What We've Learned From Complaints - January Update

Every month, we look closely at the complaints and service requests we receive from customers. This helps us spot problems and make things better.

Here’s what we found in January:

How many complaints did we get in January?

• We had 14  Stage 1 complaints
• We had 4 Stage 2 complaints (this is when someone isn’t happy with how their Stage 1 complaint was handled)
• We also had 55 service requests (these are things we can sort out quickly without needing a formal complaint)

The number of complaints logged during January was significantly higher than January last year.

The most common issues raised by customers were:

• Missed appointments
• Work not completed as expected

We identified that a significant number of service requests and complaints were linked to periods when contractor trade resources were at their lowest levels. This impacted appointment availability and the ability to complete work first time.

To address this, we have increased the number of operatives carrying out repairs. This will help reduce missed appointments, improve first-time completion rates, and provide a more reliable service for customers.

How quickly did we respond?

• On average, we replied to complaints in 4 working days in January
• So far this year, the average is 5 working days, which meets the required timescales from the Housing Ombudsman (10 working days)

Were people happy with how we handled their complaint?

We didn’t receive any responses in January to our transactional satisfaction survey for complaints and our satisfaction rate currently remains at 88.2% for the year to date.

Compensation

• We paid out £5640 in compensation in January
• That brings the total so far this year to £30,563

Your Voice customers told us that we needed to be more consistent in our approach to paying compensation. We have reviewed these processes and are confident that this is now happening.

Did we reject any complaints?

No – we accepted all complaints in January and for the year so far.

Learning from January

In January, the main themes we identified were missed appointments and work not completed, particularly within our repairs services.

We’re using this feedback to:

• Focus on missed appointments and incomplete repairs as priority improvement areas
• Challenge and monitor contractor performance more closely through weekly meetings
• Increase trade resource where performance has been under pressure
• Improve how we record and “tag” complaints in our system so themes can be identified earlier
• Take faster action where trends begin to emerge
• Continue strengthening communication with customers when appointments need to change
• Keep improving the service for you

We are using this learning to drive real changes in contractor management, resource planning and service delivery so that appointments are kept and repairs are completed right first time.

Complaints help us improve and make things better, not only for you but for all of our customers. If something’s gone wrong, please let us know.

You can find out more about our complaints process, access our complaints policy or make a complaint by clicking here.