Complaints
The Customer Feedback team at Great Places provides an efficient and centralised resolution service. It’s really important that as your landlord, we listen and learn from complaints so that we can improve the services we are providing to our customers.
Great Places saw an increase in complaints between April 2023 and June 2023. During this time 331 complaints were received, compared to the same period last year when we saw 194.
Customers told us that they were least happy with the following:
- Delay to repairs
• Missed appointments
• Operatives not having the correct materials/materials being out of stock
- Compliance
• Gas safety checks – appointments missed or not confirmed with customers
- Neighbourhoods
• Rent and service charge – miscalculation of service charges
The Customer Feedback team has raised a number of recommendations following the feedback we have received:
If customers remain unhappy with the way we have investigated and resolved their dissatisfaction they can contact the relevant Ombudsman service to request an independent review of their complaint. Great Places works closely with the Ombudsman services to ensure that dissatisfaction is addressed and appropriate resolutions are reached. If something has gone wrong, we work hard to learn from mistakes and make sure that improvements are identified and put in place.
Between April 2023 – June 2023 Great Places received 6 Ombudsman enquiries relating to complaints we had investigated and responded to. We will ensure that the outcomes and recommendations from these complaints are acted upon and improvements to services are made.
As well as recording dissatisfaction raised by our customers, we also record the compliments that customers pass on about our colleagues, partners and contractors. Between April 2023 – June 2023 Great Places received 171 compliments via a number of customer channels.
There have been a number of Housing Ombudsman Service ‘Spotlight’ reports shared with landlords recently, and Great Places has reviewed these to identify learning opportunities and actions to improve. Information regarding the Spotlight reports is highlighted below:
- Damp and Mould – Great Places has approved a new Damp and Mould policy, implemented new arrangements around access, improved communications, ensured training for colleagues to better identify issues and support customers and engaged customers in our activity.
- Knowledge & Information management (KIM) – this focuses on how systems and information is stored, gathered, updated and used to tailor customers’ experiences.
- Noise Nuisance – the recommendations in this report are part of the review of how we manage anti-social behaviour and will form part of our revised approach to service delivery, alongside customers’ feedback on what matters most.
The Customer Feedback team can be contacted by email at customerfeedback@greatplaces.org.uk, and information about the Customer Feedback policy and processes can be found by visiting the Compliments and complaints section on our website.