We are always looking to improve the service we provide to our customers. We review our performance regularly and appreciate all the feedback we receive on where improvements may be required. Your feedback helps us to learn and improve our services, as well as understand your views and get things right the first time.
Reducing complaints and embedding the learning from feedback is linked to our overall customer service strategy and our commitment to transforming our customer service.
Here is our complaints performance report for the period October – December 2020. Our performance targets have been affected due to coronavirus (Covid-19), but we aim to improve these further as we travel through our phased return to our normal services.
Volume of complaints
During the early part of 2020 we saw the impact of the lockdown period on complaint volumes which reflected the reduction in services being delivered. Volumes during this period between April and end of May were below expected levels. However, at the beginning of June we saw volumes returning to previous levels. While we haven't seen the number of complaints reduce overall, we have seen an increase in the number of complaints our teams have been dealing with since June 2020.
- We received 330 complaints between 1 April – 30 June.
- W received 595 complaints between 1 July – 30 September.
- We received 691 complaints between 1 October – 31 December.
Days to resolve
We want to resolve complaints as quickly as possible, but we know that sometimes it takes us a little longer to fully investigate and act. It currently takes us on average 51 days to close a complaint. This is longer than we would want, and we are working hard to close complaints faster. One of the reasons for the additional delay is that we do not close a complaint until all actions have been completed and as some activities have been suspended during the pandemic this means that it has taken us longer to arrange and complete outstanding works and installations.
Customer satisfaction
The number of customers who are satisfied with the way their complaint has been handled has decreased from 68% in March 2020 to 63% in December 2020. This is below our target of 75%. We are working hard to improve satisfaction with complaint handling. This is an area that we will focus on in 2021 and will be making changes to improve our handling and learning from complaints.
Reasons for complaints
About 75% of all the complaints we receive relate to repairs and maintenance. Our most common complaints relate to heating and hot water, damp and mould and keeping to appointment times.
Other complaint themes relate to communication with customers or with internal colleagues, providing progress updates and taking action following reports of anti-social behaviour (ASB). You can report ASB to us online and find out how we can support you here.
We appreciate that some of the decisions we have made to suspend services may have not been entirely welcomed and we have seen some complaints relating to the decisions we have made to suspend non-essential services. We apologise for the suspension of certain services and will resume them when it is safe to do so.
Learning from complaints
We have made a number of changes following your feedback to improve the way we deliver services to you. The changes we have made include:
- Creating template complaint letters to clearly communicate the outcome of our complaint investigation and the next steps in the complaint process.
- Scoping improvement work to the website and customer portal so that it contains more information about the services we provide and gives you more flexibility to request changes to your tenancy.
- Creating a dashboard for colleagues to use that provides an overview of the complaints in their department, the current satisfaction level and the timeframes taken to agree a resolution with you.
Support for you
If you have any concerns, please contact us and we will confirm the next steps.
There is a wealth of information here on our website that may be able to help you resolve issues. Click here to access our Solve an Issue tool and give it a try.