Housing corporation Staedion makes at-home-feeling measurable

Priscilla started working as a communications advisor at Staedion last year. She and some of her colleagues formulated a content strategy based on the organisational goal ‘at home together’. The corporation wants to guarantee residents in The Hague a solid basis: everyone has the right to live well, affordably, safely and healthily. Four communication themes fall under ‘at home together’: With residents, Good living, Sustainable and Affordable living and availability.

Every two years, the housing association conducts an image survey among residents, the general public in The Hague, colleagues and professional relations. The team was looking for a way to share OBI4wan’s Brand Monitor reporting more widely across the organisation and along with management and senior management. It was therefore expanded into the OBI RepScore, to which, in addition to the above four themes, the themes Home Feeling, Issues and Corporate have been added as well.

“We use the OBI RepScore to complement our processes and policies. Because we work with quadrimesters, the score is a good addition to our image research. This helps us to measure the effect of our communication efforts. Are we on the right track or should we put our energies into other things?”

“The OBI RepScore is a report that provides insight into the development, over time, of an organisation’s or brand’s media reputation. With the help of data analysts, these insights can be converted into action-oriented insights that contribute to a thorough communication strategy. Priscilla states: “the scores help me prioritise and focus on communication. The report also helps measure the effect and to determine whether we will focus more on a specific theme or not.”

Based on image research, what emerged is that the theme “Affordable housing and availability” is most important for improving reputation. Staedion scored a 6.1 on this theme in the previous quadrimester. The goal for the upcoming term is to bring this figure to a 6.5. We have learned from previous experience that the OBI RepScore often comes out at 6 to 6.4. A 6.5 is therefore a good score.

Priscilla explains: “This is a concrete figure that we can work on. In order to get there, we want to publish something on that theme at least once every two weeks and get it to our various target groups. This can be on social media, but also a press or news item. We will evaluate the themes once again after the term. Did we reach the numbers? Are we going to take this further, is it now going to become part of our daily activities or are other themes now getting more attention? ”

After the first quadrimester in (May) 2020, it became clear where Staedion scores well and where improvements can be made. What stood out? The scores remained the same on two themes, with the other scores rising or falling minimally.

The score on the theme “With residents” has risen from 6.2 to 6.5 in the current term. And that, in the middle of the corona crisis! Priscilla: “We have really thought carefully about how we want to communicate with our residents during the crisis, apart from the practical matters such as (emergency) repairs that are now being carried out according to RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) measures and strict protocols. We often post nice content with resident stories, but how do you deal with that during corona? Then came the initiative to call the older residents.”

On April 1, Staedion shared via social media that they like to keep in touch with their residents. The idea: call over 2,000 elderly residents during the corona crisis and ask how they’re doing. A huge amount of likes and positive reactions from tenants, politicians, journalists and the trade association Aedes followed. For example, Councillor Martijn Balster (PvDA) tweeted:

Fantastisch dat @staedion zo zicht probeert te houden op kwetsbare bewoners!

Staedion belt met ouderen https://t.co/9WHRmgTpMJ

— Martijn Balster (@balstermartijn) April 1, 2020

Other initiatives that have an impact in the media were also mentioned in the report. Staedion extends their contract with the Salvation Army for a temporary reception centre by three months in order to prevent residents from being put out on the street. Various regional newspapers are relaying the message.

Haagse daklozen hoeven opvang niet uit: ‘Dit zou een slecht moment zijn’https://t.co/zqR87plolk

— AD Den Haag (@ADDenHaag) April 16, 2020

Priscilla: “These are just really nice social initiatives that make me very happy, and proud!”

Priscilla enjoys sharing the knowledge she’s gained in measuring the reputation of Staedion with other corporations: “We do a lot of knowledge exchange and I notice that we really are at the forefront of this and that other corporations are many times quite impressed, which is of course always nice to hear! ”

Priscilla is also active within the organisation. By working closely with the webcare (online customer support) department, the team is able to gain more insight into the online reputation. Priscilla gives the webcare team inspiration workshops on how to deal with negative sentiment and how to convert it into something positive. She has also developed a content strategy and the team has started with advertisements and marketing communications for around the holidays and current events.

“By doing that together with Webcare, you create support within the team. You often see that marketing or communications has posted something that comes as a surprise to the webcare team. That’s a shame, because ultimately Webcare knows first-hand what the target groups like and dislike. And that kind of collaboration is really great.”

The OBI RepScore helps to create support for the efforts you make as a team.

“Your reputation is made much more tangible by the OBI RepScore because you can measure the effects of your objectives and themes at a higher level. That helps greatly in making choices. In order for the document to be useful internally, it is important to keep the information in your report concise. Think carefully about what is important and how you make it look visually as well. The media analysts at OBI4wan can really help in advising you on this.”