S4-4 – Taking Action on Material Impacts on Consumers and End-Users, and Approaches to Mitigating Material Risks and Pursuing Material Opportunities Related to Consumers and End-Users, and Effectiveness of Those Actions

Customer Satisfaction Measures

We continuously take steps to improve or maintain high levels of customer satisfaction and service quality across all locations. These actions address both the positive impact of “Improved tenant satisfaction through greater accessibility and service quality” and the negative impact of “Reduced tenant satisfaction due to limited accessibility and service quality,” while also supporting our financial opportunity to lower fluctuation and opportunity costs.

Key initiatives include continuous service and product improvements, quick response and processing times within the customer service department, and enhanced accessibility, such as expanding digital channels.

During this reporting year, a key measure in this area is once again our centralized customer service centers, supported by decentralized local contacts in Germany, ensure fast and reliable service, directly contributing to our goal of a high level of satisfaction. Our central, multilingual and long-term customer service centers in Essen, Dresden and Berlin act as the first port of call, whereas our caretakers, craftsmen and landlords look after the needs of tenants on location. This structure allows us to identify tenant dissatisfaction early and respond immediately as needed.

We also maintain a comprehensive knowledge and training management program to enhance customer satisfaction and mitigate dissatisfaction. We continued our focus on developing the skills of our employees throughout the Group as whole during the reporting year to meet the needs of our customers. The Training & Quality department collaborates here with HR to provide a comprehensive training catalog of around 70 training modules tailored to employees’ learning needs. Regular dialogue formats ensure performance and quality. The aim is to be able to guarantee the same level of quality for the entire portfolio in Germany. A high level of service and quality in turn contributes to our overriding goal of a high level of satisfaction as part of the management policy on customer satisfaction.

Our digitalization policy during the reporting year included implementing self-service functions across the Group, with a particular focus on tenant apps. We can use these tenant apps as a particular example of how we map the full customer journey: from the apartment search process, including arranging viewing appointments, to the digital conclusion of contracts and all other issues affecting existing customers, such as ancillary expense bills, through to the concerns of customers moving out of our properties and former customers. The Mein Vonovia and DeuWo Digital apps have already been downloaded over 1.2 million times, with approximately 250,000 active users. The app portfolio also includes the BUWOG-Kunden app. While the initial launch of these tenant apps is complete, we continue to refine and expand their features, making this an ongoing process with no date set for final completion. The self-service functions, available year-round and 24/7, help reduce dissatisfaction caused by limited accessibility and contribute to improving customer satisfaction, directly supporting our overarching goal of providing a high level of customer satisfaction.

Additionally, we focus on extensive supplemental communication across the Group to achieve high customer satisfaction through enhanced service quality, also in the reporting year. For example, our website provides comprehensive, multilingual information on important housing-related topics, such as energy-saving tips for our tenants. These additional services and resources likewise play an essential role in achieving our goal of a high level of satisfaction as part of the management policy on customer satisfaction. As this involves ongoing communication about current topics, no specific completion date has been set for this initiative.

Measures for Homes That Meet Peoples’ Needs

We are taking measures to address our positive impact of “Housing tailored to tenants’ needs” and to take advantage of our significant opportunity of “Reduced tenant turnover through the creation of homes that meet people’s needs.”

In our portfolio, low-threshold structural measures as part of a (partial) modernization to create accessible spaces are often sufficient to significantly increase the level of living comfort in old age. For existing properties, minor structural modifications made possible because of a short-term vacancy of an apartment, such as the fitting of non-slip flooring and walk-in showers, or the widening of door frames, can significantly enhance living comfort, especially for older tenants. Homes that are completely barrier-free, according to German industry standard DIN 18040-2, are only necessary in very rare cases. As an additional measure, we have developed a criteria catalog for construction measures for barrier-free (partial) modernization. This catalog is applied following an assessment of existing properties to determine potential areas for reducing barriers and the scope of modifications. Additionally, portfolio tenants can request age-appropriate upgrades through our program “Age-appropriate modernizations in response to tenant requests.” If a care level is determined, partial costs can be recovered by the respective health insurance.

As a further measure to address our impacts and opportunities, we plan to continue constructing new buildings that are highly accessible and wheelchair-friendly in the reporting year. The long-term measures for fully accessible new construction and conversion enable our tenants to remain in their own homes for longer and to live independently in old age. These measures contribute to achieving our goal under this policy of ensuring that approximately 27% of homes rented out annually in Germany by 2030 are accessible (partially) modernized (see section S4-5 regarding this target).

The refurbishment program relates to the German portfolio. In Austria and Sweden, the elimination of barriers is also taken into account in the relevant building regulations.

In addition to structural measures, the social infrastructure in the neighborhood also plays a key role. As a result, we have introduced further measures to address our impact on “Housing tailored to tenants’ needs,” such as senior-friendly apartments, services and neighborhood meet-ups, for example. These initiatives, implemented across the Group, have been in place during the reporting year and will continue indefinitely. These supportive measures further contribute to achieving our overriding goal within the management policy on housing tailored to tenants’ needs.

Effectiveness of the Measures

The insights from the customer satisfaction survey in Germany provide the operational departments and management with a fundamental basis for decision-making on customer satisfaction. The results give us insight into the evaluation of our service quality, as well as the structural and living conditions of our tenants, and help us determine whether our measures—particularly concerning the negative impact of reduced customer satisfaction caused by limited accessibility and low service quality—are appropriate. They also address the impacts and opportunities of the two topics of “housing tailored to tenants’ needs” and “customer satisfaction.” The assessments of the satisfaction survey are discussed quarterly in the regional business areas on site and measures are developed at the neighborhood level. These surveys enable us to make adjustments to address negative impacts or introduce new measures, if necessary. At present, we do not consider additional measures in collaboration with potentially relevant parties to be necessary.

In Austria, we also use customer satisfaction surveys as a tool, primarily online for all new construction projects in Vienna and for 5–10% of the portfolio every year. The results are discussed directly with the departments in order to develop suggestions for improvement. Measures are always implemented using a feedback loop and include a report to management. Based on customer feedback and the optimization potential identified in the process of handling complaints, we also develop training courses for employees in Austria to enhance their skills in dealing with customers.

In Sweden, too, customer satisfaction is a fundamental benchmark for all business processes. Indicators such as the vacancy rate and tenant fluctuation support our analyses in this regard.

As our customer satisfaction survey is conducted quarterly, corrective actions for identified negative impacts on customer satisfaction due to limited accessibility and service quality can be implemented promptly, and their effectiveness is reviewed shortly thereafter (as part of the next survey).

As part of the customer surveys, analyses of response and processing times are also conducted. Our experience shows that accessibility, speed and transparency in service are decisive factors for achieving customer satisfaction. These analyses allow us to identify weaknesses in our service commitments and address them effectively.

Extensive Inputs

We provide extensive personnel resources to manage customer satisfaction and our key impacts such as “Improved customer satisfaction through better accessibility and service quality” and “Reduced customer satisfaction due to limited accessibility and service quality.” Over 1,000 employees work in our customer service centers, and additional local staff, including caretakers, craftsmen, and landlords, directly contribute to managing these material impacts. This structure enables customers to directly assess how we manage these impacts, either on-site or through our customer service centers. We allocate significant financial resources to manage our considerable influence on “housing tailored to tenants’ needs.” In the fiscal year under review, for example, € 611.8 million was invested in modernization measures/our portfolio. An additional € 224.5 million was invested in new construction and € 764.7 million in maintenance. The total amount of € 1,601.0 million corresponds to the figures disclosed in the financial report. Investments at a similar level are planned for the coming fiscal year (see the Forecast Report).