenging time to be a CEO in the sector, and Louise shares insights into how Alliance is navigating the current challenges while also ensuring that they’re building homes that they can be proud of.
In this episode, we cover :
- How has the sector changed in the past 20 years?
- What does it mean to be ‘customer obsessed’ and how does Alliance make it happen?
- How Alliance finds the right people and gets them on board with the mission.
- Alliance’s agile working policy and how it’s helped with recruitment.
- How The Great Place to Work scheme works and how Alliance got certified.
- How does Alliance use technology to give customers a better experience?
- The work of Homes for the South West.
- Alliance’s plans to ensure that they can be proud of every one of their homes.