Learning Points

Axis Repairs Recovery Plan

We are currently implementing a repairs recovery plan with our repairs partner, Axis Europe to improve the current repairs service that is offered.  This recovery plan will address three key areas:

• Managing appointment –We will be working with our repairs partner Axis Europe to make improvements in the way that appointments are handled by the service.  We are aware that this is a key area for our customers and understand when things go wrong and appointments are cancelled or missed,  the impact for our customers is high.  Therefore, by working with Axis to make improvements in this area, we aim to mitigate the risk of missed or cancelled appointments and reduce the impact to our customers.  We want to improve the communication around appointments with our customers and increase our customer satisfaction in this area.  Some changes which have already taken place:

1. a review of the geographical mapping of booking appointments, to help reduce the risk of appointments being missed due to location. 
2. There has also been an increase in staff resources dedicated to the management of appointments
3. a revised approach to the handling of appointments has been introduced.  This now includes that any appointments which need to be potentially rebooked, require sign-off by an Operations Manager prior to moving.   

We will continue to consider additional developments

Damp and Mould

Throughout the winter months, we saw an increase in complaints cases on damp and mould and therefore wanted to make some changes in how we deal with this area to prevent reoccurring issues arising in the future.  

• We have begun actively visiting properties with previous damp and mould issues to inspect and engage with customers, aiming to resolve problems as early as possible.  
• We have a dedicated page on our website for ventilation/damp and mould which will be further developed: Ventilation Systems |     Estuary
• We are investing in new ventilation systems which operate continuously in bathrooms, kitchens and utility rooms forming a natural air flow and ventilation within the home.

Missed Appointments

We received feedback there was no information for residents on our website providing information around missed appointments for Axis.

As a result of this, we created a dedicated page providing this information. 

See: Missed Appointments

Major Planned Works

We received complaints about work schedules for major planned works. To help address this matter, the contractor we used for our planned works during the last financial year produced a pre-works documentation for residents who were due to have major planned works carried out in their homes. This document provided both written and visual information on what could be expected during these works. Although we are currently reviewing our delivery for this service in the future, this is a document we are keen to ensure remains for our residents who are having any future planned works. 

Unexpected Lift Repairs

We received complaints about resident communication relating to lift repairs. We now have in place a daily report from our lift contractors to notify us of any out-of-service lifts, or lifts which need to be shut down for repairs. This allows our compliance team to ensure that communication can then be provided to our residents.

Storage Heaters

Following some complaints received about issues with the recent installation of storage heaters, a dedicated web page was added to our website which provides a user guide for our most recent installation of storage heaters. Although the guide is for a specific type of storage heater, we also offer to do our best to find user guides for alternative storage heaters if required. This can be found at estuary.co.uk/storage-heaters

Communal Cleaning

We were made aware that there were concerns about the regularity of our cleaners attending for communal cleaning. Although the cleaners had been attending the sites as required, when a primary cleaning operative was not available and a cover operative had attended in their absence, the signing in sheet was not always being completed. All cleaning operatives have now been reminded to sign in when arriving on site. 

Recruitment Process for Resident Voice and Influence Panel

A complaint was made about the handling of our recruitment process for our Resident Voice and Influence Panel (RVIP) group, which highlighted that we needed to improve our communication on this area.   We have now created a Resident Voice and Influence Panel recruitment procedure for our residents, which can be located here: https://estuary.co.uk/residentvipSuspension of Services Over Christmas

Suspension of Services Over Christmas

We received complaints regarding the lack of communication around the suspension of cleaning/maintenance services over the Christmas period. The business will now carry out a pre-Christmas meeting with all relevant operational staff and our communications department to agree and arrange any specific resident communication for any of our services which may be affected over any proposed Christmas closure period. 

Call Waiting Times

We recognised that at certain times of the call waiting times for our contact centre were getting too long and recognised that it might not always be convenient for customers to hold on the line. We also received many comments about the call waiting times when we spoke to our customers not just for our service but also our responsive repairs contractor Axis. Since then both we and Axis have introduced a call back service for our customers to offer an alternative to waiting on the line for it to be answered. The feedback on this has been positive: we'll continue to monitor this in the coming months. 

Dissatisfaction with our Complaints Handling Service

The feedback from STAR survey in 2022 showed that customers were unhappy with how we are dealing with complaints. Since then we have reviewed our complaints policy, in line with Ombudsman Guidance and the Housing Ombudsman Code and also simplified our procedures. We have removed the stage of “expression of dissatisfaction” as this by default added a further stage to the complaints process. We have updated our website and provided training to all of our staff on how to recognise and deal with complaints effectively. Additional training has also been provided to investigating officers to improve the handling and responses of complaint cases. To assist with this area, we have also introduced system updates and internal control measures to improve the handling of follow on works and actions related to complaints. This is to help mitigate the risk of works being missed and to ensure our residents receive regular updates throughout. 

We have also introduced a new complaints leaflet for those who are unable to access the website and prefer a paper copy. We will be expanding our “learning from complaints subgroup” which includes customers providing their feedback on how we are managing and responding to complaints and will be posting more information about this on our website going forward to ensure transparency of our feedback service. 

Customer Service

We received complaints about the customer service some of our customers received from our some front line staff. Although the majority of complaints were not upheld, it was important to us that we acted on this feedback and bought in an external trainer to provide training to a number of our front line staff. The training included customer experience, customer journey mapping, communication skills, behaviour, language and tone, professionalism and effective mailing as well as how to manage challenging situations. Resources have been shared with staff and are available to all as an area to continuously develop. 

Fire Door Replacement Works

We were notified of cases where incorrect property records were kept for fire door replacement works. Following this, it was quickly put in place that all future records will be cross-referenced with completion certificates and vetted by the contracts supervisor against the address of the property to ensure that information recorded was correct and up to date.

Periodic Electrical Testing

We received complaints about missed appointments from our contractors relating to electrical testing for our properties. We have now updated out asset management software to reflect the dates where electrical testing is due and the data is now reconciled every three months to ensure the data and stock list are correct, therefore mitigating the risk of contractor failed appointments. 

We received complaints about the customer service some of our customers received from our some front line staff. Although the majority of complaints were not upheld, it was important to us that we acted on this feedback and bought in an external trainer to provide training to a number of our front line staff. The training included customer experience, customer journey mapping, communication skills, behaviour, language and tone, professionalism and effective mailing as well as how to manage challenging situations. Resources have been shared with staff and are available to all as an area to continuously develop. 

Recurring Payments and Direct Debits

We were made aware of Direct Debits being set up without reccurring payments being cancelled prior to the new Direct Debit being set up. Our income team received refresher training on ensuring historic payments are cancelled before setting up new payments.