Customer chemistry

Everything starts with our customers. We pride ourselves on being a customer-centric organisation which is why we can confidently say we’re ‘more than just a landlord’.

For many of the people who live in one of our 10,700 homes their only interaction with us may be to set up a Direct Debit for their rent or when we need to visit for our yearly gas safety check. But we’re there for much more than that.

We have a whole package of support options so that if customers need a helping hand, whether that’s with debt advice, antisocial behaviour problems or a safeguarding issue, we have people on hand to help.

Throughout the year our Tenancy Support team helped customers get an amazing £1.52 million in additional income they were entitled to – such as unclaimed benefits and grants. This is a phenomenal figure and shows how needed this support is, especially as the team managed to help more than 1,000 customers throughout the year.

We've also invested in advanced training to help our Customer Services team be fully prepared for the new consumer standards for social housing. This has included equipping them with the tools to help them identify customer needs and vulnerabilities, so we can better understand the diverse needs of our customers and adapt our homes and services accordingly.

The team is taking the time to ask customers questions about their household and contact preferences when they call us, which means we're now building up records of important information. This means, for example, that we know if a customer may take more time to answer the door if we knock on for an appointment, or if they'd prefer us to ring them to let them know we're on the way. This allows us to tailor our communications and provide a more considerate and supportive service for everyone.

Check out some more examples of how we’ve been helping customers below.