Complaints
Learning from complaints
In 2023-24 we, like other housing associations across the country, dealt with a lot more complaints from customers about the services they receive.
In the last year, our team have supported customers with almost 4,000 complaints, aiming to learn something from each and every one.
We’ve also been adapting to some major changes that have been introduced by the Housing Ombudsman Service, including how we report on complaint handling for our customers. This has created some challenges for us but for every complaint we get, we’ve made it our mission to learn something, spot the patterns and come up with solutions to stop them happening again.
Acknowledged on time
Responded to on time
Here’s the main things we’ve learned from your complaints in 2023-24:
You told us:
“We want to be kept up to date on the progress of our repairs, even if they’re delayed..”
What we’re doing about it:
Materials and labour shortages have meant that some jobs are taking longer to complete, but we understand that when this happens, you just want to be kept in the loop.
To improve this, we’re increasing the use of text messaging and other methods to provide updates as to the status of your repairs, preventing the need for you to have to call us to check. This project also includes how we can make sure we follow up on jobs where appointments have been missed so that the repair isn’t closed down unnecessarily.
In January 2024, we recruited our new customer liaison officers who work directly with our contractors to follow up on anything that’s getting missed, take a closer look at more complex cases and get complaints resolved faster.
You told us:
“It's really frustrating when we have to repeat ourselves when we speak to you, which slows everything down.”
What we’re doing about it:
Your feedback about having to repeat yourselves has highlighted the need for us to adopt better working practices to make sure we have a more joined up approach.
A huge project is now underway, with an emphasis on training our people to get into better habits about recording information to create a smoother customer experience when you speak to us.
This includes more training on our current systems and implementing new ones where we need to, such as our damp, mould and condensation case processing, which helps us to feed information in one place so that we know what stage we’re at with the issue you’re telling us about. This has also highlighted the need for us to be better at talking to you about communal repairs and, like the above, provide useful updates.
You told us:
“Sometimes, complaint responses don't always cover everything we need them to, sometimes it feels like we're not being listened to when you tell us about your circumstances..”
What we’re doing about it:
We understand that when you’ve already had to complain, you want us to get back to you quickly, with clear information.
We’ve made some big changes to the way everyone at Stonewater works so that your complaint gets resolved faster and with a satisfactory answer.
In 2023, we challenged our colleagues to think differently about the customers they were supporting. Through training, internal communications and new systems, we’re making sure that we have everything we need to deliver a more personalised service.
Our reasonable adjustments training, which every staff member is enrolled on, is aimed at showing the small things we can do to make a big difference with customers who might need to receive their services a little differently.
We’ve also introduced a new triage system which is designed to pick up on any vulnerabilities that you may have, so that we can make sure we do what we can to help in a timely manner.
In 2023/24, we doubled the size of our complaints team, bringing in more experienced and skilled colleagues to meet your needs, which helped us to increase our response times by 23% in early 2024.
As well as bringing in more people, we've also revised our comments, complaints and compliments policy, which gives clearer guidance to you on what to expect from us.
We've created lots more information on how we can support you when you make a complaint, as well as how we're performing, which is available in multiple languages and formats, and is available in print and can be viewed online. Take a look here.
You can find out more about our complaints performance in our annual complaints and service improvement report here.
New Customer Complaints Learning Panel
Learning from Customer Complaints is central to our approach to improving our services and the Customer Complaint Learning Panel (CCLP) ensures that customers are part that improvement journey.
The CCLP ensures our approach to complaints and service improvement is not only steered by the complaints we receive, performance data and customer feedback, but it puts customers at the centre of co-creating a positive complaint handling culture within Stonewater.
The CCLP is made up of up to 12 Stonewater customers who work hand-in-hand with the Customer Relations team and other Stonewater colleagues to understand the ways in which Stonewater’s services can be improved by learning from complaints.
This year, the panel are taking a closer look at anti-social behaviour, you can find out more about their work on our Customer hubb: