Customer Liaison Officers making a difference
At the end of 2023, we worked with our contracting partners to introduce Customer Liaison Officers (CLOs) to help to improve your experience with repairs.
While these roles are funded by us, the CLOs actually work in our repair contractors’ teams so that they’re closely involved in the day-to-day work that impacts you.
By February 2024, all of our responsive (day-to-day repairs fixing something after it has broken) repairs’ contractors had a CLO in place. Since then, they’ve made a big impact. Here’s how they’re helping:
Supporting repair complaints
If something goes wrong, our CLOs look into what happened, help to put it right and make sure that we learn from it.
Improving customer service
The CLOs are here to make things smoother and more personal. For example, they might call you to book appointments or check in before and after your repair to make sure everything went as expected.
Helping communication
CLOs also help our Customer Service Centre to organise any follow-up appointments or actions needed.
Listening and improving
One of our contractors, Ian Williams, helped our Scrutiny Panel to look at how we communicate about repairs and find ways to improve.
Tim Ellery, Customer Liaison Officer at Ian Williams, shared a case where his role directly improved a customer’s experience...
“We received a complaint from a customer who was unhappy following their appointment to fix a bath leak. The customer felt the job was rushed and mess was left.
After receiving the complaint, a different operative was asked to visit the address again, as the leak had continued. On this visit, the leak was fixed, and the operative arranged a follow-up job to replace the bath boxing in and panel once it had dried out, as well as some other repairs such as dripping taps and a loose shower rail.
I was made aware of the complaint and reached out to the customer to express our apologies and reassure her that cleanliness is something we take seriously. She accepted this and was very complimentary about the second operative who attended. I was also able to find a plumber in the area to attend that day to replace the taps and the shower rail and leave a dehumidifier to assist the drying.
Once the bathroom had dried out, the boxing in and panel were replaced. The customer contacted us to compliment everyone involved in resolving the complaint.”
Since welcoming our CLOs, we’ve seen some great results already. The number of complaints we respond to on time has gone up from around 80% to over 90%. This has also freed up our teams to focus more on improving services, and it’s paying off. In fact, we’ve had 10% fewer new complaints this year, compared to last!
We’re really pleased with how these roles are working and how they’re helping us to give you a better service.