REPORT TO: STRATEGIC BOARD REF: FROM: DATE: ACTION ...committeedocs.northumberland.gov.uk/MeetingDocs/8064_M2805.pdf · Board: Strategic Board – 31 July 2014 Item No: 8.3 Report

REPORT TO:

STRATEGIC BOARD

REF:

14/07/8.3

FROM:

Paul Harrison Director of Corporate Services

DATE:

31 July 2014

ACTION:

DISCUSSION

AGENDA ITEM:

8.3

CONFIDENTIAL:

No

CIRCULATION RESTRICTIONS:

None

TITLE:

Complaints Analysis 2013/14

SUMMARY:

This report provides an analysis of the compliments, service complaints and complaints about staff received by Homes for Northumberland during the 2013/14 financial year.

RECOMMENDATION:

1. For Board Members to note and discuss the Customer Feedback Analysis for the 2013/14 financial year.

APPENDICES:

Appendix A: How to Read the STAR Survey Results

CONTACT:

Paul Harrison, Director of Corporate Services

Direct line: 01670 622869 Mobile:07946374777 Direct email: [email protected]

IMPLICATIONS:

CONSULTATION AND BENEFITS TO CUSTOMERS:

Greater understanding of customer feedback will help improve services, both internally and externally.

ENVIRONMENTAL: None specifically arising from this report.

EQUALITIES/DIVERSITY: None specifically arising from this report.

FINANCE AND VFM: By using customer feedback to aid the tailoring of services we can be more effective, efficient and reduce wasted resources.

HEALTH & SAFETY: None specifically arising from this report.

LEGAL: The Company is required to meet the regulatory standards on tenant involvement and empowerment.

PERSONNEL: None specifically arising from this report.

mailto:[email protected]

Board: Strategic Board – 31 July 2014

Item No: 8.3

Report Title: Complaints Analysis 2013/14 Report by: Paul Harrison, Director of Corporate Services

RISK: 1. Failure to meet statutory duties, guidance and adhere to regulatory codes of practice.

2. Failure to effectively plan for the future. 3. Failure to provide value for money. 4. Customer dissatisfaction with services provided.

CORPORATE OBJECTIVES:

We will deliver improving services.

We will be a well-run and cost effective business.

We will empower tenants.

1. PURPOSE 1.1. This report is to update the Board on the number of compliments, service

complaints and complaints about staff members that have been registered with Homes for Northumberland (HfN) and to outline the lessons learnt from this.

1.2. Data has been analysed for the 12 month period between 1 April 2013 and 30 March 2014.

1.3. Where possible, analyses for Alnwick and Blyth Area have been provided to highlight any geographical differences in the way customers perceive HfN’s services.

2. BACKGROUND 2.1. Two of HfN’s core values are:

To be a listening and learning organisation; and

To seek continuous improvement.

2.2. A robust customer feedback process is key to achieving these values.

2.3. Such a system will enable us to record the views and feedback from our customers and use this insight to develop and improve our services, correcting any existing mistakes, avoiding making future mistakes, as well as allowing us to acknowledge and replicate good practice across the organisation.

2.4. In recognition of this, HfN has included a target for the number of service

complaints received each year as one of the Company’s key performance indicators.

2.5. For 2013/14, this was set at 120 across the Company.

3. FEEDBACK ANALYSIS

Total Number of Customer Comments

3.1. The total number of customer comments registered against the Company during 2013/14 was 285, which is double the number received in the previous year. This increase is directly attributable to the Company’s drive to positively encourage customers to provide feedback, both good and bad, about the service they receive.


Item No: 8.3


Note: A figure of 302 has been included in the Annual Performance Report 2013-14. This is because 17 customer comments were identified as being either duplicates or dummy cases used to train new staff members on how to use the feedback system after the Annual Report had been published. For the purposes of this report, these cases have been removed from the analysis. Customer Feedback Breakdown

3.2. Of the 285 customer comments registered during 2013-14, a total of 15 were complaints about a specific HfN staff member, 71 were compliments about a service and/or staff member, and 199 were complaints were about a specific HfN service area. Table 1: Customer Feedback by %

25

70

5

Compliments

Service Complaints

Complaints aboutStaff Members

3.3. Customer Compliments

53 were about the standard of service provided by craft workers in Property Services (see below for a more detailed breakdown);

15 were about the way in which their call was handled by the Customer Service Centre, Neighbourhood Services;

2 were generic compliments, praising the services provided by HfN across the board; and

1 was about the level of support offered to them by a Customer Insight Officer, Corporate Services.


Item No: 8.3


Table 2: Breakdown of Property Services Compliments

3.4. Complaints about Staff Members

10 were against Property Services staff;

4 were against Neighbourhood Services staff; and,

1 complaint did not identify a specific individual.

Communication was the main issue of complaint, with customers feeling that they had either been misadvised about a situation and/or spoken to in a way that made them feel disrespected.


Item No: 8.3


Table 3: Complaints about Staff Members by %

3.5. Service Complaints Table 4: Service Complaints Raised by Area

Service Area Alnwick

Area Blyth Area

Area Not Recorded

Total

Corporate Services:

Finance 0 0

1 1

Neighbourhood Services:

Customer Service Centre

0 2

0 2

Estate Management

0 3

3 6


Item No: 8.3


Property Services:

Capital and Asset

Management 0 5 4 9

Repairs and Maintenance

13 94

66 173

Other:

External 0 0

8 8

Total 13 104

82 199

* External relates to the number of complaints that were registered about non-HfN services such as Northumberland County Council Home Finder, external contractors or partner organisations.

Of the 199 service complaints registered against HfN, 182 were about level of service provided by Property Services, 8 were about Neighbourhood Services and 1 was about Corporate Services.

Table 5: Service Complaints by %

0.5 %4 %

91.5 %

4 %

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Corporate Services: Neighbourhood Services:

Property Services: External


Item No: 8.3


Note: The number of complaints about Property Services is understandable given that this service undertakes the vast majority of all external customer-facing work throughout the Company. Furthermore, in receiving only 185 complaints out of the 40,705 repairs successfully carried out in 2013/14, this equates to only 0.5% of customers complaining about the level of service they received. Property Services also received 75% of all of the customer compliments made during the same time period.

3.6. Top 5 Service Complaints Of the total number of service complaints registered with HfN during 2013/14, the most reoccurring issues were in the following areas:

Outstanding repairs (Repairs and Maintenance);

Missed appointments (Repairs and Maintenance);

Repair quality (Repairs and Maintenance);

Void standard (Repairs and Maintenance);

Customer service provision (All HfN Services)

Complaints about Repairs and Maintenance related primarily to HfN service standards, or lack thereof. For example, customers complained that:

a repair was not fixed first time;

a repair was not fixed within a given timeframe;

appointments were missed or attended late;

they were not given sufficient choice in appointment slots;

craft workers did not tidy up after they completed the job.

Complaints about the level of customer service provided to the customer were, without exception, about communication issues. For example, customers complained about:

a general lack of communication with the customer which occurred across all areas of the Company; and

a lack of customer service offered by the Customer Contact Centre to the customer when registering their original complaint.

In relation to the latter, a customer’s perceived lack of empathy and/or respect by the Customer Contact Centre operative often results in the customer wanting to register an additional complaint about how their original complaint was (mis)handled.


Item No: 8.3


3.7. Level of Service Complaint Resolution

Of the 199 service complaints, 49 remain ‘live’ whilst 150 have been closed. All cases were considered low level risk and resolved internally, with the exception of 3 cases which have been referred to the Housing Ombudsman. Of these, 2 cases are now closed and 1 is still being processed.

Table 6: Resolution Stages by Area

Resolution Stage

Alnwick Area

Blyth Area Area Not Recorded

Total number

Stage 1 Not Upheld

1 23

23 47

Stage 1 Upheld - Apology

5 40

29 74

Stage 1 Upheld - Compensation

1 4

0 5

Stage 2 - Not Upheld

1 1

0 2

Stage 2 Upheld - Apology

2 2

3 7

Stage 2 Upheld - Compensation

0 1

0 1

External Referral - Ombudsman

0 2 0 2

External Referred – NCC*

2 0

0 2

Complaint Cancelled**

1 6

4 11

* External referral (NCC) relates to the number of complaints that were registered about Northumberland County Council services such as Home Finder and Grounds Maintenance. ** Complaint cancelled relates to the number of complaints which have been closed down or withdrawn before investigation or resolution at the customer’s request.


Item No: 8.3


Table 7: Resolution Stages by %

3.8. Level of Customer Satisfaction with Complaints Handling HfN recently commissioned a company called ‘ARP Research’ to undertake a Satisfaction of Tenant and Resident (STAR) Survey in a number of areas including Home and Value for Money; Repairs and Maintenance; Information and Involvement; Customer Service; Anti-Social Behaviour and Service Complaints.

The chart below shows the views of tenants who had recently made a service complaint:

In summary:


Item No: 8.3


71% of respondents were satisfied with the ease of making a complaint, 10% were very dissatisfied;

42% of respondents were satisfied with the way their complaint was handled, however, a third (37%) were very dissatisfied;

38% of respondents were satisfied with the level of support they received, however, a third (36%) were very dissatisfied;

37% or respondents were satisfied with how well they were kept informed, however, just under a third (32%) were very dissatisfied;

All of the above results put HfN in the top 25% of benchmarked housing providers.

Note: Appendix A illustrates in detail how the results should be read. From this, it is the intention of the Company to review all of the existing customer feedback processes and systems to identify a range of service improvements which can be made to ensure that the feedback process becomes more responsive to customers’ needs. This will then be monitored via the use of individual customer satisfaction surveys which will be issued to every customer upon the resolution of their complaint.

3.9. Service Improvements Influenced by Customer Feedback Below are a number of service improvements that have been identified as being influenced by customer feedback, including the complaints process, during 2013/14.

Table 8: Service Improvements by Directorate

Property Services

Re-alignment of Repairs and Maintenance Service re: Void and Responsive Repair Teams were established so that efficiencies and greater effectiveness be delivered.

End to end review of the Letting Process to identify areas of improvement re: effectiveness and responsiveness for customers

Recruitment of additional Schedulers and Charge Hands to maximise and better manage customer appointments and property standards.

A new communications policy to ensure that customers receive advance warning should an appointment need re-scheduling or a part needs to be ordered in to complete a repair.


Item No: 8.3


A review of current equipment suppliers to ensure that the Company is utilising the most efficient, effective and reliable providers, thereby reducing customer waiting time for a repair to be undertaken/completed.

Neighbourhood Services

Recruitment of additional Customer Service Centre staff to ensure that customers receive prompt, efficient and effective service.

Customer Service Training for all Contact Centre staff including sessions on Call Handling and Customer Service Excellence.

Recruitment of additional Neighbourhood Liaison Officers (NLOs) to provide greater visibility, personal contact and liaison with tenants and external partners on a local level to help develop stronger channels of communication.

Corporate Services

Creation of a newly appointed team of Customer Inspectors to carry out inspections and mystery shopping exercises across the organisation.

Introduction of a Customer Scrutiny Panel who will review/monitor all aspects of the housing service on behalf of customers to see where service could be improved.

3.10. Customer Profile

Category Alnwick

Customers Blyth

Customers Total

number Total %

Gender

Male 3 90 93 33

Female 11 112 123 43

Not Recorded 0 0 69 24


Item No: 8.3


4 RECOMMENDATION 4.1 For Board Members to note and discuss the Customer Feedback Analysis for the

2013/14 financial year.

Category Alnwick

Customers Blyth

Customers Total

number Total %

Disability

Yes 2 51 53 19

Category Alnwick

Customers Blyth

Customers Total

number Total %

Age

Under 25 1 8 9 3

Aged 25 - 54 7 72 79 28

Over 55 5 82 87 30


Category Alnwick

Customers Blyth

Customers Total

number Total %

Ethnicity

White British 13 190 203 71


APPENDIX A – How to Read the STAR Survey Results

Aggregate percentage either fairly or very satisfied in 2014 survey

Percentage response in each response category

This upward-pointing triangle indicates that the 2014 result is significantly better than the 2009 result

Number of tenants answering this question – this is the base number for calculating percentages

Aggregate percentage of 2014 respondents who are either fairly or very satisfied

The error margin represents the amount by which the result could vary due to chance: in this case, the error margin indicates that the true 2014 result could actually lie at any point between 86.8% and 89.2%

Benchmark results from other housing providers are ranked into four categories referred to as quartiles. This result (2

nd) for

HfN would fall into the second quartile (first is best) meaning that HfN’s result is worse than the top 25% of providers but better than the bottom 50%.

87% is the median result for all of the benchmarked housing providers. This means that half of the businesses in the benchmarked group scored over 87% and half lower than 87%.

Documents

REPORT TO: STRATEGIC BOARD REF: FROM: DATE: ACTION ...committeedocs.northumberland.gov.uk/MeetingDocs/8064_M2805.pdf · Board: Strategic Board – 31 July 2014 Item No: 8.3 Report