The Voice of the customer
You told us what was needed:
The Voice of the customer
Listening to and learning from our customers is of huge importance to Great Places. During 2021 we have been working hard to make improvements in this area and make changes to how we deliver services, in response to what customers are telling us is important.
We’ve introduced our new Customer Feedback Policy
We recognise that we don’t always get things right and want to ensure that we learn from our mistakes. Following customer feedback and the Housing Ombudsman Service Complaint Handling Code, we’ve now introduced our new Customer Feedback Policy to help us resolve any customer dis-satisfaction at the first point of contact, keeping customers informed through the process.
The Policy has been developed around what is important to you:
It is easy to give feedback
That we keep customers informed
That we let customers know what we have learned from feedback
That we share what has changed as a result of customer feedback
Helping us shape Our new Customer Voice strategy
Earlier this year, we consulted our customers around what was most important to them about being involved with Great Places.
Feedback received included:
Opportunity to comment & give feedback
Get involved when you want to
See services improve
Feedback after being involved
Review and monitor performance
Meet regulatory requirements
This feedback helped us to shape our new Customer Voice strategy, and this was approved by our Board in the summer. Since then, we have started work on bringing this to life and this includes engaging customers in a range of different ways.
We are currently looking for customers to get involved in testing our new website, currently being developed, and also setting up a separate group to look at complaints. If you would like to get involved, please drop our involvement team a line at Involvement.team@greatplaces.org.uk
We are also looking to widen involvement in Insight, our volunteer scrutiny group.
This year they have reviewed range of service areas which matter to our customers and one of the recommendations Insight proposed was for Great Places to create and share a Customer Charter that would set out promises our customers can expect from Great Places. We have taken this on board and are currently working on this Customer Charter – and looking to launch this next year. Insight is also reviewing our caretaker service which operates to maintain clean and safe communal areas in shared blocks of flats. Once the review is complete, their feedback will be taken to our Board and be invaluable in making improvements.
If you’re interested in helping to shape the future of our services via Insight, please get in touch at insight@greatplaces.org.uk. The group is always interested to hear from other customers who feel they may have skills to contribute.
We have also engaged customers in a campaign focused on how our contractor services can be improved to help keep you feel safe and well-informed when contractors visit your home.
We have also engaged customers in a campaign focused on how our contractor services can be improved to help keep you feel safe and well-informed when contractors visit your home.
Advise customers promptly if the contractor cannot make the appointment and immediately rebook the appointment for a convenient time for the customer.
During the contractor visit, customers would like to be informed of what work is being carried out.
If the contractor finds an issue that requires further work, customers wish to be clearly informed of next steps required to fix the issues.
If we make a mistake, customers appreciate an apology from us and a promise to rectify the situation effectively and efficiently.
We are feeding this feedback into future service delivery.
New Grounds Maintenance service launched
After listening to your feedback, we brought our grounds maintenance service in-house on 1 November, enabling us to now deliver a consistent, higher quality service that offers our customers value for money across all our neighbourhoods and communities.
To find out more about our new ground’s maintenance service, please get in touch with our Involvement Team at Involvement.team@greatplaces.org.uk