Our Resident Satisfaction is measured using a combination of STAR surveys, transactionalsurveys and consultation sessions.
Results are analysed and reported on across the business,measured against targets agreed with the leadership teams and actions taken to improveperformance. As 20/21 is the first full year that this has been reviewed, historical improvementsare not yet available.
Survey of Tenants and Residents (STAR)
We believe in a complaints policy that is clear, simple and accessible. Our new Complaints Policy was introduced in October 2020 and the procedure was updated in 2021 to align with the newHousing Ombudsman code. Our new process was also reviewed and approved by a customerpanel.
On 4 January 2021, we launched our new complaints process including broadening how wedefine complaints, in line with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
To evidence compliance with the Housing Ombudsman Code, we complete a Self-Assessment annually at the end of the financial year. We will also proactively complete an assessment outside of this schedule if significant changes are made to either the Code or our internalprocesses.
Abri is committed to ensuring that we deliver good quality services, but sometimes things do not go quite as expected, in 2020/21, we recorded 1,758 formal complaints. Here’s a summary of the nature of complaints we received during the year together with the outcome:
Housing Ombudsman Self-Assessment
We have signed up as official adopters of ‘Together with Tenants’. This means working with other Housing Providers and the National Housing Federation on this sector-wide initiative, focused on strengthening the relationship between housing association landlords and the people that live in their homes.
Outcome of customer complaints
- Upheld – 78.22%
- Not upheld – 21.88%
We’re working to address the root cause of complaints. We’ve appointed a Root Cause Analyst in the complaints team to analyse and implement change within the organisation.
We now have working groups created within different departments to look at how we can do things differently in the future after reviewing our customer complaints. Steps we’ve taken include increasing resource within our repairs and maintenance and complaints teams and increasing the number of cases resolved at first point of contact.
We’ll keep listening, learning, and trying new ideas to ensure we’re providing a great service for every customer.
For more information on how we have made changes to processes and policies as a result ofcustomer feedback, please see our customer complaints page.
Independent chair of the resident scrutiny group
Our resident Scrutiny Group is integral to our governance structure and reports into both our Customer Service and Performance Committee as well as our Audit and Risk Committee. Kevin Williamson, The Chair of our Resident Scrutiny Group is also a member of our Audit and Risk Committee.