Customer Feedback and Service Improvements
Customer feedback is vital to us. Having received almost 125,000 customer contacts over the past 12 months (October 2022 to September 2023), your comments about your experiences - whether it’s a complaint or other contact - are regularly used to understand how our services are performing, and to make improvements to the services we offer.
Some of the feedback we receive may be recorded as dissatisfied contacts or as formal complaints:
- A dissatisfied contact is usually a minor issue you have raised, which requires action to be taken including putting things right.
- A formal complaint is where you have raised a more serious issue, or where you contacted us about something you were dissatisfied with, which you feel is still unresolved after have had an opportunity to deal with it.
Learning from Complaints:
Over recent months, we have made the following changes because of your feedback, by reviewing the learning points from complaints you have made:
Repairs:
· We are working with Platform Property Care (PPC) and our other contractors to monitor more closely delays to repairs, timescales for submitting reports to us (for example following property inspections), and confirming works have been completed. This involves contractors maintaining timely communications, both with you, the customer, and with us on any issues arising; explaining the reasons for delays, and logging any follow on appropriately.
· We are also working closely with PPC to ensure that their contractors understand the standard of work and behaviour we expect of them when they visit your home. They are to arrive at jobs appropriately equipped and staffed and are to conduct themselves courteously and respectfully.
· PPC holds a monthly toolbox meeting with their operatives to update them as a group on various operational matters. Some of these meetings are now held at Rooftop’s Head Office in Evesham, which provides a valuable opportunity to share experiences between PPC and Rooftop.
Anti-social Behaviour cases:
· If you report anti-social behaviour (ASB) and it is recorded as a formal case with Rooftop, your Neighbourhood Officer will emphasise the importance of completing and returning log sheets to identify the cause and frequency of incidents. We need your log sheets to take further enforcement action against the alleged perpetrator(s) of the ASB.
· We are reviewing our processes in relation to noise nuisance complaints to determine whether there is scope for further action on our part. Staff have undertaken Customer Care training and are required to review their understanding of our policy on tackling ASB.
Complaint Handling:
· All customer-facing staff have received training on Rooftop’s complaints process, and associated training on logging and updating dissatisfaction contacts and formal cases on our housing management system. This will provide a complete history of what you have reported to us, and what action we have taken, to ensure all our customer-facing colleagues have consistent information. This means we can keep you updated about matters you have raised with us, to hopefully prevent problems from escalating to formal complaints.
· Failure to handle customer contacts correctly creates some of the new formal complaints (Stage 1 cases) we receive. For example, by closing down a dissatisfaction without communicating and recording the resolution we have agreed with you, this may in turn lead to a Stage 1 complaint because we have not kept you informed. Our guidance on complaints has been amended to ensure that your right to escalate a dissatisfaction as a formal complaint is made clearer. This was covered in refresher training sessions held with customer-facing colleagues during May and June.
· We have met with our Out of Hours provider and have requested training of their call handlers, working on Rooftop’s behalf, to ensure they provide a consistent level of good customer service. This is to include taking detailed information about a repair, to assess the level of urgency, and to ensure that the correct trade is deployed to the job. In order to manage your expectations, and to avoid a potentially wasted visit by an operative, Out of Hours call handlers are to pass on any messages to operatives and other staff dealing with the repair, such as your availability, requests for call backs, and updates.
Complaints and Dissatisfied Contacts 2023/24 Quarter 2: July to September 2023
Complaint Stage 1 (new cases):
During the three months to September, there were 57 new Stage 1 complaints (an average of 19 each month). This was around one-third more cases than in the first quarter of 2023/24 (43 or about 14 each month). During Q2, just over three-quarters of new cases were about repairs or housing matters (51% and 25% respectively). This represents a slight decline in the proportion of repairs cases compared to Q1 2023/24 (62%); conversely, there has been a slight increase in housing cases (up from 19% in Q1). This is not surprising given that the volume of repairs reduces in the summer months. The other 14 Stage 1 cases in Q2 relate to a range of business areas, each accounting for between one and three cases as listed in the table. This is similar to the cross-section of cases in the first quarter.
In the first six months of this year (April to September), there have been 100 new cases. If this volume is sustained for the remainder of the year, the total number of cases at the year-end will be around 50% higher than in 2022/23, when there were 137 cases in total.
Complaint Stage 2 (complaint appeals):
During Q2 2023/24, 9 cases escalated to appeal(Stage 2): 4 were about repairs, 3 were housing-related and 2 cases were about members of staff (Rooftop or contractors). There were only 2 Stage 2 cases in the first 3 months of 2023/24, so this brings the total number for the year to date to 11. This is comparable to 2022/23, when there was a total of 21 Stage 2 cases. This would suggest we are dealing with existing cases more effectively, as a smaller proportion are going to appeal.
Housing Ombudsman cases:
We are finding that customers are increasingly prepared to raise complaints directly with the Housing Ombudsman (HO). In such instances, the HO Service will contact us and we are then required to log and track the case through our usual two-stage process.
If a customer has exhausted our complaints process and we have provided a final response which they are not satisfied with, they can decide whether to take their complaint to the Housing Ombudsman. We must then provide a copy of our response to the HO Service for further investigation and their adjudication.
To date in 2023/24, 3 cases have been taken to the Ombudsman: one about repairs, one housing and, in the most recent quarter, one programmed works (planned maintenance) case. This is in line with the previous 12-month period, April 2022 to March 2023, during which a total of 7 cases went to the Ombudsman.
Dissatisfied Contacts:
305 contacts were classified as dissatisfactions in the three months from July to September. This is an increase of just over 60% on Q1, when there were 188 dissatisfied contacts. 57% of the contacts in Q1 were about repairs and another 20% were housing related. As with Stage 1 complaints, just over three-quarters of contacts related to these two areas. The other business areas with a notable proportion of dissatisfied contacts in Q2 are programmed works, for example, boiler installations, kitchen or bathroom replacements (8%), and grounds maintenance (5%).
Dissatisfied Contacts and Formal Complaints by category: July to September 2023
