Designing Services Around Real Lives

24th February 2026

Jenny Danson

How customer segmentation is reshaping service design, trust and health outcomes in social housing.

The social housing sector continues to grapple with rising repair demand, retrofit delivery pressures and heightened regulatory scrutiny. Yet many of the operational failures now under the spotlight are not new. They are the result of long established service design choices that have prioritised organisational convenience over how people actually live.

A recent conversation with Naomi Sweeting, Director of Customer Research and Insight at Places for People, surfaced a challenge the sector can no longer ignore. Inefficiency in housing services is not inevitable. It is designed in.

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How customer segmentation is reshaping service design, trust and health outcomes in social housing.

Designing Out Failure, Not Residents

Making Wishes Come True: Why Customers Say “No” to Retrofit – and How We Can Change That

“All I Wanted Was to Go Home”: Why Listening to Residents Must Come First

Designing Services Around Real Lives

How customer segmentation is reshaping service design, trust and health outcomes in social housing.

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Further reading

Designing Out Failure, Not Residents

Making Wishes Come True: Why Customers Say “No” to Retrofit – and How We Can Change That

“All I Wanted Was to Go Home”: Why Listening to Residents Must Come First

Designing Out Failure, Not Residents

Making Wishes Come True: Why Customers Say “No” to Retrofit – and How We Can Change That

“All I Wanted Was to Go Home”: Why Listening to Residents Must Come First

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