You said, we did
Customer feedback is crucial to helping us develop and, if necessary, change so that we can offer the best possible service. You said, we did is our way of communicating the customer feedback we have had, how we have acted on it and what we have implemented to improve our service for our customers.
This feedback comes from a variety of sources including our well-established and independent Customer Scrutiny Panel (CSP) who are a group of residents that conduct in-depth reviews on how we deliver services to our customers. The Panel is a formal part of our governance at mhs homes, and their customer insights and recommendations help us make vital improvements.
Some of the actions below are based on recommendations from their reviews, other actions come from learning from complaints and other engagement with and feedback from our customers.
If you want to know more about the ways customers can help us improve our services, please visit our Get Involved page.
2024 - 2025
We did: We’re bringing in more people to manage tenancy and neighbourhood services to improve the way we handle ASB and hate crime. You’ll get to know the people working in your area and you’ll see them out and about more often.
We’re reviewing our response times to make sure we get back to you quickly when you let us know about ASB, and that we keep you informed as we make progress.
We’re sharing more on how to report ASB and developing guidance on what you can expect from us when we’re handling your case.
A new process will prioritise the most serious ASB incidents. And we’re doing more to understand how we can support you when you’ve got a problem with neighbours.
We did: We’ve redesigned our services to include dedicated roles to support you if you’re moving home, or you need help to pay rent, benefits advice or access to support.
We did: We’re recruiting more grounds maintenance staff and caretakers to keep your estates clean and well maintained all year round.
We’re also changing the way our grounds teams work so we can visit estates and communities more often. Our teams have stopped the seasonal way of working which focused on grass cutting during the summer months, and hedge, shrub and tree works in the winter months.
They now work on a four week round, looking at what needs doing as a priority at each job so they can use the time most effectively.
We did: Over the past year, we’ve more than doubled the size of our Customer Service team and invested in more training.
Every new team member has what they need to provide our customers with the best possible service, from day one. This means we can deal with more queries at the first point of contact, reducing your wait times.
We did: We’re bringing in more complaint handlers to listen and learn from your feedback, investigate complaints and explore solutions.
And we’ve introduced quality assurance checks alongside new training for all staff.
This includes ‘allstars’ customer experience training for everyone at mhs homes. It’s about learning how to communicate in the best way, showing empathy and actively listening to truly understand the customer’s perspective.
We did: We’re building our in-house repairs and home improvements team to reduce the use of sub-contractors. This investment in our teams will help to bring down your waiting times.
We did: We consulted with you on what we can do to meet your needs when we visit your home, or when you’re communicating with us.
As a result of what you told us, we’ve stopped using the word ‘vulnerable’ to describes individuals or groups. And we’re improving the way we record temporary and permanent needs and looking at how we can adapt our services appropriately.
2023 - 2024
We did: We're delivering an improvement plan, including a 'triage' process to prioritise the most serious incidents, helping us target resources more quickly and effectively.
We did: We've handled 94% of your complaints within the timescales set out by the Housing Ombudsman.
We did: We listened and changed our provider to Homeswapper, so you can now join for free.
We did: We're extending our community drop ins with a new regular session planned for Strood.
We did: We’ve developed a section on our website which gives information about housing disrepair and allows you to directly report any problems to us. We will investigate the problem, raise the repair and contact you to arrange the appointment. When the work is completed, we will check in with you with any updates.
We did: We’ve developed multi trade mapping which allows you to raise repairs for more than one trade and have a multi trader attend your home, rather than waiting for multiple appointments across different days.
We did: Our repairs and estates operatives have a mobile device to view our ‘worklist manager’ app. This allows them to see their worklist for the day. Repairs inspections by our estate team are also completed on these devices. This has led to more efficient processes for repair requests which can be made in the system straightaway. The customer team at our head office can also see the inspection notes, images and repairs immediately should they need to. If one of our operatives needs to return to your home for further work, they can make a note of what is required in the system and make your follow up appointment straight away.
We did: Our vans have had a complete refresh. They were emptied completely and restocked with all the tools and materials needed for operatives to make repairs. The vans are now replenished weekly. Call out teams also have access to emergency boxes during out of hours. These allow our operatives to complete a ‘make safe’ service for basic emergency jobs.
2021 - 2022
We did: We linked up with the Medway and Maidstone Task Force to coordinate responses to ongoing and long-standing issues. These taskforces comprise of members from mhs homes, Kent Fire and Rescue, Kent Police and Local Councils. The Medway task force recently hosted a Family Fun Day at Bryant Street, giving residents the opportunity to discuss any issues they may have, which was recognised at the Kent Police Problem Solving Awards.
We did: Our Customer Experience Group regularly takes part in scoring contracts to procure additional services on jobs associated with repairs and empty homes. Some of these contracts are now in place and will help to address the backlog of jobs that built up throughout the course of the pandemic. We also added the ability to raise, book and track repair jobs on the My Account platform, to enable you more control over your home management.
We did: We’ve introduced new software that will help mhs manage ongoing ASB cases and allow all colleagues the most up-to-date information, allowing us deliver a more consistent service to our customers. All regular users have undertaken significant training to support the introduction of this new software.
We’re now working on how to best understand and interpret the data stored in this new software so that we can see what we’re doing well and which areas of ASB could be improved further.
We did: We’ve introduced an ASB case review panel which has already been used by mhs colleagues to provide feedback and help shape team training and individual staff development.
We did: We’ve scheduled for mhs homes colleagues (including managers) to undertake estate inspections at least three times per year to identify any issues and we’ll be reintroducing estate champions later in 2023 to help us identify these issues earlier.
We did: We’ve introduced a new monthly meeting to review complaints where senior managers will attend to oversee how the complaints are being managed, provide support in gathering information and ensure they have been satisfactorily dealt with.
We did: We’ve created a dedicated page on our website to help all of our customers find information and resources that are relevant to them. Our housing team has also received training so they can give some proactive energy advice to anyone who may need it.
We did: We’ve launched our Hardship Fund which has a total budget of £25,000 to help customers pay energy costs, buy essential furniture and help towards increased food costs. We’ve also turned our Support Living schemes into warm hubs for customers who are aged 75 or over.
We did: We’ve introduced a new self-declaration vulnerability form for customers who feel they’d benefit from additional support from mhs homes. This forms provides us with the information we need to ensure all vulnerable customers get the dedicated support they require to sustain their tenancy.
We did: We’ve committed to offering face to face meetings either at our offices, in your home or in neutral meeting place of your choice from 2023. If you would prefer to do this, all you need to do is tell us and we’ll make the necessary arrangements. We’ve also introduced our customer drop-in sessions at local libraries and community centres so that you can meet with us in person there too if you would like to.
We did: We’ve introduced a call back log in our internal customer and housing management system which will enable us to monitor call backs and identify any gaps or patterns in a lack of responding to customer enquiries.
2020 - 2021
We did: We launched the Customer Experience Group to ensure customer feedback is collected regularly. We have also restarted estate inspections and estate walkabouts to ensure that we proactively pick up on any issues or that need addressing before they become a problem for the local community.
We did: We developed My Account platform to allow you greater control over your home management, without needing to call us. In My Account you can raise, track and amend repairs and much more.
We did: We worked with customers to produce service standards that meet your needs and expectations.. These are available on our website and are built around four key commitments to you:
1. Providing excellent customer service and clear communication
2. Looking after your home and estate and keeping you safe
3. Supporting you to maintain your home and tenancy
4. Involving you and keeping you informed
We did: We added a ‘contact us’ link to our website footer at the bottom of all pages on our website. This means that wherever you are on the website, you are only ever one click away from being able to get in contact with us.
We did: We introduced the Customer Experience Group to give customers the opportunity to help shape and influence our services. The CEG has recently been involved in shaping our services standards by helping us find new suppliers for gas servicing and provided input on our new damp and mould process. They have also given feedback on the documents we send out to contractors during the bidding process for contracts such as roofing.
We did: We started our customer drop-in sessions where customers can pop-by and ask us questions regarding their tenancy or wider company each month. We also send quarterly newsletters, have increased social media communications and restarted our Ask Ash campaign, where Chief Executive, Ashley Hook, answers any questions or queries customers may have about mhs homes.
We did: We hired a Customer Engagement Officer, whose role is dedicated to ensuring that our customer’s voices are heard, and their views are considered. Angela has already made great strides in reaching out to our customers, through our Estate Inspections and newly formed Customer Experience Group.
General
We did: We provide an annual report which outlines what we’ve invested our money in that year. We have also held focus groups on the service charge which led to us providing homeowners and leaseholders with a full breakdown on what their service charge covers. See our most recent report here.
We did: We’ve reminded our teams to keep the use of jargon to a minimum, when talking to people both internally and externally. By promoting this behaviour amongst our colleagues, it ensures updates to our customers are clear and consistent, regardless of who you speak with at mhs homes.
We did: We encourage our colleagues to participate in Days for Kent where they spend a day volunteering with a local charity. We aim to carry out 750 Days for Kent by 2024.
Each year our colleagues also vote to support a Charity of the Year, where our corporate fundraising efforts are focused to raising money for that cause. This year, that charity is World Child Cancer and we have raised over £15,000 so far this year. However, we never rule out partnerships with charities such as our recent furniture partnership with Gillingham Street Angels. Teams also often take up fundraising for charities that are close to them but may not necessarily be related to our corporate charity, such as a recent internal quiz and dress-up day for Making Miracles who provide support for families going through bereavement.
As part of our contracts with external suppliers, they also contribute to the local community through donations to charities, helping our Day for Kent Programme, offering apprenticeships or other opportunities that occur.