You might remember that the Resident Scrutiny Group (RSG) recently held their second annual co-regulation event with our Executive Directors and Group Board. During this meeting, the RSG’s latest project, a review of communications at Abri, was discussed. We’re now ready to share with you the work that the RSG completed and their recommendations to help improve our services.
You can read the review in full here.
A reminder of what the RSG do
The RSG reviews the services delivered by Abri, making recommendations for improvements and providing support where it’s needed. They’re a group of independent Abri customers, who are able to scrutinise with their unique experience of living in our homes. We like to think of the RSG as our ‘critical friend’, helping us to be the best that we can be whilst keeping the voices of our customers at the front and centre of our decision making.
Why was communication chosen as the RSG’s latest review?
Effective communication is essential to maintaining a positive relationship between us and our customers. The RSG identified in previous reviews, and through annual consultation with other customers, that Abri does not always get this right.
How do the RSG review our services?
Communications is a big topic, so the project group (a group of four members of the RSG) scoped out the key areas of focus considering their own experiences and customer feedback. The areas of focus agreed on were:
- Communication methods
- Tone of language
- Length of communications
- Accessibility to alternative methods
- Communications with different customer groups
The review focused on written communication with customers including letters, emails, and text messages. The project group selected two letters from Abri to assess, that were sent to customers within the last six months: the annual rent increase letter, and a letter informing customers of a change of company name for direct debit payments.
A survey was also conducted with the Scrutiny Sounding Board and other RSG members to maximise the opportunity for direct customer feedback. The results provided useful statistical data and helped gather valuable insight into customers’ perceptions of Abri’s communications. The project group reviewed the findings, and this contributed to the recommendations made.
Our new way of working on one set of customer systems and launching the My Abri customer portal was acknowledged as an ongoing project that’ll be a significant enabler for our ambitions to improve the customer experience. My Abri combines the best of both legacy portals, giving customers the freedom and flexibility to manage their home, access services and find out information right at their fingertips.
Findings of the review
The group found that overall, Abri is effective when communicating with our customers, but they found opportunities for us to improve in several small areas that will really enhance the customers’ overall experience:
- Ensuring that customers are contacted in their preferred method was looked at, and the RSG recommended that we also record what customers prefer to be known as so that we can communicate with them in this way.
- The RSG want Abri to take better ownership of customer enquiries and ensure that the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for customer response times is met. They recommended that detailed note taking is ensured so that customer queries can be followed up effectively.
- To ensure communications are read and understood by our customers, the RSG recommended we try to keep key headline messages at the start of communications, establish a group of customers to review key customer communications and to ensure that we signpost customers on where to access other formats of our communications like braille or large font.
- The survey results revealed that shared ownership and leasehold customers feel that they don’t receive the same communication as rental customers, this could be due to less services being provided for this type of tenure, which means there is less regular communication. The RSG recommended that we think about consulting with shared ownership and leasehold customers to better understand demand for increased engagement, so that we can meet their needs.
The RSG’s recommendations
The review has given ten recommendations in total for us to work on, to help improve communications with customers at Abri. You can read them in the full report. We really appreciate the work that the RSG do in reviewing our services and we’re looking forward to getting stuck into their recommendations.
What are we already focusing on in customer communications?
Damp and mould is a key focus for us and we take cases in our properties extremely seriously. To ensure our communication around this issue is accessible to all customers, we’ve sent out our advice and information in emails, letters, newsletters and on MyAbri. Infographics and video content is being worked on which will be a really clear method to communicate our guidance. We’ll also be updating the Abri handbook to make it more accessible to offline customers, ensuring that they have all the information needed and are aware of the support available to them.
