Introduction 

This document sets out our approach to achieving the highest possible standards of customer care and details our promise to our customers for all of the services we provide. It is intended to be used consistently across the organisation and will form part of the planning, resourcing and delivery of our services.

Objectives

Our vision states that we will ‘put people first’ and a crucial part of this is providing better services to our customers. Where ever practical we are committed to involving our customers in shaping, monitoring and evaluating our services.

We will monitor that our promises on customer care and services are being delivered through regular feedback and customer satisfaction surveys focusing on the outcomes of our services delivery rather than the process.

We will:

• Be committed to delivering the best service we can and to achieve this for all our customers.
• We will treat our customers fairly and with respect.
• We will deliver our promises to customers in a timely and appropriate manner.
• We will be responsive to our customers’ enquiries and threat complaints as an opportunity to improve our services.
• We will always be approachable and professional.

Definitions

Customers are defined as follows:

• Current residents
• Prospective residents
• Homeowners
• Previous residents
• Any other users of our services

Our Standards

Our Staff will:

• Be polite and answer all enquiries quickly, politely and professionally.
• Be approachable and provide names and contact details when requested.
• Keep appointments and make follow up calls.
• Say when we can and cannot help and explain what action customers can expect from us.
• Let you know what you can do if we fail to deliver on our promises.

Our receptions will:

• Be adequately staffed.
• Deal with all customer enquiries as quickly as possible.
• Ensure you are not kept waiting when you have arranged an appointment.
• Ensure that if you do not have an appointment you will have to wait no more than 15 minutes to see the officer you have come to see or, if they are unavailable, that you see another officer within 10 minutes.
• Provide you with a comfortable accessible waiting room.
• Make sure there is appropriate information available for you to take away.
• Where we cannot help, point out who can.
• Have adequate facilities to meet our equality and diversity promises.

Related Policies:

• We will work within our equality and diversity policy.
• We will work within the data protection act regulations.

Responses by Telephone:

• We will answer 80% of all calls to us within 20 seconds.
• We will ensure transferred calls (second response) are also answered within 20 seconds either in person, or via voicemail access to a message facility.
• Voice mail will include name, title, company, date of return and alternative contact.
• We will respond to all phone messages within one working day

Responses in Writing:

• We will respond to letters, emails and faxes within 10 days.
• We will update you within 10 days, where further investigation is required, if a full resolution is to take longer.
• We will provide you with information which is written in plain English and is jargon free.
• We will include contact details including direct dial and mobile contact numbers, or the alternative contact details for future enquiries, e.g.: Contact Centre

Complaints:

• We will publish our complaints policy.
• We will acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days.
• We will send a full response to complaints within 10 working days.
• We will update you within 10 days, where further investigation is required, if a full resolution is to take longer.
• We will ensure complaints can be made either in writing or verbally.

If we are at fault we will:

• Apologise
• Try to fix it
• Offer compensation according to our policy if we are at fault

Information:

We will provide important documents in other languages and formats including large text, audio tape and braille, and provide translations when requested.

We will publish comprehensive and accurate information about the services we provide.

We will respond to requests to see information held about you within the timescales set out in our Data Protection policy.

Repairs & Maintenance

Aims

• To get repairs done
• To inform you of progress with your repair
• To monitor sub-contractors’ performance

Targets

• We will operate a 24-hour emergency repair reporting service
• We will make safe all emergencies within 24 hours
• We will complete urgent repairs within 5 working days
• We will complete routine repairs within 20 working days
• We will offer you an appointment, except in emergencies
• We will keep appointments made
• We will acknowledge your repair request in writing, except in emergencies
• We will ask how satisfied you are with each completed repair and the overall repairs service
• We will clean up any mess that is made whilst the repair is made
• We will inspect at least 10% of completed repairs

Planned works Aims

• To keep the property in a good state of repair
• We will carry out an annual gas safety check to all tenanted properties
• We will publish our work programme every year
• We will consult with residents on major works providing choices where possible
• We will decorate the outside of your home every 5 to 7 years if you are a tenant.

Aids & Adaptations Aims

To assist you to stay in your home with dignity

Targets

• We will work with health professionals to assess your needs
• We will provide other options and advice so that you can make an informed choice
• We will involve you and keep you updated
• After the installation of your aids and adaptations we will contact you to ensure you are satisfied

Anti-Social Behaviour, Nuisance and Harassment Aims

To manage disputes, antisocial and nuisance harassment incidents in line with our existing policies.

Targets

• We will manage incidents between 24 hours and 20 days’ dependent level of intervention required.

Resident Consultation & Involvement

We acknowledge the importance of regular engagement of our customers and its impact on improving our services. We therefore undertake to provide a number of formal and informal opportunities for our customers to provide feedback on our services and performance. We will where practical take into account the views of our customers where changes proposed to our

policies, procedures and services that directly affect them. We will provide resources to support residents to get involved including out of pocket expenses and training

Equality & Diversity

We are committed to ensuring that there will be equality of treatment for all our customers.

• We will take positive action to tackle discrimination and prejudice
• We will take positive steps to encourage a diverse work force and resident group.
• We will ensure that all sub-contractors, consultants and agents used have an adequate equal opportunities policy in place.
• We will record and monitor diversity information, which we will use to tailor our services so that the needs of under-represented and vulnerable groups are met.

Performance Management Aims

We will set targets which are challenging but realistic, to let customers know what standards of performance have been set within our company.

We will:

• Provide information on targets we set to improve our efficiency in key areas of our service delivery
• Collect information and data through customer surveys which is adequate, not excessive and relevant for our business purposes to inform our services and influence setting of targets
• Publish the results of any survey through our web site
• Review our Performance indicators in consultation with our customers where practical to develop a suite of customer focused PIs
• Publish an annual Performance report which communicates performance against our targets

Data Protection Aim

To protect and promote individuals’ rights to privacy and confidentiality in relation to the processing of personal data and ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act.  Our Data Protection Policy contains service standards relating to Data Protection.

We will:

• Ensure our staff act with a high degree of care and security when processing, particularly sensitive, personal data.
• Set out ways for customers to gain access to information held about you, easily, in line with data protection requirements on our website and on request
• Only process information (that is permitted to be processed), that is adequate and relevant for our business purposes and not excessive

OUR EXPECTATIONS OF YOU, OUR CUSTOMERS

We appreciate that the relationship between our customers and ourselves is a two-way process built on mutual trust and respect. We expect that our customers will appreciate the standard of care extended to them and respond in a positive manner. We think it is reasonable to ask our customers to:

• Be polite, courteous, non-abusive and non-threatening at all times
• Treat our staff with respect
• Come prepared and bring all necessary documentation with you
• Comply with all reasonable requests made by our staff
• Appreciate that from time to time we may not be able to help you

BREACHES OF POLICY OBJECTIVES & STANDARDS

We recognise that from time to time we may fail to deliver the standard of care our customers require. We actively encourage customers to voice their concerns to us and we will make sure you know how to do this.

The principal aim of our approach to Customer Care is to ensure that dissatisfaction and complaints about our services are minimised and we learn from our mistakes. Our Complaints Procedure aims to

make sure any complaints you have are treated fairly and sympathetically to ensure wherever possible a satisfactory outcome and to prevent any recurrence of identified problems to improve our service.