Policy 1m Customer Care. Director of Engagement. Freebridge Community Housing is committed to putting customers at the heart of everything we do.

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1 Objective 1 Increasing Satisfaction Policy 1m Customer Care Last Reviewed Responsible Officer April 2015 Director of Engagement Next Review April Policy statement Freebridge Community Housing is committed to putting customers at the heart of everything we do. We are continuously improving our services for our customers through embedding an organisational culture where we listen to what our tenants want and respond by attempting to exceed those expectations. Ask, Listen, Act, Learn is our framework for customer care and through this approach we will learn, develop and improve to ultimately deliver increased customer satisfaction. 2. Definitions Freebridge has adopted a very broad definition of customer for the purposes of this policy. This will include: Tenants, leaseholders or shared owners of a Freebridge property; Applicants for housing or employment; Family, friends or any advice-giving organisation acting on behalf of and with the consent of either of the above categories; Any member of the public; Internal colleagues and external partners. 3. Policy objectives Freebridge Community Housing will aim to: Encourage and embed a solution-focused corporate culture which is responsive to the differing needs of the customer; 1

2 Provide choice, access and quality of services that meet the needs of our customers in ways that suit them; Listen to our customers by providing a range of meaningful opportunities for customer feedback which enable us to, where appropriate, adjust the services we provide; Recognise customers are individuals and treat them as such, providing a personalised customer experience; Understand that excellent customer care is the responsibility of everyone and provide all employees with the tools to deliver customer care; Exceed our regulatory and legal equality responsibilities as a minimum. 4. Responsibilities Board and management: The Board has a corporate responsibility for ensuring that Customer Care is promoted and that this policy and strategy underpins all aspects of the Association s work. The Management Team have responsibility for developing the organisational culture into which customer care is embedded. Managers are individually and corporately responsible for ensuring that customer care is promoted and that the policy and strategy is implemented in their particular areas of responsibility. Employees, contractors and suppliers: All employees, regardless of job title or remit have a responsibility to ensure that this policy is incorporated into their work related activities. All employees, board members and contractors are expected to abide by this policy. Any breach will be taken very seriously and could result in disciplinary action or contracts being removed. Tenants and leaseholders: Freebridge expects that all tenants and leaseholders treat our workers with respect and courtesy, comply with all reasonable requests, and accept that we may not always be able to do exactly what they may wish us to. 5. Sustainability Freebridge aims to deliver efficient services, that provide a good experience for our customers, are sympathetic to the needs of our stakeholders; whilst conscientiously sourcing materials and minimising waste. We will aim to make sustainability a key consideration in all our decisions. Whilst recognising that we have a moral duty to act and therefore we believe that this also makes good sense, from an ethical and organisational perspective. 6. Strategy 5.1 Corporate culture Our values form the basis for our corporate culture and as such they also provide the cornerstones for how we deliver customer care. The Customer Focus value aligns directly with customer care, whilst our Working Together value encourages our colleagues to share knowledge and expertise to meet the needs of our customers. Our Empowerment value enables our employees 2

3 to be solution-focused in meeting our customers needs, and we want our employees to approach customer service with Enthusiasm and optimism. Our Integrity value ensures that we should always offer what we can deliver, not overpromise and under deliver. We will always link our customer care approach to our values including in practical ways, such as through our value badges to ensure that our employees, customers and partners recognise this as a Freebridge Way of Working. We will also work to embed continuous improvement and Value for Money within our culture so that it becomes just a Freebridge way of working. 5.2 Training and development We have made a commitment to invest in Mary Gober training, which forms the technical basis for our approach to customer care. Every new employee receives induction training from internal Freebridge trainers, and also participates in a two-day course. Board and Tenant Panel members also take part in Mary Gober training. We also offer regular refresher training in Mary Gober to staff. We have trained a number of employees as Mary Gober coaches, who champion and support colleagues to deliver the very highest standard of customer care through use of the Mary Gober method. We have also trained a small number of senior staff to deliver an induction course for new starters, meaning that all starters are introduced to the Mary Gober method early on in their career. We also, as appropriate, support close partner organisations to effectively deliver customer care through providing training and induction sessions in Mary Gober. This is an area we need to develop further to ensure that our contractors and sub-contractors, in particular, are consistent with our approach. 5.3 Ongoing Support We provide ongoing support to enable our employees to deliver the very highest standard of customer care. We achieve this through performance review, making coaching and mentoring available to all, and access to information and resources which support the embedding of customer care. 5.4 Consultation and surveying We need to understand our customers needs and wants and their perceptions to ensure that we are providing a high standard of customer service. We will introduce a more meaningful customer surveying process which is timely, responsive and genuinely feeds into the continuous improvement of the business. Our new approach to customer surveying will allow us to take ownership for understanding our customers needs and respond proactively and positively to our findings. Our customer surveying approach is complimented by other mechanisms which provide customer feedback, including Mystery Shopping and our Out and About Visits which give us an insight into the issues which are affecting 3

4 our customers. We also run focus groups, surveys and consultation in line with our business priorities, as required We also provide opportunities for feedback through our social media channels and our Communications and First Contact teams monitor and manage these forums. 5.5 Tenant Panel The Tenant Panel has a key role to play in ensuring that we deliver customer care. We consult with the Panel regularly and seek their views on a range of customer-facing activities, such as our Service Standards. In addition, through their service reviews and review of policies and performance, the Panel identifies any issues in customer care which we can subsequently respond to. 5.6 Complaints and Compliments We aim to deal with all complaints informally but where this isn t possible, we have a robust complaints process in place to ensure we comprehensively respond to these. We log compliments to enable us to recognise individuals who are excelling in their performance. We need to use our learning from complaints and compliments more effectively. We need to carry out quarterly trend reports and an annual trend analysis report of complaints and compliments and identify, implement and communicate any actions we will be taking to deliver improvements as a consequence. 5.7 Communication and promotion We ensure our customer communications meet the accessible communications principles which we have developed. We offer choice through communicating in different ways through the magazine Streets Ahead, through digital media, on the telephone and face-to-face during Out & About visits. In this way we can ensure that we are inclusive in our communications. We promote customer care across the organisation through a variety of targeted and timely activities including thank you cards for employees, events during Customer Service (Focus) Week and publicising compliments through our noticeboards. We continue to communicate key messages to employees about customer care. 5.8 Technology and Internal Systems Freebridge understands that most of our tenants currently prefer to contact us by telephone. We monitor and record incoming and outgoing telephone calls for audit and training purposes. The functionality of the corporate telephony system will be used to its fullest effect for the benefit of customers and be developed accordingly. The Open Housing database is the primary means of capturing customer contact for the entire organisation and as such will provide an audit trail in the event of enquiries or disputes. There is an ongoing commitment to develop electronic engagement to both streamline services and make access easier for those residents who choose to deal with Freebridge in this way. 4

5 We will develop our use of social and digital media in providing customer care and integrate them into the First Contact Centre. We need to understand and develop our internal systems to ensure that they are enabling delivery of customer care and service, and not impeding this. 5.9 Continuous Improvement We take a continuous improvement approach to customer care, evaluating and analysing ongoing survey findings and feedback from customers. In this way we can identify any changes in customer satisfaction and respond accordingly. We must learn from our failures, as well as our successes, and take action to improve satisfaction. As part of our business planning and visioning, we need to consider the service we want to deliver to our customers in the future, and how this will change in the short, medium and long-term. We need to understand how changes in our business will impact on our ability to deliver customer care, and how we will need to respond to ensure our customers continue to receive the highest level of customer care. Customer satisfaction is a main objective for Freebridge and we need to consider how we will increase satisfaction within a changing business. 6. Monitoring We will monitor performance across the areas covered by this policy and report it to the Board as part of our ongoing performance monitoring. In addition we will have an action plan and accompanying outputs that will be monitored and reviewed by the Management Team and progress reported to the Board. 7. Review This policy will be subject to ongoing review in the light of experience, changes in legislation and Association policy and meeting the needs of our stakeholders. It is essential that when policies and practices are reviewed and amended to ensure that the objectives of the Customer Care Policy and Strategy and resulting action plan are embedded in everything we do. 8. Risk Management The risks associated with a failure to promote Customer Care and the activities set out in this strategy will be identified and included within the Association s Risk Map. The Risks will be managed in accordance with the Association s Risk Management Strategy. 5

6 9. Equality and Diversity This policy and strategy has been subject to an Equality Impact Assessment. All activities proposed in the action plan will be subject to Equality Impact Assessments prior to their introduction. 6

7 Customer Care Strategy Action Plan Area Actions Responsibility Corporate Culture Link the Mary Gober programme to our values Engage employees in nominating for value badges (Deadline) MT, ongoing DE, May and November Training & Development Investigate and provide appropriate Mary Gober training for contractors and suppliers DE June 2015 Ongoing Support Consultation and Engagement Tenant Panel Complaints and Compliments Communication and Promotion Technology and Internal Systems Continuous Improvement Review how customer care/use of Gober is assessed at 121s Promote and share interactive activities from Champions sessions at team meetings Engage Leader Managers in the running of the Mary Gober supervision sessions Develop new customer surveying approach to become more timely and useful Pilot new customer surveying approach Support the Tenant Panel to engage around customer priorities within the Business Plan Trend analysis of complaintsand compliments Annual trend report of complaints and compliments Include recommendations made and implemented within quarterly report Develop a Customer Focus Week programme that allows us to embed customer care Develop Open Housing to its full potential Develop the contact centre to deliver customer service through web chat, and SMS texts Develop greater understanding of our internal systems and identify opportunities for improvement Identify activities to develop customer care as part of our visioning and business planning work DE, June 2015 DE, March 2015 DE, May 2015 DE, April 2015 C & E, April June 2015 DE, April 2015 CBP, Quarterly CBP, Annually CBP, Quarterly C & E, October ICT, Systems Owners ongoing HCS, ICT September 2015 DE, ICTBP, June 2015 MT, summer 2015 and ongoing Key DE = Director of Engagement; MT = Management Team; HR = HR Team; ICT = ICT & Facilities Team; CBP = Communications Business Partner; ICTBP = ICT Business Partner; HCS = Head of Customer Services; C&E = Communications & Engagement Team. 7