Championing Customer Service & Choice: Winner

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1 Championing Customer Service & Choice: Winner Parkway Green Housing Trust: Believe In Customer Excellence Campaign Summary Parkway Green Housing Trust s vision is to create quality homes and housing services, safer neighbourhoods and a brighter future for Wythenshawe, putting customers at the heart of the business. Parkway Green s championing customer service and variety of choice has utilised innovative techniques to capture profiling data and used this process as an effective embedment tool for equality and diversity by getting all staff involved in capturing the data which has enabled the Trust to transform services. Our PG React repairs and maintenance operatives were pivotal to collecting this data and proved to be an efficient resource as the face of Parkway Green, attending customer s homes on a daily basis. The success of this project was due to the commitment from all colleagues, improving the profiling data held by 34%. This campaign set out to raise awareness and change working practices to ensure the customers receive a value for money service. This involved using

2 innovative methods of engaging customers and colleagues within the business to revolutionise the services delivered to customers. What did you set out to achieve? This campaign set out to raise awareness and change working practices to ensure that customers receive a value for money service. This involved using innovative methods of engaging customers and colleagues within the business to revolutionise the services delivered to customer. To enable this our aim was to: Develop a single equality scheme in line with legislation Improve the levels of profiling intelligence held based on the entire household rather than just the lead tenant Integrate vulnerability data onto repair notes used by colleagues when attending properties Migrate profiling information in the new IBS housing management system Use the information to tailor services to meet the customers needs Train staff, mystery shoppers and contractors Establish an equality champions group to provide customer scrutiny and challenge Review the website to ensure it was fully inclusive Increase overall awareness and understanding of equity and diversity in delivering quality housing services Remove barriers by impact assessing policies. How were these aims and objectives met? Since the launch of the campaign in September 2009 the Trust has seen huge outcomes ensuring the original objectives were not just met but have been surpassed. Key highlights are: A single equality scheme is in place and accessible to customers and staff. Profiling information is accessible via the housing management system We have achieved an increase of household data. The profiling data has now been split into Neighbourhood Officer patch area ensuring that the information is focused and accessible. Through the commitment and diligence of officers the level of profiling information has increased from 50% to 84%. Services are now tailored around customers needs with staff utilising the tailor made services framework to capture the necessary outcomes. Outcomes are publicised on the intranet. Information around vulnerable customers and special requirements are now apparent on repairs job notes and is used on a daily basis by repairs colleagues. The Trust has secured representation of disabled and Lesbian, Gay bisexual and transgender to attend the Equality & Diversity Champions

3 Group in the tailoring of services from their user perspective. This group also debates the viability of the 'Tailor Made Service'forms that are submitted on a monthly basis. Staff, a proportion of customers and mystery shoppers has all been trained. The Believe In Customer Excellence campaign championed diversity issues a campaign that all staff took part in. What challenges did the project face, and what lessons were learned? The initial key challenge was to engage staff to buy into this campaign, to highlight the benefits of collecting the intelligence and the efficiencies it would create for them in their day to day activities. Buy-in was slow initially but as the positive practice started to cascade and be shared via each section of the business momentum picked up and is now a positive and effective tool that all staff are utilising. It was also a challenge to enable staff to recognise and utilise the profiling intelligence to streamline their working processes and create efficiencies however this was overcome by providing coaching and enabling strong communication as the project moved forward. Encouraging customers to share the information was at times difficult however. The repairs staff found that asking customers to complete a questionnaire whilst carrying out the repair and by providing a paid envelope for return improved the intelligence by 34%. This proved to be productive and efficient use of resources. How was the success of the project measured? Customer Satisfaction Status findings showed the following: Customers satisfied with the services provided by Parkway Green rose from 81% in 2008 to 86% in 2010 an increase of 5% Overall satisfaction with the outcome of customer contact rose from 81% in 2008 to 86% in 2010 an increase of %5 Satisfaction with repairs service rose from 77% in 2008 to 83% in 2010 Customers felt that they are kept informed about matters that effect them rose from 80% in 2008 to 87% in All transactional surveys now have equality and diversity integrated into them to capture customer s requirements. Staff Feedback Staff survey achieved a 100% return that all staff understood what E&D stood for and how it effected its service users. Staff satisfaction has improved from

4 69% - 89% based on the results of a recent staff survey. Corporate Indicators / Management Indicators Collection of monthly profiling intelligence measured on a monthly basis Completion and quality control of Tailor made service forms via the Equality Champions Group Benchmarking with HouseMark indicates that the Trust is working in upper quartile levels. Diagnostic Feedback Our equality & diversity processes were challenged via a recent diagnostic review and assessed when securing the Investors In People Gold award. Customer excellence programme of which diversity issues were a key part was fully evaluated. Feedback provided from attendance at team meetings Equality & Diversity evaluation was part of an electronic key pad exercise at the 2009 staff conference. What were the key positive outcomes? Integration of vulnerability information into repair service job notes enable staff to tailor the service to customers for example a customer with a hearing impairment the operative now takes a mobile loop system on the visit. The use of profiling data enables the Trust to analyse membership of all residents groups and focus groups to ensure adequate representation of the community, where shortfalls have been identified a positive action approach has been taken to recruitment. This process ensures that customers are adequately represented to ensure they assist in the developing and moulding of services. Specific address lists to steer services accordingly, these are now on the Intranet and have been migrated into the Trusts housing management system, the lists are based around sight, hearing, physical impairments along with customers with low literacy skills and long term illnesses where we will secure referrals to appropriate agencies to assist them, this action will ensure individual customers needs are met. The sight address list helped the Trust to engage with customers running a magnifying strip pilot scheme. The results of this scheme indicated that a number of customers preferred large print but predominately customer s preferred the use of magnifying strips. This approach has provided customers with choice. Feedback was obtained from a customer whom indicated that customers

5 with 3% sight or less the strip would not be beneficial but directed the Trust to specific software which converts text to audio; this is currently in use by the Trust. This process also produced a VFM element which achieved a saving of over one thousand pounds. Customer s that cannot read or write benefit from this service. Address list to identify all customers that require interpretation services this has enabled the Trust to refer to the relevant support agencies to accommodate customers where their first language is not English and provide interpreters. Profiling data identifies customers with aids and adaptations needs which enable us to direct services to the appropriate agencies. Customer profiling data has now been distributed to all Neighbourhood Officers and Rent Officers on a patch by patch basis this will ensure that all officers are able to tailor services around customer need in all working practices, lists are replenished on a monthly basis examples of how this has benefited customers is captured in the tailor made service forms Customer profiling data is also available via a GIS mapping system which is placed on the internal Intranet by protected characteristic. This shows staff at a glance any groups that may be underrepresented or have barriers to accessing our services. Equality & Diversity toys are in place in both reception areas of the Trust to engage with children and heighten their awareness of different cultures and disabilities at a very young age. How did the project demonstrate positive practice in equality and diversity? The entire campaign is based around organisational awareness of improved access, equality & diversity and how this affects the end user our customers. The campaign enhanced equality & diversity awareness for all staff which has been evidenced through the Equality & Diversity Champions Group promoting the use and completion of Tailor Made Service Forms. The Tailor Made Service Form captures how a member of staff had changed the way they delivered a specific service to meet customer s needs. A performance target was also integrated into the Trust s performance management tool to monitor the frequency of these and how they were steering services. This information is available on the intranet site where staff can share best practice. This proved to be an efficient and effective embedment tool staff now freely discussing how they have worked over and above their normal duties and how this has created efficiencies in the way services are delivered, this in turn has shaped services that accommodate what customers actually need and aspire to.

6 The Trust remains ahead of the game when complying with legislation and has adopted a Single Equality scheme which envelops race, disability and gender schemes as well as the nine protected characteristics as outlined in the new equality bill this was commended in a recent diagnostic review. All the Trust s policies and procedures have been impacted assess to ensure that the services we deliver do not provide any unnecessary barriers accommodating the needs of our customers. We publicise our services and our overarching approach to equality & diversity to our customers via our website and newsletter and taking part in local community diversity events. Recently supporting a diversity event arranged by customers. The Trust ran a magnifying pilot scheme for customers with poor sight. A magnifying strip was provided to all customers whom had requested our newsletter in large print. Out of 120 customers over 90% preferred the use of the magnifying strip as these also aided customers when reading other literature. This created an efficiency saving of over a thousand pounds. This pilot scheme was endorsed as good practice. Based on customer intelligence a translation manual has been developed with languages identified and translation facilities put in place for all 25 leaflets the Trust has in circulation. For customers who cannot read or write we convert written correspondence into audio. We provide our leaflets in audio and Easiread format on our external website. We have provided training days for customers who found it difficult to navigate and bid on properties via our Homefinder service based on choice based lettings. We have integrated customer contacts such as their neighbourhood officer, doctors, schools, dentist, police, translation services, social services into Google Maps this provides easier accessibility for customers. The Trust has now placed Google Translator on our external website to ensure that it is fully accessible and inclusive to all customers. We utilise Google analytics which enables the Trust to understand who is accessing information and what they are looking at to further improve the accessibility to the site. To ensure that are services are accessible to all customers and to fall in line with the new Equality Bill the Trust has enabled all customers leaflets to be provided in pdf, audio and Easiread format. The Easiread format will be of particular use for customers with low literacy skills. To ensure accessibility to all partnering agencies and community contacts the Trust has developed a contact list which is migrated into Google Maps, the customer types in their postcode and instantly finds what services are accessible to them in their area along with updates and relevant contact to

7 their Neighbourhood Officer. This facility is linked to the Homefinder service where prospective customers looking for a property will also be able to visually see the property via street view. A newly developed impact assessment toolkit has been utilised to impact assess all of the Trust s policies and procedures. All policies now reflect the changes and have been uploaded to the internal intranet for staff consumption and utilisation. Stonewall The Trust recognised that employees that were LGBT needed some form of representation in the workplace, therefore we are a member of the Stonewall Equality Champions Group, Stonewall is Britain s leading lesbian, gay and bisexual equality charity, whom has been instrumental in changing the legislative environment in Britain for employees. They assist the Trust in ensuring that all working practices are fully accessible and inclusive. The Trust will take part of a yearly benchmarking exercise which will be conducted in September 2010 which will also direct the Trust's attention to any gaps in this area for improvement. We are positive about disability and use our membership to support our commitment in all corporate literature and recruitment processes. This has resulted in an increase of applications from black and minority ethnic groups. The Trust is now compliant with the monitoring of contractors under the Housing Code of Practice. The Trust has in place a contractor/supplier E&D/Health Safety compliance manual. This ensures that all procured contractors fall in line with the Trust s Single Equality Scheme. Contractor performance in this area is managed with key weaknesses highlighted to enable improvement or removal from the Trust s procurement contract list. Mobile loop systems have been purchased for the use of all staff. What elements of the project could be replicated by others? The use of profiling intelligence with the integration of this into our housing management system with vulnerability flags and the migration of data into GIS mapping systems for staff utilisation could easily be adopted by others. The collection of data by members of staff not procured to external consultancies has proved to be an effective embedment tool which once again could be easily adopted by other organisations. This dictates that the collection and use of this is data is backed by the executive team and that there is a high level of commitment to equality and diversity. To scrutinise status survey findings and develop rigorous action plans that take forward customers needs and aspirations and tailor services accordingly.

8 How does the project draw in all parts of the community? This campaign has been instrumental in the complete review of how we deliver services to our customers. It has enabled staff to engage more effectively as they have intelligence on the customers they serve before any interaction. Parkway Green voices, the Tenant Scrutiny Panel and Resident Approval Panel have challenged policies to ensure a fairer and more accessible to our customers. This campaign has raised issues around access and equality and diversity awareness within the organisation which has resulted in staff being fully engaged and have an understanding how they deliver services to customers. Our latest status survey findings, satisfaction with services increased from 81% in 2008 to 86% in 2010 this being a clear indicator that our service delivery has improved as a result.