What are we doing to improve customer service?
The changes customers will see in the coming months.
Since I started at Wandle, I’ve taken time to listen and understand the experiences of customers, from visiting properties to reading through complaints and survey feedback. From this feedback, we understand we need to improve how we communicate and make it easier for you to contact us. We need to increase our support in the community and most importantly, ensure repairs are done quickly and to a high standard.
We understand there is work to do for you to receive a better service and see how we are listening and responding to customer feedback. Some of these will be quick changes that are put into place, but others will take longer, which will bring a greater benefit to you as a result. Below are some of the key projects that we are prioritising for the next year:
Complaints
We are currently going through an investigation from the Housing Ombudsman about our complaints process. We have looked in detail at the complaints we have receieved and recognise this has not always been to the standard you would expect from us, therefore we have created a new complaints process.
We have delivered training for our colleagues on the process and the importance of listening to what customers are telling us to ensure we learn from complaints. There will be opportunities for you to give us more feedback and help us continue to improve the complaints process.
Through all this work you will experience improvements including receiving a timely response to your complaint, discussions with the manager investigating it and a more comprehensive response.
We have also changed the stage 2 process so they are now investigated by a Head of Service, as we feel it’s important that complaints that are escalated should be given to senior members of the team to give them the detailed review they deserve.
Repairs
We have listened to your feedback about the repairs service and heard that we have not always delivered services in the timescales required. Jobs are not always completed first time when they should be and communication has been an issue. We have used this feedback to build a project to improve our repairs service and will be making a series of changes over the next year.
This will improve how we schedule jobs, as well as our timescales, communications and how we can complete jobs in one appointment wherever possible. There will be regular updates on the project and opportunities for you to give feedback and take part in engagement opportunities to help us to continue to improve the service.
Damp and mould
We have a new team in place to focus on damp and mould so we can complete works more quickly and make sure we are treating the cause of the problem. The team has two new surveyors to complete assessments of all damp and mould cases and provide recommendations for works required, and there are dedicated operatives within the repairs team who will focus on damp and mould works.
Francis Burrows
Executive Director - Customer and Operational Services