As a mutual housing society, we value being open and honest and have made a commitment to sharing information when things go wrong and how we respond to put things right. With this in mind, below is an update of our performance in dealing with complaints between October and December 2021.
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Number of complaints received Oct - Dec 21
We received 118 formal stage 1 complaints between October and December 2021. This was 43 more than the previous period, July to September 2021.
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Time taken to resolve complaints
Stage 1 cases are being resolved in an average of 4 working days (target 10 working days). This is a big improvement on our 2020-21 performance which was 15 working days.
Stage 2 cases are being resolved in an average of 5 working days (target 15 working days). Again this is an improvement on our 2020-21 performance which was 14 working days.
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Percentage of complaints resolved within target
98% of stage 1 cases have been resolved (target 79%). Our 2020-21 performance was 60%.
99% of stage 2 cases have been resolved. Our 2020-21 performance was 70%.
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Complaints in numbers
55 complaints were about repairs, for example the time taken to carry out a repair or about the quality of a repair.
15 complaints were about grounds maintenance or caretaking.
11 complaints were about neighbourhood services.
Learning and improving from complaints
We are always looking at ways to learn and improve as a result of complaints from customers, some examples of how we have done this in the last year are:
- Additional resources recruited to the Contact Centre to improve service and call wait times
- Review approach to provide improved explanations given in medical refusal correspondence (Homechoice)
- Change of process so that neighbouring homes are notified of potential noise/disruption when carrying out major works
- Contractors are now advised to knock on residents doors on the day major work commences to external communal areas, to serve as a reminder, this in addition to the usual notification letters
- Empty Homes team trained to ensure works are fully identified when inspection to prevent further complaints/inconvenience for customers
- Guidance on lock repairs re-issued to contact centre and other teams as appropriate
- Increase frequency of road sweeps by our new build contractors to daily, to help keep dust down to a minimum
- Reviewing our approach to complaints via social media
Customer Complaints Panel
The Customer Complaints Panel work with us to improve the complaints service and the experience for customers. One way they do this is by scrutinising recent complaints and providing invaluable feedback regarding what we have done well and what we need to do better moving forward, so that the customers experience is improved. The Panel have reviewed four complaints already this year.
If you are interested in joining the panel, visit our 'Events' page to find out when our next one will take place. Or email our Customer Complaints Lead at customer.complaints@rbh.org.uk
