SATO Annual Report 2017: Big steps towards a new service culture

In the SATO Annual Report published today, the leading roles are played by the customers and the major reform of the service culture and organisation launched in 2017. By introducing service managers who are familiar with the residents' everyday lives, the company took a leap in line with its mission towards offering more than just walls. The Customer First service model was visible in the results as an increase in the customer loyalty and occupancy rate.

To make everyday home-related things easier for its 48,000 customers, to better understand their changing needs and to increase dialogue with customers, in 2017, SATO took major steps towards delivering housing with increased service and inclusion levels. The company introduced service managers providing support for residents' everyday lives, reformed its entire customer service model and hired around 40 new employees to make residents' lives run more smoothly. Furthermore, the company also established the SATO Pulssi residents' panel, to allow SATO residents' voices to be heard even more extensively with regard to housing development.

Service managers looking after residents' everyday lives in every SATO building

Since the spring of 2017, every SATO home building has had its own service manager responsible for knowing the everyday concerns of their building's residents and making sure housing-related things run smoothly for them. The service managers are active visitors to the buildings and take care of matters including their building's administration and finances, as well as cooperation with residents, apartment repairs, approval of DIY renovations and the dealing of any disturbances in the building.

"The service managers are SATO's 'face towards the residents' and are tasked with solving everyday issues to ensure that housing is carefree and the home building feels the way a home should feel. We want to be close to the everyday lives of our residents and understand their lives," says Saku Sipola, SATO President and CEO.

The service managers are part of SATO's biggest change in 2017; the Customer First service model, launched in the spring. The aim is to provide customers with a single point of contact as well as to receive the information they need in a timely manner.

The new, more customer-driven approach to customer service and building management has already generated value for SATO customers, which can be seen in a decrease in external tenant turnover and an increase in occupancy rate. The economic occupancy rate strengthened in every quarter, from 96.1% in Q1, to 97.5% in Q4. The full-year occupancy rate in Finland was 96.8% (95.6% in 2016).

Development ideas collected by the new SATO Pulssi residents' panel

Accessible on mobile devices since 2017, the purpose of the SATO Pulssi residents' panel is to listen to customers with an even clearer ear and provide them with a quick and easy channel to influence housing. The panel also enables the creation and testing of new development ideas. Questionnaires, with themes on topics such as housing solutions and related services, have surveyed residents' opinions on waste management, neighbourly relations and communality, for example.

"In case of any issues, our residents contact their home building's service manager, but the SATO Pulssi residents' panel enables us to ask our customers' opinions on the development of services and solutions, to listen to them and learn from them. We want to make sure the interaction works both ways," summarises Sipola. 

The SATO Annual Report 2017 is only published online and also contains the Sustainability GRI Report. Read the SATO Annual Report at: https://reports.sato.fi/annualreport2017/

For more information please contact:
SATO Corporation
Saku Sipola, President and CEO, phone +358 201 34 4001 or +358 40 551 5953