What We Learn From Complaints - September Update

Every month, we look at the complaints and service requests customers send us. This helps us understand what is going well, what has gone wrong and how we can make our services better.

September is also the end of the second quarter of the financial year, so this report looks at both the month and the last three months.

How many complaints did we receive?

In September:

• We received 29 Stage 1 complaints.
• We received 2 Stage 2 complaints. These are complaints from customers who were still unhappy after getting a Stage 1 response.
• We received 48 service requests. These are issues that can usually be sorted out quickly without becoming a formal complaint.

The number of Stage 1 complaints was very similar to September last year, when we received 28. Service requests reduced from 70 to 48, and the number of Stage 2 complaints stayed the same.

So far this year:

• We have received 144 Stage 1 complaints, compared with 120 at the same time last year.
• We have received 16 Stage 2 complaints, compared with 7 last year.
• We have received 271 service requests, compared with 346 last year.

When we look at service requests and Stage 1 complaints together, the total has gone down from 466 last year to 415 this year.

This suggests that some customers are choosing to raise issues as formal complaints instead of service requests. It does not necessarily mean that more things are going wrong. We are continuing to look closely at the rise in Stage 2 complaints.

What were customers telling us?

The most common issues raised were:

• Delays in getting work completed - 22 mentions
• Problems with our processes or paperwork - 16 mentions
• Repairs needing more than one visit or not being fixed properly - 15 mentions
• Not getting updates or clear communication - 14 mentions
• Missed appointments - 14 mentions
• Concerns about the quality of work - 11 mentions
• Requests for compensation or reports of financial loss - 11 mentions
• Issues affecting vulnerable customers - 9 mentions

When we look at the whole quarter, delays, communication and process issues are still the biggest reasons why customers are unhappy.

Not every complaint means we have done something wrong. Sometimes customers ask for things that we are not able to provide. We are seeing more of these cases, and they are more likely to be taken to Stage 2.

We also heard from more customers about personal circumstances or vulnerabilities that we did not know about before. This reminds us how important it is to understand customers' needs as early as possible.

How quickly did we respond?

The average time it took us to reply to a Stage 1 complaint in September was 3 working days.

This is the same as our average for the year so far and well within the Housing Ombudsman's target of 10 working days.

Compensation

In September, we paid £3,640 in compensation:

• £2,065 for Stage 1 complaints
• £75 for service requests
• £1,500 for Stage 2 complaints

The biggest reasons for compensation were:

• Quality of repair work - £1,550
• Property condition issues - £1,090

Other payments were linked to damp and mould, delays, missed appointments, communication issues and damage caused.

So far this year, we have paid £13,889.23 in compensation, compared with £20,834.20 at the same point last year.

We continue to recover compensation costs from contractors when it relates to their work.

What have we learned?

The main message from September is clear. Most complaints are about things we can improve, including:

• Completing work more quickly
• Making sure our processes work smoothly
• Keeping customers updated

We also finished a review into why Stage 1 complaints were higher than expected between May and August.

We found that:

• Stage 1 complaints were higher than normal during this period.
• Most of the increase was linked to North Star's own processes and communication.
• Customers are increasingly choosing to make a complaint instead of using a service request.
• More complaints are about things customers expected us to do but that we could not
• reasonably provide.
• There was no meaningful change in who is complaining. We found no change by age, ethnicity or property type, and complaints were not handled more slowly.

What are we doing next?

We are using this feedback to:

• Improve our processes and communication so customers know what will happen after a complaint is closed.
• Make it clearer when an issue should be raised as a service request or as a complaint.
• Strengthen how we handle Stage 2 complaints.
• Focus on reducing delays and resolving long-running cases.
• Work with our contractors to reduce delays, missed appointments and repair issues.
• Introduce a follow-up check after pest control treatments to make sure work has been completed properly.
• Make sure we identify and support vulnerable customers as early as possible.
• Continue using AI tools to help us spot patterns and areas for improvement more quickly.

We always aim to get things right first time, but when things do go wrong, we want customers to tell us. This gives us the chance to put things right, learn from what happened and improve services for everyone. Find out how to make a complaint: Make a Complaint - North Star Housing Group