Using the example of the social housing sector, this paper seeks to evaluate the experiences of one organisation in attempting to learn more about a traditionally difficult to reach and engage group – young people – in order to develop more tailored services.
The research was undertaken as part of a Higher Education Funding Council for England‐funded University “Service by Design programme”, which was designed to enable the transfer of knowledge between the university and external agencies to improve service design. For this project, a focus group approach was adopted to capture the views of housing practitioners and young people. This was underpinned by reference to published literature and data held by the organisation.
The research led to an improved understanding of the attitudes and behaviours of young people, requiring service delivery staff and heads of departments to examine and change a number of organisational policies and practices. In addition, the research project contributed to evolving cultural change within the organisation and how young people were regarded.
The research was undertaken in partnership with one organisation and hence may have limited transferability. However, the findings reflect those of other more comprehensive studies referred to in this paper.
The paper argues that “customer insight” should underpin excellent customer service. Without a deeper understanding of diverse customer profiles and behaviours, attempts to improve service provision and customer relationships will have limited success.
The paper makes a contribution to ongoing public debates about how young people are currently perceived and about public sector reforms.
