Feedback and Complaints
Feedback
Your thoughts and ideas on how we can improve our service to you are valuable to us. We appreciate both positive and constructive feedback and would love to hear from you.
Any feedback received is fed back to the relevant person or team and we will always look to see if we can improve a service as a result of what you have told us. Should any ways of working change, we will publish what we have done differently on our website, in our Door to Door magazine and other publications.
Here are some comments we have received recently from customers regarding our service;
'The good news is that over the last few weeks the Maintenance teams have made an excellent job of taking care of our grounds and gardens, you have two really hardworking teams, a team of young lads who have now been moved to different locations but are so enthusiastic about gardening and help dig over all the gardens, weeded, trimmed the edges, cut the grass and took all the rubbish away, trimmed the shrubs and have been wonderful and the new team which came on site yesterday and worked really hard too weeding, trimming, cutting and helping to trim the gardens of the residents who are too old to do it, I think you have finally got the balance right and we would be very sad to lose such lovely workers who are also very friendly and helpful. I did tell Mr Kerr to pass the praise onto them as they deserve to be told what a great job they have done and also for him for his organisation of them as well.'
"Katherine Frost, Rent Officer and Angela Sellers, Customer Service Advisor are an asset to your company. Good interpersonal skills and very helpful at all times" - received from a customer at The Towers
"A big thank you for the help with my plumbing repair; I recognise how much effort was made and it showed how much you care" - received from Coxes Close
"The help I have received from your Customer Services team was First Class and one to be proud of" - received from Nelson Drive
"To all the staff and workers at BHA; I am so blessed for having BHA as my landlord, for many years you have been very good to me and made my stay in my home wonderful, I thank you"
"A very efficient service for which I am most grateful"
"I have two words, absolutely excellent"
"Thanks to everyone involved for making this a very special place to live"
"Thank you BHA for giving me a beautiful home to live in"
"Excellent service, faultless"
"Most helpful and polite concerning my repair, very pleased with such an efficient and quick service"
"The contractor who came was very polite and explained everything he was doing. I would recommend to anyone, very pleased"
"Angela who took my repair enquiry was brilliant"
Received from Tenants Conference 2009
"The childcare was excellent and my daughter enjoyed herself thoroughly"
"All the staff were pleasant, helpful, efficient and a joy to speak to, confirming the manner in which those I have spoken to on the telephone conduct themselves"
Send us your comments today
Email Kate Fielder, your Customer Service Manager, with your feedback or call 0303 303 0003.
How to make a complaint
You can log a complaint online or call Customer Services on 0303 303 0003.
We hope we meet your individual expectations and standards at all times, however sometimes we make mistakes and things go wrong.
Where ever possible we will try and resolve your concerns at point of contact but there may be times where we need to investigate matters in more detail.
If something has gone wrong and you wish to make a formal complaint please read our step by step guide below or download our booklet 'Formal Complaints Procedure'.
Stage 1 - Officer Investigation
You can do this by phone, letter or calling in. If you are not sure who to contact, ring our Customer Services Team on 0303 303 0003. Once you have let us know what the complaint is, we will do our best to sort it out as quickly as we can
The employee receiving the initial complaint will:
- Record details of your complaint on our system
- Try to resolve your problem straight away
- Record the outcome on your records
If we cannot resolve the complaint straight away, we will:
- Contact you within 3 working days to inform you about who is dealing with the complaint and give you a deadline for our response
- Respond to you within 10 working days
- If we made a mistake, make sure we take action to put things right
- Keep you informed about any delays
- Tell you about your right to go to the next stage if you are dissatisfied with our response
- If successfully resolved, record the outcome on your records
Stage 2 - Manager Investigation
An appropriate Manager will review a complaint when:
- A customer complains when they are dissatisfied with our stage 1 response
- We unreasonably fail to reply at stage 1
The Manager will:
- Record details of your complaint
- Acknowledge receipt within 3 working days
- Respond to you within 10 working days
- If we made a mistake, make sure we take action to put things right
- Keep you informed about any delays
- Tell you about your right to complain to a Director if you are dissatisfied with our response
Stage 3 - Director Investigation
An appropriate Director will review a complaint when:
- A customer complains that they are dissatisfied with our stage 2 response
- We unreasonably fail to reply at the second stage
The Director will:
- Record details of your complaint
- Acknowledge receipt within 3 working days
- Respond to you within 10 working days
- If we made a mistake, make sure we take action to put things right
- Keep you informed about any delays
- Tell you about your right to complain to the Chief Executive if you are dissatisfied with our response
Stage 4 - Panel Review
The Chief Executive will arrange a Panel to review the complaint when:
- A customer complains when they are dissatisfied with the service investigation
- We unreasonably fail to carry out a service investigation
- A Director requests an independent review
We will:
- Record details of your complaint
- Acknowledge within 3 working days and inform you of your right to attend a panel hearing
- Arrange a panel hearing of the complaint within 20 working days
- Send you a copy of the panel’s response within 5 working days of the hearing
- If the panel finds that we made a mistake, take action to put things right
- Keep you informed about any delays
- Tell you about your right to complain to the Housing Ombudsman Service if you are dissatisfied with our response
Stage 5 - Ombudsman Final Step
How do we deal with customers who remain dissatisfied after we have fully responded to their complaint?
We will advise any customer who has completed all stages of our customer feedback scheme to contact the Independent Housing Ombudsman Service. If you complain again about the same issue, our Chief Executive may write to you informing you that we will not respond to future correspondence about the complaint unless you provide new evidence or make a complaint about a different issue. It has been our experience that such complaints are rare and we are certain that you will be very happy in your home.
The Ombudsman address:
The Independent Housing
Ombudsman Service
81 Aldwyck
London WC2B 4HN
Lo-call: 0845 7125973
Tel: 0207 421 3800
Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
Web: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk
Please note: In most cases the Ombudsman will not deal with your complaint unless you have completed our complaints procedure first.
We cannot deal with anonymous complaints, so please ensure that you provide us with all the information we need to contact you.
