Why social housing CX must evolve in 2026: meeting digital-first expectations amid tight budgets and outdated practices

Social housing customer experience (CX) is evolving rapidly due to changing tenant expectations, digital services, and budget constraints. Traditional CX practices are becoming outdated, and this document outlines five habits that need to be retired and replaced with more effective approaches to improve tenant satisfaction and operational efficiency. 

Hitting the new year is always championed as a time for reflection, a time for change, a time for ditching the old and bringing in the new.  

Customer experience in social housing is at an inflection point. Tenant expectations are changing fast, shaped by digital-first services, tighter accountability, and the reality of constrained budgets that make everybody feel the pinch. What got results five years ago is almost certainly creaking, and several common CX practices won’t survive the next five. 

This first blog of 2026 sets out five habits social housing CX teams rely on today that I believe will be obsolete (or at least counterproductive) within five years, and what we can do instead, practically, and without ballooning costs. 

1. Over-reliance on “satisfaction surveys” as the CX backbone

Why it won’t be relevant:

Whilst I think regulatory compliance, be it from TSMs or some new version, will still be with us in five years’ time, for many, they will remain a slow, plodding, blunt instrument. Annual surveys capture sentiment too late, they miss vulnerable groups, and they conflate “happiness” with service adequacy. In five years, housing providers will be expected to use continuous, event-based feedback and outcome-focused measures instead (e.g., “Was your heating fixed within 48 hours?” and “Do you feel safer in your home after the repair?”).

What to do instead: 

  • Move away from annual surveys and adopt more frequent waves to increase responsiveness. 
  • Shift from just measuring general satisfaction to specific journey-level metrics (e.g., repair scheduling, ASB reporting, complaint resolution). 
  • Use triggered micro-feedback (one or two questions) immediately after key interactions. 
  • Track impact metrics: resolution timeliness, repeat contacts, avoidable escalation, and tenant effort (how much work tenants must put in when interacting with their landlord). 

2. Treating CX as a compliance checkbox rather than a change engine

Why it won’t be relevant: 

‘Collect and report’ CX is fast fading and with good reason. Regulators, landlord boards, and indeed tenants themselves increasingly expect evidence of action, not just compliance status. Tenants expect transparency and proof that insights lead to improvements. A compliance-only posture erodes trust and stalls innovation. 

What to do instead: 

  • Embed CX into governance and decision rights: every insight should have an owner, an action, a due date, and an outcome. 
  • Create a CX Change Log that publicly tracks ‘You said, we did’ for tenants and staff. 
  • Launch a monthly “You said, we did” post across channels (email, SMS, noticeboards). Include one tangible fix (e.g., “We extended contact centre weekend hours” or “We added photo upload for repair requests”). 

3. Manual, episodic feedback collection that excludes hard-to-reach tenants

Why it won’t be relevant:

Whether it’s clipboard sessions, ad hoc focus groups, or opt-in panels, the fact is they miss those with language barriers, neurodiversity, rural/remote residents, or those with digital exclusion. In five years, inclusive, multichannel listening will be the standard, and automation will make it cheaper, not more expensive. 

What to do instead: 

  • Offer multi-modal inputs: SMS, WhatsApp, IVR phone surveys, paper, web, and in-person. 
  • Build trusted intermediaries. Partner with local community groups to reach underrepresented tenants. 
  • Use accessibility-by-default. Plain language, translation support, and assisted contact options. 

4. Generic, one-size-fits-all communications

Why it won’t be relevant:

Tenants will expect contextual and personalised updates, especially for time-sensitive issues like repairs or safety. Generic messages lead to confusion, repeat calls, and mistrust. The bar is rising because other sectors already successfully deliver tailored notifications – now is the time to catch up.

What to do instead: 

  • Implement event-driven communications (e.g., repair scheduled → reminder → technician en route → job completed → feedback). 
  • Personalise by channel preference, language, and vulnerability flags. 
  • Use plain language micro copy and consistent status labels (e.g., “Scheduled,” “In progress,” “Completed”). 

5. Reactive service improvement (waiting for complaints) instead of predictive prevention

Why it won’t be relevant:

Experience tells me that the sector is all too often operating on a reactive basis. The future of CX in social housing is proactive service design, preventing issues before they occur. With basic data, you can forecast demand spikes, identify high-risk properties, and prevent repeat repairs. 

What to do instead: 

  • Use simple predictive flags: repeat repairs within 90 days, properties with frequent damp/mould reports, or seasonal spikes in boiler failures. 
  • Trial pre-emptive campaigns (e.g., “winter boiler check-up”) for high-risk homes. 
  • Align CX with asset data to prioritise investments in properties generating the highest tenant effort. 

The social housing sector doesn’t need bigger surveys or slicker dashboards. It needs faster insight, clearer action, and more inclusive listening. Retiring these five outdated habits will free up time and budget, improve trust with tenants, and deliver service outcomes that regulators, boards and tenants care about. 

Next month, we will look again into the crystal ball to identify emerging areas that I think will become standard practice across the sector that are arguably not currently delivered, albeit by just a small handful of progressive landlords.Â