brand reinvigoration for the UK's largest mutual exchange platform

content · digital · social

HomeSwapper is the UK’s leading mutual exchange service for the social housing sector, with more than 250,000 active users. The software platform allows users, or ‘swappers’ as they have come to be known, to set up home adverts for their social homes and search for other properties in order to facilitate a ‘swap’.

Mutual exchange is often a lengthy process when done directly through a tenant’s landlord, with limited housing availability meaning long waiting lists. HomeSwapper connects homes all over the country and often ensures a faster route for swappers to get to where they want to be.

HomeSwapper

HomeSwapper can be described as the force for resident mobility in the UK. In the last two years alone, 41,000 people have swapped their homes using HomeSwapper, in effect meaning that every 30 minutes HomeSwapper is changing the lives of two households.

Time for change

In 2017 however, HomeSwapper had begun to face increasing competition from new entrants to the market and it became clear that some TLC for the brand was required for it to retain its market leading position.

us were called upon to deliver this.

Research indicated that HomeSwapper was still perceived as the leading product in the market and a new initiative was commissioned to reinvigorate the platform and win back market share through sales and marketing activity.

We identified some core challenges that our efforts would be required to overcome. Namely:

The tenants themselves are a hugely varied group of customers, with some struggling to use some of the functions of the site due in part to a lack of digital literacy or limited English language abilities
Negative sentiment was arising (very publicly) amongst swappers due to these frustrations
HomeSwapper is priced at the premium end of the market and as such, the extra value for landlords of using HomeSwapper needed to be demonstrated

approach

The initial phase of marketing activity focused on fixing the marketing basics quickly. This included a branding refresh with a more friendly positioning, adding branding at key parts of the customer journey, creating landing pages and setting up social media accounts and printed materials for landlords.

Having tackled the basics, a more comprehensive marketing programme was devised and implemented, which would provide the platform for long-term sustainable growth of the product.

The key elements included:

The launch of new websites for both tenants and landlords to meet the differing needs of these two groups
For tenants this meant a support ‘hub’, containing help and guidance along the full spectrum of stages of the user journey. Since launch, this site has attracted 500,000 visitors, with a steady 30-35,000 new users each month
For landlords we created a website, designed to demonstrate the ‘above and beyond’ support offered by HomeSwapper. This site included the Landlord Resource Centre to support their tenants
Comprehensive and tailored user-education was focused on, increasing user competency and creating more successful customer experiences, leading to higher customer satisfaction scores
Net Promoter Score (NPS) tracking was embedded and over 5,000 user surveys sent out each month with a response rate of 7%. We were able to evidence how increased time and investment in promoting and improving the service were paying back
Promotional campaigns were developed for the first time with over 300 prospect landlords receiving promotional literature and a HomeSwapper gift in a direct mail campaign. The campaign was executed in four waves so that customer service staff could follow up on an individual basis
Throughout this initial period, social media activated to previously unimaginable levels. Not only were users effectively promoting the service to others, we were also able to utilise social media as a customer support tool. Critically, the use of social media for HomeSwapper users resulted in fewer swappers reaching out to the Customer Support Team, freeing-up time for this resource

outcomes

The success of the marketing effort reinforced the sense that HomeSwapper could be successfully re-imagined and re-invigorated. As a consequence of the marketing activity, the brand is growing once again. Since Autumn 2017, market share has increased by 10%. HomeSwapper’s position as the sector’s leading mutual exchange platform has been firmly re-established, with the platform set for further phases of enhanced marketing activity to support new product extensions.