We launched our new complaints process at the end of June, after months of work from colleagues across all our departments. Our new centralised complaints process is designed to ensure that we deliver the same consistency of service to a customer or tenant and that we can learn from the complaint to improve our services.
Launching this process involved updated training for all customer facing colleagues, with information on new terminology used by the Housing Ombudsman, as well as the focus on turning a bad experience for a customer or tenant into a positive.
One key measure for us to understand how tenants view our complaints process is Tenant Satisfaction Measure “effective handling of complaints”. We report this monthly on our website. From April 2024, our satisfaction level of 35.5% (based on surveying 35 tenants) has increased to 41.4% (based on surveying 128 tenants). While we still have work to do to hit our target of 42% satisfaction, we are pleased to see this upwards trajectory.
One of the benefits of centralising our complaints team has been an improvement in recognising common themes or trends in complaints, which has allowed us to make some improvements to our processes. See some examples below:
- We now have the option for tenants to request a fume free alternative for anti-mould treatment
- We send regular text reminders to tenants when they have a repair appointment so they are kept up to date
- We have ForHousing Damp Surveyors who can offer a more efficient service than previously
Our Complaint Feedback Panel, which includes tenants, meets quarterly and plays an important role in making sure that we learn from the complaints we receive so we can improve and deliver better services. Our next Complaints Feedback panel will be held in October.
