Tenant Satisfaction Measures (Heart of Medway)

Contents

The Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) were introduced by the Regulator of Social Housing to assess how well landlords are doing in providing good quality homes and services. The TSMs allow you to clearly see how Heart of Medway is performing on key areas such as repairs, building safety, communication and how well we listen and respond to customers. You can compare our scores with last year’s, as well as with other housing providers. 

There are 22 Tenant Satisfaction Measures which are a mix of perception scores (what customers tell us through surveys about their experience) and management information (what we record in our systems about how we deliver our services).   

This year, we outsourced our surveys to an independent company. We also introduced new ways for customers to take part, including telephone and online survey methods, giving people greater flexibility and making it easier for more customers to share their views.

You can read more about the methodology used for these surveys here.

Although our overall customer satisfaction has stayed steady this year at 67%, this is below the standard we set for ourselves and below what you deserve. We’re committed to doing better.

We’re focusing on delivering a consistently high quality service across every part of our organisation so that you have a positive experience every time you contact us. As part of this, we’ve made some changes to our Homeownership team so we can respond more quickly and effectively. Many of you have told us how important timely, clear responses are and we’re acting on that feedback.

We’ll be spending more time listening to customers we don’t hear from as often, so we can better understand your experiences. We’re also putting extra focus on following things through and keeping our service consistent, helping turn neutral experiences into genuinely positive ones.

We’re really pleased to see improvements in customer satisfaction in how quickly repairs are completed. At the same time, we know there’s more to do to make sure you get a consistent service. We’ve brought our customer services and repairs teams closer together, which is already helping us complete repairs faster and more smoothly. Our next priority is keeping you better updated and making sure every repair is finished to a high standard. We want you to feel confident that your home is safe, well maintained, and that you’re kept informed throughout the whole process.

We’re continuing to carry out key safety checks to a high standard, and most areas remain fully compliant. However, we know customer confidence has dipped slightly, with satisfaction around safety at 73%, and we want to improve that.

To support this, we’ve kept a strong focus on meeting all safety requirements and have been carrying out targeted home visits, especially where there are concerns such as damp, mould, or where someone may have individual needs. As we move forward, we’ll be communicating more clearly about safety and responding more quickly to any issues you report. Our aim is to give you greater reassurance and make sure you feel safe and supported in your home.

Customers tell us they still feel they’re treated fairly overall, but we know we’re not always getting it right when it comes to listening and keeping you properly informed and that’s having an impact on satisfaction.

The good news is we’ve already made strong progress in making it easier for residents to reach us. Call wait times have dropped from over seven minutes to under two, and far fewer calls are being abandoned. Now, we’re turning our attention to improving how we listen and respond to your feedback, and making sure you receive clearer, more consistent updates throughout your experience with us.

Complaint satisfaction is still low at 31%, although we did see strong improvement in the second half of the year. We know this isn’t good enough, and we’re taking action to change it.

We’ve set up a Learning from Complaints Group to tackle the root causes of issues, improved our response times – especially at Stage 2 – and strengthened how we identify and handle complaints so nothing is missed. Looking ahead, we’re focusing on building quality through better training and assurance, resolving issues earlier to avoid escalation, and improving communication so our responses feel clearer, more helpful and more empathetic.

Satisfaction has improved to 68% for neighbourhood contribution, and we’ve met our 50% target for handling anti-social behaviour (ASB). We’re also seeing more residents coming forward to report issues with ASB, which shows growing confidence in the support that's available. With stronger processes now in place, we’re managing and closing cases more effectively.

Our focus now is on resolving cases more quickly and making sure you feel listened to and supported throughout the whole process.

Our priorities for the year ahead

Based on what customers have told us, we’re focusing on the things that matter most to you:

  • Improving service consistency – making sure your experience feels reliable across all our services

  • Strengthening communication and follow‑up – listening better, keeping you informed, and closing the loop

  • Delivering a more effective and empathetic complaints service – resolving issues fairly, quickly and with understanding

  • Increasing customer engagement and insight – involving you more in shaping decisions and improving services

  • Embedding continuous learning and improvement – using feedback and data to keep raising standards.

Detailed analysis

Click HERE to see detailed analysis of our results.