STRATEGIC REPORT
Customers and communities
We’re acutely aware of the ever-increasing challenges faced by many of our customers and communities. Throughout the last 12 months, we’ve underlined our commitment to better understanding and meeting the needs of those we serve by providing services that make a real difference to their lives and the places they call home.
WATCH Mark Wadsley, who says his life has been transformed after working with one of our Money Advisors to sort out his finances.
We’re acutely aware of the ever-increasing challenges faced by many of our customers and communities. Throughout the last 12 months, we’ve underlined our commitment to better understanding and meeting the needs of those we serve by providing services that make a real difference to their lives and the places they call home.
WATCH Mark Wadsley, who says his life has been transformed after working with one of our Money Advisors to sort out his finances.
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and we’re continually striving to improve the services they receive from us. While we’ve made definite progress over the last year as we continue to respond to the challenges we face, we recognise that the service some of our customers have received is still below the standard that we’d expect, and they deserve. Our volume of overdue repairs and the number of formal complaints we received steadily decreased over the course of the year—and we’re now better managing our empty properties—but we still have work to do. Over the course of the year, we received 7,034 and resolved 7,194 formal complaints. Although we’ve improved our position significantly, the complaint numbers are increased from last year and this underlines the task we still have ahead of us. In September 2023, we completed a revised complaint handling self-assessment which outlined areas that require improvement and the changes we’ve made to improve our service offer and bring us back to acceptable service levels. We then proactively responded to the changes made to the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code ahead of it officially becoming a statutory requirement in April 2024.
ABOVE Our Improving Lives panel is one of the ways customers can contribute to our strategic decision making
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and we’re continually striving to improve the services they receive from us. While we’ve made definite progress over the last year as we continue to respond to the challenges we face, we recognise that the service some of our customers have received is still below the standard that we’d expect, and they deserve. Our volume of overdue repairs and the number of formal complaints we received steadily decreased over the course of the year—and we’re now better managing our empty properties—but we still have work to do. Over the course of the year, we received 7,034 and resolved 7,194 formal complaints. Although we’ve improved our position significantly, the complaint numbers are increased from last year and this underlines the task we still have ahead of us. In September 2023, we completed a revised complaint handling self-assessment which outlined areas that require improvement and the changes we’ve made to improve our service offer and bring us back to acceptable service levels. We then proactively responded to the changes made to the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code ahead of it officially becoming a statutory requirement in April 2024.
ABOVE Our Improving Lives panel is one of the ways customers can contribute to our strategic decision making
Connecting with our customers
This year, our Contact Centres fielded 185,678 phone calls, with, on average, 78 percent of these being resolved at the first point of contact, against a target of 70 percent. Following feedback, we also revamped the menu options that customers hear when they call us and introduced more options to cut down on waiting times and ensure callers are put through to the correct team more quickly. As well as creating a better—and more efficient—customer experience, this saw us finish the year with an average call response time of just over four minutes.
Phone calls received by our Contact Centres in 2023/24
Customer calls resolved at the first point of contact
Connecting with our customers
This year, our Contact Centres fielded 185,678 phone calls, with, on average, 78 percent of these being resolved at the first point of contact, against a target of 70 percent. Following feedback, we also revamped the menu options that customers hear when they call us and introduced more options to cut down on waiting times and ensure callers are put through to the correct team more quickly. As well as creating a better—and more efficient—customer experience, this saw us finish the year with an average call response time of just over four minutes.
Phone calls received by our Contact Centres in 2023/24
Customer calls resolved at the first point of contact
Working with our customers
We’re committed to working with our customers and using their views to influence the decisions we make and shape the services we provide. Last year, our Customer Engagement Team sent over 100,000 individual consultations to customers and collected 9,449 responses on subjects such as our lettings process, how we handle cases of damp and mould, our approach to Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and hate crime, and many more. Meanwhile, The Hub, our online customer engagement platform, continued to grow with a further 682 customers signing up, bringing our total number of active members to 1,759. In total, the platform received 28,163 visits and 11,580 customer contributions throughout 2023/24.
Customer consultation responses received during 2023/24
Working with our customers
We’re committed to working with our customers and using their views to influence the decisions we make and shape the services we provide. Last year, our Customer Engagement Team sent over 100,000 individual consultations to customers and collected 9,449 responses on subjects such as our lettings process, how we handle cases of damp and mould, our approach to Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and hate crime, and many more. Meanwhile, The Hub, our online customer engagement platform, continued to grow with a further 682 customers signing up, bringing our total number of active members to 1,759. In total, the platform received 28,163 visits and 11,580 customer contributions throughout 2023/24.
Customer consultation responses received during 2023/24
Providing additional support
Our Community Investment initiative was established in 2019 to better support customers with their mental and physical wellbeing and economic resilience. Over the last 12 months, despite several colleagues being temporarily seconded to support other areas of our business, we’re proud to report that we had 5,071 interventions across our services. This includes more than 2,000 customers who accessed our Money Advice Service, designed to help customers claim the benefits they’re entitled to, maximise their income, and pay their rent. In total, 545 households benefited from our Hardship Fund initiative, which was used to purchase household items such as washers, cookers, fridge freezers, beds, furniture, and food supplies.
Community Investment Service interventions in 2023/24
Providing additional support
Our Community Investment initiative was established in 2019 to better support customers with their mental and physical wellbeing and economic resilience. Over the last 12 months, despite several colleagues being temporarily seconded to support other areas of our business, we’re proud to report that we had 5,071 interventions across our services. This includes more than 2,000 customers who accessed our Money Advice Service, designed to help customers claim the benefits they’re entitled to, maximise their income, and pay their rent. In total, 545 households benefited from our Hardship Fund initiative, which was used to purchase household items such as washers, cookers, fridge freezers, beds, furniture, and food supplies.
