myhomeonline

You said, we did

you said

Your feedback really does make a difference to how we deliver our services.

We get lots of feedback and ideas for how we can improve our services - from surveys, consultations, focus groups, Facebook comments, complaints and of course conversations with our housing, maintenance or customer care teams.

We really appreciate your time and listed below are some of the recent improvements we have made by listening to your views.

  • Gas service appointment

    December 2024

    You said...

    • "I was dissatisfied with the gas servicing process and communication"

    We're doing:

    • We’re changing our gas servicing process to ensure our residents know when the servicing is due.
    • Currently gas servicing appointment administration is managed by emh (with Phoenix Gas).
    • By the summer, this administration process will be managed by Midlands Rural, meaning we have more oversight and can provide more timely communications.
    • The importance of the service to ensure we are 100% compliant with legal requirements.

    August 2024

    You said...

    • I wasn’t given enough notice for my gas servicing appointment

    We did:

    • We’ve worked with our gas contractor, Phoenix, to ensure they’re following our gas appointment process. This means their first appointment notification letter is sent to a customer no less than 70 days before their gas certificate runs out.
  • Repair jobs take too long

    You said:

    • "My repair wasn’t completed in time”

    We did:

    We set up daily meetings with eh gas contractor to review outstanding repairs.

    We're proactively monitoring, through work-in-progress updates:

    • jobs which have not been completed on time
    • the quality of completed jobs.

    How are we doing this?

    Satisfaction survey:

    When a maintenance/repair job is completed, our customer care team do a follow-up call with the customer to check if they were satisfied with the quality of the work carried out and with the contractor/engineer who did the work. The feedback from these surveys is reviewed by the Maintenance Team and shared with contractors at monthly meetings to help improve the service. (We do this survey for about 75% of completed jobs.)

    Depending on the value of the repair/maintenance works carried out, we may also do an additional follow up:

    Works with a value under £500:

    Our system automatically generates a random selection of repair/maintenance jobs - the Maintenance Surveyor checks that a satisfaction survey has been done and that customer is happy. If a survey hasn’t been completed, they will contact the customer and investigate any dissatisfaction.

    Works with a value between £500 and £1000:

    All these works are checked by a Maintenance Surveyor. Depending on what the maintenance/repair works involved, this could either be an in-person visit to the home or a phone call.

    Works with a value over £1000:

    All the jobs are inspected in-person by a Maintenance Surveyor.

  • Out of hours emergency contact

    January 2025

    You said...

    • “The out of hours advisors wasn’t very helpful and gave incorrect information”

    ...we're doing

    • We carry out monthly quality checks to ensure the out of hours advisors are providing accurate information.

    • We have changed our out of hours service provider (from 01 May 2025). The new provider works with a large number of other housing associations and support services and we're confident they will improve our customers' experience.

    March 2024

    You said...

    • The advisor from your out of hours service was rude and not helpful.

    ...we did

    • We’ve introduced monthly quality checks with our out of hours service provider.

  • Staff attitude

    February 2025

    You said...

    • “I didn’t like the attitude of a member of staff”

    ...we're doing

    • We've trained all our staff on a customer first culture; developed a Customer experience strategy; and reviewed our customer promises.

  • Damp issues take too long to resolve

    August 2024

    You said:

    • It took too long for the damp issues to be resolved.

    We did:

    • We’ve completed a self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman’s Spotlight Review on damp and mould.
    • We’ve also reviewed our procedure and produced a policy to ensure that we’re providing a quick, comprehensive and consistent response to every reported case of damp.
  • Gas contractor isn't reliable

    March 2024

    You said...

    • The gas contractor doesn’t attend when they should and they don’t fix the problem.

    ...we did

    • We retendered our gas contract and had a new gas contractor from 1 April 2024.
    • We involved customers in the selection process, and used feedback from customers to help us provide a smooth transition to the new supplier.

  • Planned improvements - we want more information

    December 2024

    You said...

    • "I didn't know what would happen when my new bathroom was installed."

    ...we did

    • Tony, our planned maintenance surveyor, and Adam, our liaison officer, are out and about visiting homes before, during and after planned works are carried out (such as new bathrooms, kitchens and heating systems), to ensure they’re done on time and to a high standard, and to fix any issues as quickly as possible. The ‘before’ visit enables them to clearly explain what will happen, so there are no surprises once work starts.

    ...we're doing

    • Creating a comprehensive guide for residents to explain each step of the process.

    January 2024

    You said...

    • I don’t understand why I’m not getting a new heating system.

    ...we did

    • We’ve created a webpage explaining how our planned improvements programme works. It explains:
      • what we mean by planned improvements
      • how we decide which homes have improvements each year
      • how we let customers know if their home is due for planned improvements.

    ...we're doing

    • We know that some of our older homes need to be upgraded. We have an ongoing programme in place to upgrade homes which have the lowest EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) rating, with air source heat pumps, solar panels and insulation.
  • Can we have more choice of decorating help?

    January 2024

    You said...

    • When we moved in, we were given B&Q vouchers for decorating, but don’t have a car, so it was hard to use them.

    ...we did

    • We’ve changed how we offer decorating support to new customers. Now, complete decorating packs, which include everything needed to freshen up a new home, can be delivered to their door by Johnstone’s Decorating Centre.

  • Can we have printed newsletters?

    November 2023

    You said...

    • I don’t use the internet. I’d like to receive more updates by post.

    ...we're doing

    • We’ve introduced an annual printed newsletter.
      If we have an email address for you, most communications are sent by email. If we don’t have an email for you, ALL essential communications are sent by post.

  • Communication about works at my home

    October 2023

    You said...

    • I had some energy efficiency upgrades recently, but I didn’t know how long it would take to have some elements of the work done.

    ...we did

    • We’ve introduced a detailed guide for customers which covers all the steps involved in the energy efficiency works.
  • Quality of contractors

    August 2023

    You said...

    • Getting repairs done is hard work and the quality of workmanship is sometimes poor.

    ...we did

    • We’ve recruited a senior maintenance surveyor.
      This new role has been created to manage and support our contractors, to help improve the service they provide.

  • Air source heat pump installers are not performing

    September 2022

    You said...

    • The standard of work from the air source heat pump installer is not good enough.

    We did...

    • During summer 2022, we temporarily halted installations and had a full service review with the contractor.
  • We want contractors to provide a better service

    September 2022

    You said:

    • We want contractors that can provide a more reliable service

    We did:

    • We have started working with Alect as our responsive repairs contractor. The new contract is built around customer feedback, and has a much greater focus on customer service than the previous contract
    • We have reviewed and updated our Contractor Code of Conduct, which will be issued to all new contractors
  • We want more scheme visits

    You said...

    • Regular visits to schemes to speak to residents would be beneficial

    ...we did

  • Nothing changes

    You said...

    • Nothing changes, so what's the point
    • Take time to listen to tenants and seriously listen to what they are saying

    ...we did

    • We've increased resource in our housing team so our housing officers have more time
    • We've increased resource in our maintenance team, and now have a dedicated surveyor for planned works and a dedicated surveyor for compliance and asset management.
    • We encourage residents to be 'involved' - to have their say and share ideas - and provide feedback from what they've told us
    • We have a new complaints process and always aim for a quick resolution
    • We have adopted the Together with Tenant charter, and will be asking for your views on this soon
    • We have introduced a Your Idea Matters scheme
  • We want a complaints form

    You said...

    • There should be a form for tenants if they want to make a complaint

    ...we did

  • We'd like more benefits support

    You said...

    • I'd like more individual support from my housing officer about benefits

    ...we did

  • Shared owners need more information

    You said...

    • Information for shared owners is not easy to find. The lease you’re given when you buy is ambiguous and the staff at times are not knowledgeable. A pack should be given to new buyer and updates sent out to each homeowner so they know what they are responsible for.

    ...we did...

    ...and we're doing

    • We're reviewing our moving in process for shared owners
  • Contractor appointments

    You said...

    • Contractors often don't give much notice of appointments and sometimes don't turn up at all

    ...we're doing

    • We have introduced daily meetings with our gas contractor and weekly meetings with our day-to-day contractor to manage issues and complaints

Find out how you can have your voice heard and help us improve our services.

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