Housemark’s customer experience (CX) audit gave The Sovini Group the clarity and direction it needed to evolve its approach to feedback, leading to practical improvements in how it designs surveys, communicates results, and acts on insight.

One Vision Housing, part of The Sovini Group, is a North West-based housing provider that owns, manages, and maintains over 14,000 homes. It is committed to delivering high-quality homes and services across its communities. With a culture of continuous improvement and a focus on customer experience, the Group regularly reviews its approach to insight and feedback.

In early 2025, Sovini commissioned Housemark to conduct an independent audit of its customer experience research programme. The aim was not just to meet compliance standards but to take a step back and assess whether its existing surveys, data, and feedback loops were truly delivering value.

“We wanted to ensure that what we were asking, how we were asking it, and what we were doing with the results were all meaningful,” says Ian Stewart, Head of Customer and Business Transformation, at One Vision Housing (part of the Sovini Group). “It was a chance to test our thinking and sense-check the robustness of our approach.”

The Challenge

Sovini had a well-established CX research programme in place, but as expectations around insight and actionability increased, the team wanted a fresh perspective. The challenge was to understand whether their surveys were asking the right questions, whether feedback was being captured in the most effective way, and whether the findings were being shared and used to drive improvement.

With multiple surveys and a strong in-house insight capability, the risk was that feedback could become fragmented, overly complex, or repetitive. Sovini was also mindful of the risk of survey fatigue, particularly among employees, and so needed to ensure any new insight activity added value without adding burden.

“We had confidence in a lot of what we were doing, but we also knew there was room to improve,” says Ian. “We didn’t want a generic report; we wanted an honest external perspective that would challenge us in the right way.”

The Solution

Housemark delivered a tailored audit of Sovini’s CX research programme, focusing on key areas such as survey design, methodology, sampling, data quality, reporting, and post-survey communication. The audit also explored the effectiveness of Sovini’s in-house telephone research model and the role of qualitative feedback in its reporting.

While the original proposal included a CX centricity survey for employees and more detailed data analysis, these elements were removed from scope to avoid duplication with existing activity. Instead, Housemark concentrated on areas with the greatest potential for impact, offering strategic recommendations designed to refine Sovini’s approach.

“Our aim was to deliver a practical, honest review of what was working and where tweaks could make a real difference,” says Chris Elliott, Principal Consultant at Housemark. “That meant shifting the focus from data volume to data value and helping Sovini prioritise the insight that really drives change.”

The audit report and accompanying executive presentation provided a clear set of findings and next steps. This included rebalancing survey content to focus on ‘need to know’ questions, making better use of open text responses, and strengthening internal feedback loops to ensure insight is acted upon and communicated.

The Results

Sovini has already started implementing changes as a result of Housemark’s audit with a renewed focus on question design, improved use of qualitative data, and a more structured approach to post-survey feedback.

“The audit has absolutely added value,” says Ian. “It’s helped us reframe our thinking in some key areas and reassured us where we were on the right track. We’ve made changes to our surveys and reporting approach off the back of it, and there’s more to come.”

Sovini is now better placed to manage and evolve its CX strategy with the audit providing a strong foundation for continuous improvement. The clarity, candour, and collaborative tone of Housemark’s approach also helped ensure the findings were welcomed and acted upon.

“We saw this as a constructive challenge, and that’s exactly how it landed,” says Ian. “It was insightful, honest, and delivered in a way that built trust.

For Housemark, it’s further evidence of how its new CX consultancy offer is helping organisations move beyond compliance and towards genuine improvement.

“CX insight should never just sit on a dashboard,” says Chris. “It should lead to action. With Sovini, we saw an organisation ready to do just that.”

Ready to go beyond compliance and truly elevate your customer experience?
With tenant satisfaction now firmly in the spotlight, it’s time to listen, resolve, and evolve. Housemark’s CX consultancy helps you improve survey design, communicate results clearly, and act on insights, unlocking meaningful change across your organisation. Find out how you can achieve results just like Sovini and get in touch today.