Here For Our Customers: our year one update
It’s almost a year since we launched our Corporate Plan, Here For Our Customers, that sets out our ambitions until 2027.
The plan was created with valuable input from around 760 customers. We used your feedback to help shape our areas of focus, and hopefully you’ll see the things that you told us are important to you reflected in our plans for how we’ll be Great for our Customers, Great for our Homes and Communities, and Great for our Business.
Since the launch, we have been busy focusing on five key areas including:
1. Property – including how we invest in, repair, and ensure the safety of your homes.
As part of this, we are looking at the whole process of how we carry out repairs and identifying what we can do better. This work covers everything from how we categorise different types of repairs to how we can make it easier to book appointments and better manage our contractors. Our priority is to deliver a great service that also provides value and quality.
2. Complaints – how we can put things right quicker for customers and learn from what you are telling us.
We have reviewed how we currently deal with complaints and are making changes to ensure that we are doing this in the best way. We are redesigning some of our processes and ways of working and making better use of our systems so that we can handle complaints in a more timely way. We’re also working with our customer-facing teams to help them fix issues for customers where possible at the point they are raised, instead of the customer having to log a formal complaint.
3. A new phone and communications system to provide a better customer experience.
We’re continuing the rollout of our new contact centre software across the business, with the first stage of roll out to our Customer Hub and Plumlife Directory now complete. We’re constantly looking at how we can make the most of the new software to provide a better experience for our customers when they contact us. We have also updated the Chatbot on the website, and this continues to be the quickest way for many people to get answers to their questions.
4. Data – how we can better use data to run an effective business and provide great customer service.
We are focusing on improving the quality and usage of our data, so we know we are making the right decisions, focusing on what really needs our attention and providing value for money. We’re putting strong foundations in place so that our colleagues are clearer on roles and responsibilities around data, and we’re investing in better kit to make it easier for them to make notes and get into our systems when they’re in our communities.
5. Better finance and budgeting processes.
This is to make sure we operate as efficiently as possible and deliver value for money for our customers and communities. We have reviewed our current set up and identified areas we need to focus on internally to get it right for customers.
Keeping everyone in the loop
Our Board and Customer Committee are kept up to date on how things are going, making sure that we’re on the right track and keeping our commitments.
We’ll continue to share updates across our communications platforms, but if you have any questions, please email hereforourcustomers@greatplaces.org.uk or call our Customer Hub.