Complaints Performance

We received 122 formal complaints between 1st April 2020 and 31st March 2021. Of those:

• 11 were withdrawn
• 46 were upheld
• 39 were partially upheld
• 26 were not upheld

6 of the above complaints were escalated to stage two of which:

• 4 were upheld
• 0 were partially upheld
• 2 were not upheld

Response timescales*:

• To acknowledge at stage one: 1.1 days (against a 2 day target)
• To respond at stage one: 10.3 days (against a 10 day target)
• To respond at stage two: 17.2 days (against a 20 day target)

*Please note: all times and targets given are in working days.

Praise:

In 2020/21 we continued to log compliments when one of our customers contacted us to praise a member of staff for something. 

We logged 48 in total, including: helpfulness of contact centre staff; empathy shown by staff; attitude and capability of repairs operatives; and speed of response to issues.
 

• Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code was introduced
• We made sure we were ready and in a position to comply by 1 September 2020
• All the relevant information can be found on our complaints and compliments page
• We carried out an in-depth analysis of all complaints from the previous year to get an understanding of what went wrong
• We involved some of you and mapped out your experience to gain better insights
   

• We recognise we still need to communicate better on the whole – with you and each other
• Some issues still take too long to resolve – this can be down to many reasons
• The other biggest area of concern is the quality of the work we do or service we provide in many instances
• We need to put more focus yet on learning from complaints
• Our quality assurance approach introduced last year has had a positive effect with better, clearer responses being sent which has led to fewer stage two complaints
   

• We have changed our approach for 2021/22 and moved to a formal only complaint process for even better transparency and accountability
• As part of this we now include lessons learnt in our stage one responses where relevant
• The learnings from complaints will be embedded within the Insight to Action framework which aims to address areas of dissatisfaction by enacting change through discrete and timely improvement initiatives
• The analysis of complaints during 2020/21 has informed the Customer Scrutiny Team workplan with a scrutiny into repairs ordering to commence in July 2021
• The more complex issues identified are being addressed via longer term project work and the Shaping Our Future programme

We received 75 formal complaints between 1st April 2019 and 31st March 2020. Of those:

• 1 was withdrawn
• 37 were upheld
• 19 were partially upheld
• 18 were not upheld

14 of the above complaints were escalated to stage two of which:

• 8 were upheld
• 0 were partially upheld
• 6 were not upheld

Response timescales*:

• To acknowledge at stage one: 1.11 days (against a 2 day target)
• To respond at stage one: 9.25 days (against a 10 day target)
• To respond at stage two: 16.75 days (against a 20 day target)

*Please note: all times and targets given are in working days.

For the second year running, targets were met for acknowledging and responding to complaints. As can be seen below, the focus has now shifted to focus on the quality of responses.

Praise:

In 2019/20 we also started to log compliments when one of our customers contacted us to praise a member of staff for something. 

We logged 39 in total, including: thanking repairs operatives for a job well done (multiple occasions); praising staff for taking action on fly tipping; thanking customer service staff members for help on the phone to resolve various issues; thanking members of our Income team for their help to resolve an issue; and praise for some of our caretakers for various bits of help and advice.

Themes:

• Length of time taken to diagnose repairs and to resolve issues
• Lack of communication/updates
• Dealing with complaints from former tenants (e.g. RTB) and keeping updates in one place that can be easily found
• Agreed actions being ‘missed’ or ‘lost’ and having to be chased up by the customer
• We need to train our staff to better understand autism/mental health issues

Action Taken:

• Revision and roll out of an improved complaints policy and process in Spring 2020 using learning and guidance from the Institute of Customer Service and the Housing Ombudsman in particular
• Formation of a dedicated complaints team with the responsibility amongst other things to make sure that all stated actions in a complaint response happen within indicative timescales and to provide a quality assurance approach where responses are reviewed before sending
• An in depth analysis of all 2019/20 formal complaints is underway where root causes are being identified and will be used to inform improvements in the business
• A way to retrieve information on former tenant accounts and to capture complaint updates has been rolled out to the contact centre and other appropriate staff
• Staff received training on understanding autism as well as equality, diversity and inclusion training
   

• 3 were withdrawn
• 29 were upheld
• 6 were partially upheld
• 41 were not upheld

In 33* of the above complaints, the customer was not happy with the stage one response and asked that their complaint be reviewed at stage two. Of those:

• 3 were upheld
• 8 were partially upheld
• 22 were not upheld

*Please note: 26 of the stage two panels were actually heard in 2019/20, but are reported here as they were dealt with in stage one in 2018/19

Response timescales**:

• To acknowledge at stage one - 0.78 days (at a 2 day target)
• To respond at stage one - 8.78 days (at a 10 day target)
• To respond at stage two - 16.79 (at a 20 day target)

**Please note: all times and targets are given in working days

Acknowledgement and response times vastly improved in 2018/19 compared to recent years and all targets were met.

Themes:

• How One Manchester interacts with and treats its customers
• Poor communication, in particular failure in some instances to keep complainants updated when more time is required to complete an investigation
• A need was identified to keep track of learning outcomes and to put a sense of ownership on the respective department

Action taken:

• Complaints training for managers happened during 2019/20 partly as a result of how complaints were handled in 2018/19
• The policy was revised to include a stipulation to send a holding correspondence when it was identified that more time to carry out a full and proper investigation was needed
• Now, when a formal complaint is completed, an automatic prompt goes to the relevant head of service for them to complete and document the ‘lessons learnt’ to ensure they are thinking about the root cause of the complaint to hopefully avoid a repeat
   

• 3 were withdrawn
• 19 were upheld
• 7 were partially upheld 
• 10 were not upheld 
• 1 went straight to stage 2

In 11 of the above complaints, the customer was not happy with the stage 1 response and asked that their complaint be reviewed at stage 2.  Of those:

• 5 were upheld
• 6 were not upheld

Response timescales:

• Average days to acknowledge a formal complaint – 1 day (target is 2 days)
• Average days to respond to a stage 1 complaint -  13.8 (target is 10 days)

For 2016/17 the group’s performance in responding to stage 1 complaints was 21 days against a target of 10 days. Whilst 2017/18’s performance of 13.8 days represents a considerable improvement on this, we are still missing our target of 10 days. A complaints improvement project is currently in progress that will help staff in meeting our response requirements. Actions include automated alerts for investigating managers to flag when complaint responses are due. 
 

We know we don’t always get things right. However, when we receive a complaint, we look at what has gone wrong and make improvements to try and ensure we don’t repeat the same mistakes. The common areas that our customers told us we were going wrong were:

• Not keeping customers informed and updated well enough about services and ongoing issues.
• Not always responding to complaints within our 10 day target timescale. 
• Repairs issues that should have been identified at an earlier stage 
• Inconsistencies in managing subject access data requests from customers

We are taking the following actions to respond to the above and improve our general performance around complaint handling

• IT improvements will support staff through a process of triggers and alerts to ensure they are meeting with timescales and meeting with customers at an early stage to understand their concerns and try and seek a resolution.
• Updated training for all front line staff involved in handling and investigating complaints to ensure they are fully familiar with processes, timescales and expectations.
• The 2018/19 Repairs Improvement Project will include customer care training for all repairs operatives including an emphasis on proactive communication and keeping customers  updated.
• The repairs project will also focus on process improvements aimed at increasing repairs diagnosis and first time fix.
• In preparation for the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) from 25th May 2018, we have improved our approach to the handling of data requests from customers.
   

• 4 were withdrawn
• 21 were upheld
• 5 were partially upheld
• 9 were not upheld

In 15 of the above complaints, the customer was not happy with the stage 1 response and asked that their complaint be reviewed at stage 2. Of those:

• 3 were upheld
• 2 were partially upheld
• 10 were not upheld

Response timescales:

• Days to acknowledge - Stage 1: 1 day, Stage 2: 0.6 days – target is 2 days
• Days to respond to a stage 1 complaint: 21 days – target is 10 days
• Days to respond to a stage 2 complaint: 49 days – target is 20 days

The group’s performance around complaint response timescales falls below the standards that we have set ourselves and that customers should expect. We have made improvement in this area a priority for this year and measures have been put in place for closer monitoring of timescales and due dates.

The complaints made during the year were about the following service areas:

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We know we don’t always get things right. However, when we receive a complaint, we look at what has gone wrong and make improvements to try and ensure we don’t repeat the same mistakes. The common areas that our customers told us we were going wrong were:

• Not recognising issues reported as formal complaints quickly enough
• Not communicating well enough with our customers
• Generally, customers are unhappy with elements of the repairs service as can be seen by the large proportion of repairs complaints – Communication and not updating customers are cited as particular issues

We have taken the following actions to improve on the above:

• More training for front line advisors to recognise when a complaint should be logged formally and what to do to promptly record and acknowledge with the customer
• Internal staffing campaigns to promote more positive behaviours around service delivery and the use of our information systems – the Lets ROC campaign which stands for Record it, Own it, Close it; and the ABC framework for our trade operatives referring to – Attitude, Behaviour, Communication
• Weekly updates are being sent to senior staff across all front line service areas highlighting timescales for responding to complaints and complaint themes. This information is discussed with front line service managers to identify trends earlier and agree improvement actions.