Bouwinvest’s tenant satisfaction score rises to 7.2

Bouwinvest conducts a tenant satisfaction survey every year as part of its goal to continuously improve its services. The demands and recommendations of our tenants form the starting point for our property managers and their ongoing efforts to respond fast and effectively, while providing a personal service and remaining accessible. Our efforts have again reaped results: this year our tenant satisfaction score increased from 7.0 to 7.2.

High-quality affordable housing in an attractive residential location generates significant financial and social value as it contributes to an overall sense of well-being. People tend to stay longer in their homes if they feel comfortable there, which is why Bouwinvest puts a lot of effort into our tenant satisfaction programme. By annually measuring how satisfied our residents are with their homes, we are able to obtain a good overview of how individual occupiers rate their dwelling, their surroundings and the services Bouwinvest and our property managers offer and find out where there is room for improvement. The survey also serves as a benchmark for other landlords.

Survey results
The survey results provide insights into how satisfied tenants are with service costs; the level of property management services; the friendliness of maintenance staff and complaints handling; among others. The latest survey showed that tenants were happier than they were last year with each of the components of the tenant satisfaction monitor. The level of satisfaction with regard to service costs, for instance, rose to 6.7 from 6.1. The friendliness of maintenance staff received a rating of 8.0 compared with 7.8 last year. Bouwinvest is an advocate of sustainable rental housing and energy consumption reduction and over 86% of the respondents expressed support for this programme.

Action points for 2021
A number of our tenants signalled room for improvement in the following areas: our call services and 'Living at Bouwinvest' tenant portal need to become more accessible and complaints need to be handled faster. In response to these comments, Bouwinvest will seek to reduce the waiting time for our call services and improve the quality of responses (by providing a relevant answer straightaway). In addition, we will offer a personal online account for handling tenant affairs, with a view to improving and speeding up access to all our services. As a basic principle we aim to keep our promises and provide as good a service as possible, although that is not always straightforward since we work with many different suppliers. The bottom line for us and all our property managers is that a deal is a deal.