At LiveWest, we welcome the opportunity to listen to and learn from customers’ feedback. In July we commissioned the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) to ask our customers about their recent experience with us. The ICS are the UK’s independent professional customer service body and provide a nationally recognised benchmark for our performance against more than 250 companies across the UK, including other housing associations.
What was the ICS survey?
The survey was emailed to 10,000 randomly selected customers, of which 1,100 responded. This response rate is representative of all our customers and allows us to be confident that even the customers who did not respond would be very likely to have given similar feedback.
How did we do overall?
LiveWest received a score of 71.7 out of 100 for our overall customer service. When comparing this score to other housing associations, our score was above average and was ranked 11 out of 33. However, our score is slightly lower than average when compared with the public services (local) and all other sectors.
Our results showed that when we are able to deal with a customers’ issue at the first point of contact, this is a major driver of overall satisfaction. 
How did customers score us in different areas?
Experience - the quality of your interactions with LiveWest.
LiveWest: 73.3 out of 100
Other housing associations: 65.1
UK all sector average: 79.4
Customer ethos - how well LiveWest builds the experience to meet your needs and show you we care.
LiveWest: 70.2 out of 100
Other housing associations: 61.4
UK all sector average: 66.4
Emotional connection - how well LiveWest makes you feel reassured.
LiveWest: 69.1 out of 100
Other housing associations: 60.3
UK all sector average: 77.6
Ethics - our reputation, openness and transparency.
LiveWest: 71.0 out of 100
Other housing associations: 62.3
UK all sector average: 76.6
Responding to problems - how LiveWest responds to and deals with problems, such as repairs.
LiveWest: 37.6 out of 100
Other housing associations: 35.0
UK all sector average: 66.4
Similar to previous years, problem handling continues to be our lowest scoring service area. However, we are starting to see signs of improvement following continued efforts to improve our service in this area.
We would like to say thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. We appreciate all the feedback we receive and will continue to use it to make improvements. For a look at how our results fit into our quarterly performance, please see our June 2022 and September 2022 customer reports.
If you have any further questions about this survey, please email the Research and Insight team on surveys@livewest.co.uk. Alternatively, you can call the Customer Services team who would be happy to put you through to a member of the Research and Insight team.