It's good to talk!

September 11 2009

The National Conversation was launched by the Tenant Services Authority in January, giving tenants the chance to tell the TSA that issues matter to them.

It comes as no surprise that the initial findings indicate repairs and maintenance of homes, ensuring reasonable
or affordable rents and keeping homes up to date and in a decent condition should be the TSA’s key priorities.

The National Conversation is to be more than commended. It’s the largest consultation with social housing tenants ever held in the UK and the questions targeted at social landlords are relevant to kick start that conversation.

The challenge now for the TSA and all RSLs is to ask the right questions and help deliver choice, value for money, quality and empowerment. 

How do we inspire and give fantastic customer service and empower residents to control the most important priorities as reported by the TSA?  Keep it simple, be radical and mean what you say.

It’s these very questions that were the driving force behind Irwell Valley’s Gold Service launched in 1998 and our success in encouraging good behaviour and its financial benefits to our business are well documented. 

Customer service improves year on year and as a consequence resident expectations have been raised, motivating our colleagues to deliver above sector standards.

Empowering our residents, listening to what they have to say and developing services in line with their priorities and concerns has always been at the top of the agenda.

How about two ideas:

1]    Engage residents to pick their own kitchen from any high street supplier, have it delivered and fitted at their leisure and convenience.

2]    Give residents control of repairs by introducing an unconditional service guaranteed.  This means that dissatisfied customers get their repair re-fixed properly and receive the full cost of that repair from the contractor! Oh and by the way the contractor doesn’t get paid… a triple whammy, which no contractor wants!

Impossible?...No.  Irwell Valley introduced both of these in April 2009.

Tom