Who better to explain what housing services are needed at Lumo homes than the tenants themselves? And who better to evaluate, refine and deliver them than the trusted cooperation partners that provide services at Lumo homes?

This is the approach behind the new operating model for developing housing services for Lumo tenants. It’s a model with a strong emphasis on engagement and co-creation.

“Co-creation helps us give tenants access to new services in a faster and more agile manner than before,” says Teemu Suila, Chief Development Officer at Kojamo.

Piloting and experiments are also growing in significance under the new model.

“The difference from our previous approach is that new services aimed at tenants are no longer completely refined and finalised before launch. Instead, the tenants of Lumo homes are given the opportunity to express their views and opinions during the idea generation, development and testing phases. This means that, from early on in the process, we can design new services to include everything that is relevant and necessary from the tenants’ perspective,” Suila explains.

“At the same time, we can eliminate unnecessary service features that would only create additional costs,” he adds.

Teemu Suila is excited by the new operating model because it means that new ideas can be tested faster than before. The pilot phase provides practical insight into how the new service is received by tenants and whether it meets their needs.

“A good service is one where all the pieces fit. The tenants find the service useful. Placing an order for the service is easy and the price is reasonable,” Suila explains.

According to Suila, a key aspect of service development is to keep your ears to the ground and be sensitive to the changing needs and interests of tenants.

The opinions of Lumo tenants are surveyed in various ways, including a customer satisfaction questionnaire conducted four times per year. There are also targeted surveys aimed at the tenants of a specific housing company, for example.

“The surveys provide us with valuable feedback and ideas for developing new services. At the same time, we get input that helps us improve our existing services,” Suila adds.

In addition to tenants, cooperation partners play an increasingly significant role in the development of services for Lumo homes. For example, the operating model for the designated Lumo caretakers was created in collaboration with the property maintenance partner Lassila & Tikanoja.

“This new approach to service development is producing good results. It all starts with the customer experience, ensuring that tenants get the maximum benefit from the service,” says Marja Murremäki, Business Development Manager at Lassila & Tikanoja.

One way to refine ideas is to hold workshops where the new services are discussed between the tenants of Lumo homes and the cooperation partners.

A workshop held in May 2018 was exceptionally fruitful, as the discussion served as the springboard for as many as three pilot services. The effectiveness of the services will be tested during the autumn at a few Lumo buildings in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

One of the pilot projects is the Installation service, which involves Lumo caretakers providing assistance to movers on installation jobs.

“Moving house is always a hectic time. In addition to organising your belongings, you need to install lighting fixtures, put up pictures, install a washing machine and take care of many other things. Not everyone has the time and skills that it takes to handle all that, so our team of caretakers is ready to help,” Murremäki explains.

Another pilot project developed for Lumo tenants is the Effortless disposal service, which makes Lassila & Tikanoja’s existing transport services more easily accessible by the tenants of Lumo homes.

“This autumn, we are piloting shared transport services items that tenants no longer need. The items are picked up for recycling directly from the tenants’ homes. This allows them to get rid of an old sofa, for example, at a reasonable cost.

The third pilot project for this autumn is the Key courier service. It enables customers who are about to move into a Lumo home to have the keys delivered to them instead of picking them up from a service point. The new service saves time for tenants and increases convenience on the day of their move, which is busy enough as it is.

The experiences gained during the autumn will reveal whether the tenants of Lumo homes take to the pilot services. Teemu Suila is looking forward to receiving feedback on them.

A natural aspect of agile service development is that not necessarily every idea will be successful. You have to accept that even when a service seems almost perfect during brainstorming and development, it may not be effective in practice or attract sufficient interest. Nevertheless, pilots and experiments always help accumulate valuable experience for future efforts.

“We already have ideas for new services in our development pipeline. More information on these will be provided later,” Suila says with an air of mystery.