You said, we did...
We're committed to providing a high quality service to our customers.
To do this we rely heavily on feedback to determine what we're doing well and the areas that we could improve.
We have set up a dedicated feedback platform to help us to continue to uphold our high standards.
With the help of our customers, we've already been able to implement multiple improvements to our services.
Repairs feedback
We’ll maintain your home to a good standard and aim to provide a quality repair service. When a repair is needed, we understand that it can cause some stress. We aim to minimise this stress and ensure that your repair is done in a timely manner and it meets your expectations. The following is feedback we've received regarding our repairs process, and how we've improved it.
As a result of this feedback, all boiler installers have been spoken to and will ensure that switches are back on after any work is carried out.
A dedicated person has been appointed at Mears and their job is to monitor the live tracking of appointments, working alongside the planners
Mears were made aware of this through our complaints procedure. A call back system is now in place to make sure calls are returned by the end of each day.
As a result, it’s been agreed to review the wording in the stage one letter and for compliance coordinators to ensure they check the service history with Mears before these letters are sent out.
Mears have now increased their oil resources and restocked in everything needed for oil boilers.
It was apparent that this was an issue for several customers. Mears have informed us that they’ve now recruited an extra air source heat pump engineer and are offering further training to other engineers.
During our investigation, it was discovered that this information wasn’t available as supervisors don’t record visits to customers’ homes as an engineer would. Mears said they’d change this so all visits are recorded on the system.
Service charge feedback
Many of our customers pay a monthly service charge, and our aim is to be totally transparent of what this money is going towards. If you'd like to request a service charge statement, please call the Customer Service team on 0300 123 1745, pressing option 3.
The service specification has been added to customer surveys and can be found on our repairs and maintenance page.
As a result, grounds maintenance and cleaning quality assurance checks are being carried out by the Estate Contracts Team where there are low scores received for these services, and we’ve identified areas for immediate improvement.
Feedback on our policies and processes
Below we've highlighted how we've adapted our policies and processes based on feedback from our customers.
Previously, flats above ground floor level would not be let to families with children aged under 10. As a result of customer consultation, we amended this policy and will now let flats above the ground floor to families with children over the age of seven.
The process of letting a property has now been digitalised to make it more efficient. During September 2020, we called customers to ask for their feedback about the experience and 96 percent said they thought the new process worked really well.
We’ve committed to meeting this timescale. We’ve trained ‘mystery shoppers’ who test our core services and they began working in September 2020, initially focusing on our Customer Service Team. A total of 19 mystery shops were completed and 15 received a response within two working days. The overall response was very positive, gaining more ‘excellent’ results than ‘poor’. We’re continuing to work with colleagues to improve this service even further.
This situation highlighted a need for members of the Customer Service Team to be fully aware of end of tenancy processes.
It’s also revealed that there needs to be a process in place for how end of tenancies should be monitored, in particular if there are reimbursements to our customers. Work is being done to ensure this is the case.
Leasehold and Shared Ownership feedback
Based on feedback submitted to us, we've improved our services for our Leasehold and Shared Ownership customers in the following ways.
Following this feedback, we’re working with our leasehold customers and shared owners to establish and introduce a Customer Charter which relates specifically to them. This will be developed through close working with these customers.