As part of our commitment to continue improving your customer experience, our Tenants’ Voice – Improving Services group has been reviewing our out of hours service.

All tenants have access to this service, which provides an essential service for tenants who have a repairs emergency in their home.

We considered how easy it is for a tenant to contact the out of hours service; how tenant expectations of the service are managed; and how satisfied tenants are with the service.

What we reviewed:

  • A briefing from colleagues on how the out of hours service is delivered
  • Information available to tenants on the PHG website
  • Information relating to the service including call data, training resources and policies
  • How tenant satisfaction information is obtained.

 What is working well?

It is easy to contact the out of hours service. The same telephone number is required to access all Progress services, including the out of hours service. Calls are answered promptly, the average wait time is under two minutes. It is clearly explained to the tenant that the service is for emergencies only and what the recharge policy is. When a repair is ordered, tenants are told it can be up to 24 hours before it is undertaken.

Asking tenants to identify the impact on themselves and their household was a good way to assess if an emergency repair was required and if there were any vulnerabilities that needed to be taken in to account.

Our findings and recommendations

We did find areas that needed improvement. This included investigating why there was a high abandonment rate for calls; strengthening guidance to the control centre on how to respond to tenants with vulnerabilities;  considering if the tenant can be notified when a tradesman is on their way to the property and considering how to increase satisfaction data on the out of hours service.

Next Steps

We will discuss our findings and recommendations with the service and consider how we can measure the impact of this review.

 

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