Building resident trust through measurable communication at Staedion

The corporation therefore invests in new construction, quality of life and maintenance. Based on the mission “at home together”, the Staedion communication team formulated a number of objectives. I spoke to communication advisor Priscilla Bossaert about making Staedion’s goals measurable and how the RepScore can help!

Measuring at-home feeling: “at home together” in four themes

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 Spotler’s Media Monitor reporting more widely across the organisation, along with management and senior management. It was therefore expanded into the RepScore, to which, in addition to the above four themes, the themes Home Feeling, Issues and Corporate have also been added.

“We use the 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 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 determine whether we will focus more on a specific theme.”

Urgency is placed on affordable housing and availability

Based on image research, the theme “Affordable housing and availability” emerged as the most critical factor in 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 6.5. We have learned from experience that the RepScore often comes out at 6 to 6.4. A 6.5 is, therefore, a good score.

Priscilla explains: “This is a concrete figure we can work on. To get there, we want to publish content on that theme at least once every two weeks and reach our target groups. This can be on social media, the press, or news. 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 becoming part of our daily activities, or are other themes now getting more attention?”

Insights based on RepScore

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 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 featuring resident stories, but how do you handle that during COVID? Then came the initiative to call the older residents.”

On 1 April, Staedion shared via social media that they would like to keep in touch with their residents. Call over 2,000 elderly residents during the coronavirus crisis and ask how they’re doing. Many likes and positive reactions from tenants, politicians, journalists, and the trade association Aedes followed.

Leading the way in the housing corporation industry

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 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. The team can gain more insight into the online reputation by working closely with the webcare (online customer support) department. Priscilla gives the webcare team inspirational workshops on dealing with negative sentiment and converting it into something positive. She has also developed a content strategy, and the team has started with holiday and current-event advertising and marketing communications.

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

The Repscore makes your reputation much more tangible by enabling you to measure the impact of your objectives and themes at a higher level. That helps greatly in making choices. For the document to be useful internally, keeping the information in your report concise is vital. Think carefully about what is important and how you visually present it.