We know it is very important to our tenants is that we provide you with high-performing customer services and that we keep you informed about them, including when the news isn’t good.
Thanks to the hard work of the teams behind them, we’ve seen our customer service standards improve over the last five months.
And while we're grateful to the staff for getting these service standards back towards where they need to be, and for your patience and understanding while we try and achieve this, we know there's more work to be done.
As we shared in the Annual Report and Southway Stories, we've upped our investment in customer services this year to make absolutely sure that we keep improving from here and are delivering service standards that you're satisfied with.
We’re going to be reporting these service standards to you every week, and if there are any performance issues, explain why and what we're doing to make things better.
Update for week ending December 8th
Contacting us
Demand for our services increases at this time of year and last week was the busiest of 2023 for our Customer Hub team.
We want to help everyone and we’re sorry if you’ve not been able to get through or waited for longer than usual to get through. We’re looking at ways to improve our service while demand continues to be high.
For many of our services, you don’t have to call us as you can find them on our website. You can also book non-emergency repairs, check your rent account and much more through the MySouthway tenant portal.
If you need to contact us you can use our webform to send the Customer Hub an email. We’ve continuede to respond to all your emails within our target time.
Repairs
We always receive a higher volume of repair requests at this time of year. While we did manage to complete lots more repairs last week than the week before, unfortunately, the number of overdue repairs did increase. However, with a larger and stronger team in place compared to earlier this year, plus the improvements made to the service, we do have the resources necessary to manage this number.
In the new year, we are revising our service standards to return to the targets we had before the pandemic. This is being done to make sure we keep improving and are completing repairs within a shorter timeframe.
This means the way we report on our performance will also change, as will start providing regular updates on how we are doing with meeting these new standards. We intend for these performance measures to be more meaningful, because they directly impact everyone, and they reflect the level of service you can expect to receive on the day.
Don’t miss your repairs appointment!
Our Repairs Team will be out all next week working on repairs you’ve asked for. We know the festive season can be a really busy time and you want your home looking great for Christmas. So, if we’ve arranged an appointment with you for a repair, please make sure we can get in to do the job.
If for some reason we can’t come in or you can’t be at home, please let us know in advance so we can re-arrange the appointment.
Our performance last week (week ending December 8th)
Update for week ending December 1st
Contacting us
Last week we were returning to normal after a difficult time the previous week due to technical issues and an increase in calls because of issues caused by the cold weather.
We’re sorry if you were unable to get through to us or had to wait longer than usual as we worked to cope with this demand.
We’re making every effort to get back to providing the standard of service you expect from us and we’re always happy to hear from you. You can find other ways of getting in touch with us on our Contact Us Page, including our webform which sends the team an email. Last week we were back to responding to all of your emails within target.
if you need to book a non-emergency repair for your home you can also do this on the portal on our website www.southwayhousing.co.uk. You can also use the portal to pay your rent, check your account and many other things.
Repairs
Our repairs team continues to keep on top of overdue repairs, although these did increase slightly last week, while carrying out new requests. We want to keep up this high level of performance as you have told us doing repairs quicker is a top priority for you.
Update for week ending November 24th
Contacting us
Last week we kept you up to date with how technical issues were affecting our phonelines and we’re grateful to you for your patience while we fixed those problems.
We’re sorry that the issues mean we’re unable to provide you with accurate figures on our performance in terms of answering your calls.
However, we know that some of you were unable to get through and some of those that did had to wait a little longer than usual.
We want to say sorry again for any problems our difficulties may have caused you, and we’re aware we wouldn’t have reached our targets for answering your calls last week.
Our phonelines have been really busy since our calls service returned to normal again on Monday afternoon and we’re sorry if this has meant you’ve had to wait a little longer than normal to get through to us.
We want to answer all of your calls and we’re working hard to get back towards hitting the targets we were achieving a few weeks ago to provide a high-quality service for you.
Remember if you need to book a non-emergency repair for your home you can also do this on the portal on our website. Here you can also pay your rent, check your account and many other things.
You can use the web-form on our contact us page (link) as this sends the team an email. It may have taken us a little longer to respond to a small number of emails than usual while we were trying to fix the issues with the phonelines, but we are back on target with then now.
Repairs
Our Repairs Team slightly reduced the backlog of repairs last week and continues to keep on top of the new requests that are coming in.
The team are really busy at this time of year and are working hard to provide the standard of service you expect.
Our performance last week (week ending November 24th)
Latest update
Contacting us
Firstly, we want to apologise again if you have been affected by the technical issues disrupting our phonelines this week.
We're working really hard to put things right and will give you an update on our website and social media on Tuesday, or earlier if we can return to a normal service on our phonelines before then.
Our performance figures for this week will not be available until next week, and we will share those when we have them.
In this update, we will tell you about how we did last week in line with what we have been doing since we began these updates.
So, for the week ending 17 November we achieved our target for answering your calls on the Friday. But high call volumes at peak times on other days meant we were unable to achieve our target in other parts of the week.
The average waiting time for us to answer calls dropped from the previous week, but we continued to respond to your emails within deadline.
Once the issues affecting our phonelines have been resolved we will be back in a position to provide a high-quality calls service to you. Thank you for your patience and co-operation at this time.
Just to remind you that if you need to book a non-emergency repair during this time the best way to do this is via the repairs portal on website, where you can also pay rent and check your account. You can use the webform on our contact us page.
Repairs
We’re sorry that the number of overdue repairs increased slightly last week.
Our Repairs Team were extremely busy, completing over 500 repairs as they work to keep on top of new requests for repairs while tackling the backlog.
The figures for overdue jobs continue to be much better than they were earlier this year. We will be looking at ways to reduce the backlog further while doing the new jobs as well at this very busy time of year.
Update for week ending November 10th
Contacting us
Our Customer Hub team has been making a lot of effort to respond to the rising call numbers we tend to experience at this time of year. We are pleased to say that last week the team answered the highest number of your calls this year.
We achieved our target for answering your calls on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The average waiting time for us to answer calls dropped from the previous week and we continued to respond to your emails within deadline.
We’ll continue to work hard on making sure we are well placed to take your calls and want to remind you that we have extended the opening times for our phonelines. You can call us between 8am and 5.30pm Monday to Friday. While we’re always happy to speak with you, you can see our Contact Us page for other ways of getting in touch.
You can also access many of our services through our website and your MySouthway tenant account, including booking repairs.
Repairs
Our Repairs Team has reduced the backlog of repairs again and is back on track to getting the number down to a minimal level.
The number of repairs carried out last week also increased as we keep on top of the new job requests and make sure they are completed within target deadlines.
We are making more appointments to catch up on the repairs backlog.
Our performance last week (week ending November 3rd)
Update for week ending November 3rd
Contacting us
The number of calls coming into our Customer Hub last week was very similar to the previous week. But due to the hard work of the team we were able to answer more of your phone enquiries and overall, we were closer to achieving our target for the week. On Wednesday and Friday we exceeded our target.
The average waiting time for us to answer your calls dropped and is getting closer to our target, but we still have work to do in order to achieve this.
Don’t forget that we have extended the times our phonelines are open so you can call us between 8am and 5.30pm Monday to Friday. Please see our Contact Us page for other ways to reach us. You can also access many of our services through our website and your MySouthway tenant account where we’ve re-opened the repairs portal so you can book repairs online.
Repairs
We are sorry the number of overdue repairs has gone up again this week. We are working on making appointments to get these repairs completed and bring the backlog down to the minimal level as you have asked us to make this a priority.
We did more repairs last week than the week before to help us keep on top of new repairs and ensure they are carried out within our target timeframe.
Our performance last week (week ending November 3rd)
Update for week ending October 27th
Repairs
Our Repairs Team has further reduced the number of overdue jobs and the repair backlog is getting down towards the minimal level we're aiming for.
We’re really pleased our investment in this area is paying off. We will continue to work on reducing the backlog while ensuring that new jobs are carried out within our target timeframe.
Contacting us
Last week we reached our target for answering your calls on Wednesday and Friday. But on other days the number of incoming calls was higher.
The average waiting time for us to answer your calls dropped from the previous week but was still longer than we would have liked. We are putting plans in place to make sure we are better placed to take your calls, and as part of this have extended the times our phonelines are open so you can call us between 8am and 5.30pm Monday to Friday.
If you can’t get through please see our Contact Us page for other ways to reach us. You can also access many of our services through our website and your MySouthway Tenant account where we’ve re-opened the repairs portal so you can book repairs online.
Our performance last week (week ending October 27th)
Update for week ending October 20th
Contacting us
At this time of year many more of you are needing our services and last week our Customer Hub team had its highest number of calls in this financial year.
We answered more of your phone enquiries than in any other week, but as so many of you were trying to contact we were unable to hit our targets and the average call waiting times went up for the week.
We realise that not being able to get through is really frustrating for you. We want to answer every one of your calls, but if you can’t get through please see our Contact Us page for other ways to reach us, including our web form which sends an email to the hub team. We are responding to all customer emails within target.
You access many of our services through this website and your MySouthway Tenant account where we’ve re-opened the repairs portal so you can book repairs online.
Repairs
Our repairs team always works hard and this week they’ve carried out a huge number of jobs which has helped to significantly reduce the number of overdue repairs, down from 520 to just 399.
We invested significantly in the team after you told us reducing the backlog of overdue jobs was a top priority, and we are pleased our investment is working.
However, we know we still have work to do to reduce overdue repairs to the minimal level you would expect from a high-performing service. While doing that we will ensure new repair requests are resolved with the timescales in our targets.
Our performance last week (week ending October 20th)
Update for week ending October 13th
Contacting us
Last week we had the second highest number of incoming calls of the year.
We’re happy we were able to hit our target for answering your calls on two of the days. However, on the other three days we didn’t get to that target due the number of calls, and average call waiting times went up for the week.
We're sorry if you’re one of the people who had difficulties getting through. Our investment in the team is helping to make improvements to the service, but we know we have more work to do as we want to answer all of your calls in the quickest time possible.
While we’re always happy to speak to you, our Contact Us page has details of other ways to reach us, including our web form which sends an email to the hub team.
You can also find a lot of information on our services on our website and access many services through your MySouthway Tenant Portal account.
Repairs
We have seen an increase in new requests for repairs in recent weeks. The team is working really hard to keep up with this demand as well as tackling the backlog of overdue jobs.
Ensuring that you’re happy in your home and that it is in good condition is really important to us, so we have invested in our repairs team to make sure it can cope with the pressures.
While significant improvements have been made in the service (in April the number of overdue jobs was over 1,000) some repairs may still take longer than normal due to the rise in demand, and we apologise for that.
We are working hard to try and make sure all new repairs are completed within target and that the number of overdue jobs is reduced to a minimal level.
Please remember to make sure you at home for the appointment when you book a repair with us. If something urgent happens and you or no-one else can be home, then please let us know in advance so we can try and re-arrange the appointment for you.
You can also check we have your up-to-date contact details and make any changes you need in your MySouthway Tenant Portal account or by asking us – because it’s really important that we can get through.
Our performance last week (week ending October 13th)
Update for week ending October 6th
Contacting us
Last week our Customer Hub achieved the target of answering 90% of your calls on Wednesday and Friday. However, due to a significant rise in calls during the week average call waiting times did go up and we didn’t achieve our target for the other three days.
While we are pleased to have achieved 90%, and about the improvements to the service over recent weeks, we want to answer all of your calls in the quickest time possible and are working hard to make sure that we achieve this. We're sorry if you are one of the people who had difficulties getting in contact with us, as we know how important the service is to our tenants.
Calling us isn’t the only way you can get in touch. Go to our Contact Us page for more ways to reach us, including our contact form which sends an email. Last week we continued responding to all customer emails within target.
You can also access a number of our services on this website and through your MySouthway Tenant Portal account.
Repairs
Our Repairs Service has also made improvements in the last few months as we have employed more people to carry out the work.
We've worked hard to reduce the number of overdue repairs from over 1,000 in April. It had dropped below 500 last week, but has slightly increased again. This was partly caused by an increase in the number of times we were unable to get into tenants’ homes to do a job last week.
Please try and make sure we can get into your home if we’ve arranged with you to carry out a repair you have asked for. We know urgent things happen sometimes so if you can’t be in, and no one else can be there, please let us know in advance so we can try and re-arrange the appointment for you.
We have increased the number of available appointment slots so that we can carry out work that you have asked for.
You can also check we have your up-to-date contact details and make any changes you need in your MySouthway Tenant Portal account or by asking us – because it’s really important that we can get through.
Keep an eye on this webpage and our social media for weekly updates on the performance of our Customer Hub and Repairs Teams. With these we’ll show our progress, and if there is a dip in performance, we’ll explain why that has happened and what we’re going to do about it.
Our performance last week (week ending October 6th)
Update for week ending September 29th
Contacting us
We answered your calls to the Hub in an average of 3 minutes last week, and 91% of all calls were answered, surpassing the target.
After struggling with some of our service standards earlier this year, it was clear that we needed to prioritise what matters most to you and improve performance. We’re happy to be providing a very responsive phone service again today. The investment and improvements put in place are working, and will make sure we stay on this track.
We’ve now been responding to your emails within target times for five weeks. As you’re now getting a quicker response when you email us less of you feel the need to send further emails chasing up your original reason to contact us, which shows the service is improving.
Please remember that calling us isn’t the only way you can get in touch. Please go to our Contact Us page for more ways to reach us, including our contact form which sends an email.
Repairs
Our repairs team has also had a very busy week and has reduced the number of overdue jobs again.
Like you we want to keep catching up with these overdue tasks, and more appointments are being made to get that number down. While we’re working on reducing the backlog, we’ll carry on making sure our other appointments are consistently within target as we know it’s very important that our repairs service works to a standard you are happy with.
If we’ve arranged with you to carry out a repair you have asked for, please try and make sure we can get into your home for the appointment. Sometimes things come up unexpectedly so if you can’t be in, and no one else can be there, please let us know in advance so we can try and re-arrange the appointment for you.
Keep an eye on this webpage and our social media for weekly updates on the performance of our Customer Hub and Repairs Teams. With these we’ll show our progress, and if there is a dip in performance, we’ll explain why that has happened and what we’re going to do about it.
Update for week ending September 22nd
Contacting us
The investment we have put into improving our Customer Hub is really paying off as the team had its best week of the year in terms of performance.
We were able to answer more of your calls than any other time in 2023. This meant that on three of the days we hit our target of 90% for answering calls you make to us, while over the whole week the figure was 89%.
The average time callers waited to be answered also decreased significantly from previous weeks. On average we took less time to answer your enquiries when you got through to us as well, and we are also continuing to respond to all customer emails within target.
These encouraging figures show the extra focus we have given to answering your calls is really working.
We will continue to work on improving this service to you as you have told us being able to get through to us quickly is very important to you. We are making plans to make sure we can handle the increased number of calls that will come with the colder months.
Please remember that calling us isn’t the only way you can get in touch. Please go to our Contact Us page for more ways to reach us, including our contact form which sends an email.
Repairs
Our repairs performance also continues to improve and the number of overdue repairs at the end of last week stood at 503, down from 517 the previous week.
We are working on reducing the backlog further and have made another 111 appointments to help us catch up. But we have been unable to do some jobs because when we have come to do the repair no one has been at home to let us in.
If you have asked us to do a repair in your home, please do your best to make sure we can get into your property at the time we have arranged with you. We know urgent things happen sometimes, so if you really can’t be there, and no one else can let us in, please let us know in advance so we can try and re-arrange the appointment for you.
We will continue to provide weekly updates on our progress on repairs on this webpage and social media, as we know the quality of service provided by our repairs teams is another top priority for you.
While we are dealing with the backlog we will continue to make sure our other appointments are consistently within target.
Help us keep your home warm when the cold weather starts by testing your heating now. You can find our 3-step guide on how to do this here.
Our performance last week (week ending September 22nd)
Update for week ending September 15th
Contacting us
As we move further into autumn the number of calls being made to our Customer Services Hub is increasing as expected.
We answered the same number of calls as we did last week, despite having fewer staff. But as we had more people trying to get through the percentage for calls answered has gone down slightly to 82%.
As you can see, this is still an improvement from our position in April. But we’re sorry that some of you weren’t able to get through to us, and that those who did may have had to wait longer than callers in previous weeks. We know that we have to answer your calls quickly and give you the help you need as this is a top priority for you.
The number of calls we receive is likely to go up further in the coming weeks as the weather changes. With this in mind, our staff are working together to make sure we can answer more of your calls in less time and carry out repairs planning activity quickly.
Calling us isn’t the only way you can get in touch. Please go to our Contact Us page for more ways to reach us, including our contact form which sends an email. Last week we continued responding to all customer emails within target.
Repairs
We have been making our repairs service a top priority and this is bringing results as the number of overdue repairs has been reduced to 517 from 568 the previous week.
If you are waiting for a repair, we’ll get to you as soon as we can. We have made another 130 future appointments with customers to carry out overdue repairs. We’ll get in touch with you by phone to arrange an appointment that’s suitable for you. Please make sure we have your up-to-date contact details - you can check and change these in your MySouthway Tenant Portal account or by asking us – because it’s really important that we can get through.
We are aiming to have dealt with this backlog and have overdue repairs at a very minimal level by the end of November. We know that getting repairs done quickly and efficiently is very important you, and we will make sure appointments are consistently within target by the time we have tackled the backlog.
We will be updating you weekly on our progress on repairs on this webpage and social media.
Winter is coming and you can help us keep you warm in the coldest months by testing your heating now before you need to use it. You can find our 3-step guide on how to do this here.
Our performance last week (week ending September 15th)
Update for week ending September 8th
Contacting us
Calls to our Customer Hub often increase when children go back to school after the summer holidays as parents have a little more time to do important things. Last week was no exception as we answered 1258 calls, 111 more than the previous week.
We also answered calls sooner; the average waiting time for customers went down from 5 minutes 8 seconds to 5 minutes 2 seconds.
As there was more of you trying to call us, the percentage of calls we were able to answer went down slightly from 87% to 86%. As you can see from the graphic below this is still a big improvement from our position in April, but we want to reach a target of 90%.
Calling us isn’t the only way you can get in touch. Go to our Contact Us page for more ways to reach us, including our contact form which sends an email. Last week we continued responding to all customer emails within target.
We know that it’s important to you that when you contact us, you know you’ll speak to someone promptly, and are clear about when you will get a response. We’re pleased that our investment in the service is working so our customers experience this. We’ll continue with improvements that make it easier to contact us.
Repairs
Making sure we have a good repairs service is a high priority for us, as we know how important this is to you.
We are making progress on catching up on overdue repairs and last week we cut the number to 568 from 671 the previous week.
There is more work to be done, and we have made another 188 future appointments with customers to carry out overdue repairs.
This will help us with our aim to have dealt with this backlog by the end of November. We'll have reached this target when overdue repairs are back at a very minimal level and appointments are consistently within target.
Keep an eye on this webpage and social media for our weekly updates on our progress with repairs. If you are waiting for a housing repair, we will be in contact with you directly.
Winter may seem a long way off, but we know how stressful it can be to run into an emergency in the coldest months when our repairs team is at its busiest.
That's why we're encouraging our tenants to test their heating before winter. You can find our 3-step guide here.
Update for week ending September 1st
Contacting us
Our Customer Hub was busy last week, answering 1,147 calls. A bank holiday always creates extra challenges, so we’re pleased that despite this, improvements in place meant we were able to take 58 more calls than in the previous week.
We also answered calls sooner; the average waiting time for customers went down from 5 minutes 47 seconds to 5 minutes 8 seconds. Overall, we answered 87% of our calls, another small improvement taking us closer to our 90% target. We’ve continued responding to all customer emails within target.
It’s important that when you contact us, you know you’ll speak to someone promptly, and are clear about when you will get a response. It’s good to see that investment in the service is working and making sure our customers experience this. We’ll continue with improvements that make it easier to contact us.
Repairs
We published an incorrect 'overdue repairs' figure in our initial service update, which we want to apologise to you for. The figures we are giving now are correct.
Our teams are working hard to catch up on repairs. Last week, we had 671 overdue repairs, down from 730 the week before. 242 overdue repairs now have appointments booked and customers have been updated.
Though there is still lots of work to be done, the team has reduced these overdue repairs from over 1,000 in April.
We aim to have dealt with our overdue repairs by the end of November. We'll have reached this target when overdue repairs are back at a very minimal level and appointments are consistently within target.
We know how important a good repairs service is for you. We will keep you updated on our progress with repairs in our weekly updates, as well as directly if you have a repair you are waiting for.
Our performance last week (week ending September 1st)
Update for week ending August 25th
Our busy Customer Services Hub works hard for our tenants and, last week, we answered 1,086 calls from you, the equivalent of 217 per day.
We had to overcome some IT issues last week, which meant helping you with your calls took a bit longer than normal. This meant we answered 86% of your calls, compared to 89% the previous week. The average waiting time for a call to be answered went up from four minutes 25 seconds to five minutes 47 seconds.
Overall, our service standards have still improved significantly since April, and we'll continue to work on improving our services to make sure you're satisfied with them. Thank you for your continued patience with us as we try to achieve this.
Our performance last week (week ending August 25th)
