VIVID Housing Association faced the same critical problem affecting housing providers across the UK: how to successfully deliver Warm Homes programmes, often with strict grant funding deadlines, when customers don’t typically understand what they’re trying to achieve, as housing providers haven’t done this at scale before.
THE CHALLENGE
Across the sector, and based on previous scheme take-up, it’s clear that the traditional “announce and deliver” approach wasn’t working for anyone.
Before launching a planned survey as part of the pre-engagement project, we conducted an interactive workshop with VIVID residents to test communication approaches, messaging and engagement strategy. This session was crucial for understanding how residents really felt about retrofit concepts and language before developing further programme materials.
Following the workshop analysis, we developed:
24-page detailed measures guide with plain English explanations of each retrofit technology, visual diagrams, and FAQs
Explainer video scripted and briefed by TFG, professionally produced by Indigo Creations, to communicate complex retrofit concepts in an engaging, accessible format
Quick reference materials, including postcards and summary flyers for initial outreach and survey promotion
We created and distributed a comprehensive survey for digital users, with print versions for those who are digitally excluded or prefer physical formats.
With 978 responses, this research provided serious market intelligence at scale. We combined broad survey insights with qualitative feedback to understand both what customers think and why they think it.
Based on the survey results, we developed a comprehensive 28-page playbook that transforms customer feedback into actionable communication strategies. This gives VIVID the agency to apply:
Instead of relying on assumptions about what customers want, VIVID now has concrete data about customer priorities, concerns, and preferences gathered through the completion of interactive workshops and a comprehensive survey. This eliminates guesswork and focuses resources and budget on customer-led communications.
By identifying through workshops that 54% of customers lacked property-specific information, VIVID can now address this primary barrier to engagement before it becomes resistance. Preventing access refusals rather than trying to overcome them after they occur.
Rather than discovering support needs during work (often too late), VIVID can now identify and plan for the 30.9% requiring additional assistance, ensuring no customer is left behind.
Understanding through detailed workshop discussions that only 2.7% of customers have no concerns about heat pumps allows VIVID to develop comprehensive education and support programmes before installation, rather than dealing with problems afterwards.
The customer intelligence gathered in this pre-engagement work not only contributes to meeting immediate programme challenges, but it can also support how VIVID approaches all future customer engagements. The insights about communication preferences, support needs, and decision-making factors apply across all their services, creating lasting value far beyond the initial retrofit programme.
The pre-engagement exercise also provides VIVID with meaningful evidence for securing future funding, demonstrating customer engagement and support for sustainability initiatives.
If you’re planning a Warmer Homes programme and want to achieve the same measurable results as VIVID, we can help you develop your own customer intelligence framework through interactive workshops and comprehensive research.
Our approach provides:
Strategic SEO wins
