From surveys and your personal feedback, we know that satisfaction with repairs appointments could be better and is something we need to keep working on.
What’s been happening with the service?
Satisfaction and performance dipped during the middle of last year; this coincided with a technical fault in the IT systems we use to manage repairs, which had several knock-on effects:
Communication issues
The faulty system sent out some incorrect appointments, so some appointments you were told about weren’t attended, or you weren’t warned in time. We also had to create repairs orders manually, which led to lots of time being wasted due to additional travel and admin for operatives and office staff.
Repairs back-log
By September these technical faults were being fixed; but by then jobs had backed up and we had to work hard to catch up. This meant our operatives didn’t have the flexibility they used to, for example to do additional repairs to your properties while they attended for jobs.
We know from your feedback that this was frustrating for you, but unfortunately, it was necessary due to the volume of work to do to get back on track.
Where are we now?
Fortunately, the service is now becoming stable again. We appreciate that regardless of the reasons, your view of the service may have been negatively impacted. We promise to continue to work hard and keep improving. Right now we are setting up a new Repairs Chase Team within the Connect Customer Hub, which will allow us to communicate about repairs more effectively. We’re also rewriting our Landlord Offer to include specific promises to you about repairs and communication. We will use both of these to keep improving the service, and to be accountable.
Satisfaction in April showed a significant improvement and we are confident we can continue to deliver a high quality repairs service.