Our annual complaints performance and service improvement report 2023/24
Find out about the level of complaints we’ve received, what they were about and how we’ve handled them in line with the Housing Ombudsman’s complaints handling code.
Our Board's response to complaints
We’re delighted to share that Thrive has successfully met the standards of the new amended Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code, effective from April 2024.
Our policies have undergone rigorous external checks, and we are pleased to confirm full compliance. In particular, we are proud of:
- Timely responses. Most customer complaints are resolved within the Housing Ombudsman’s recommended timescales.
- Equality. We treat everyone fairly, with no signs of inequality in our services.
Building on these achievements, we aim to make our policy more straightforward and customer friendly. Your input is invaluable, so we’ll be reaching out for your help with this.
There has been a 13% increase in complaints between April 2023 and March 2024. This mirrors sector-wide trends, possibly influenced by the Government’s ‘Make it Right’ campaign and a general dip in UK customer satisfaction (UKCSI).
At Thrive, we recognise that we need to do better at:
- doing what we say that we will do,
- listening to customers views and acting upon them and
- keeping you informed.
In response this year, we’re focusing on improving our repairs process, especially when it comes to damp and mould issues. We’re also paying close attention to our cleaning and grounds maintenance services as we know these services have a real impact on how you may feel about your home and neighbourhood.
We’ve already made changes to our complaints handling. Instead of team managers, we now have a dedicated team of complaints specialists to resolve issues fairly. Plus, we’ve added an extra step to check with you before final decisions are made.
Your voice shapes our services. Become a Thrive Customer Voice member and help us continue to thrive together at thrivehomes.org.uk/getinvolved
Craig O'Donnell | Board Member
An overview of our complaints
This year, Thrive has experienced a 13% increase in complaints, in line with others in the sector. This is due to:
- proactive communications to customers encouraging them to let us know when things go wrong
- the new Housing Ombudsman Complaints Code
- high-profile government campaigns and media attention.
Whilst the volume of complaints has increased, we’re pleased that we have made significant progress in responding the timescales set out by the Housing Ombudsman Complaints Code.
In 2023/24 we:
*we’ve calculated that on average it takes us approximately 54.5 hours to deal with a complaint, this works out as £1,844 being spent per case.
Comparing our complaints to key services
We looked at our key services and compared them to the number of complaints we received for that service.
Looking at the common reasons for complaints, we’ve pinpointed three main areas as follows:
Doing what we say we will do
206 complaints
Listening and acting
245 complaints
Keeping you informed
28 complaints
Interested in more detail? Learn more about the common issues identified between stage 1 and stage 2 complaints.
Trends in complaints
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Age / gender
There are no strong links between complaints received and any age or gender groups of customers who made them.
-
Disability or impairment
Our review of customer feedback shows that people with disabilities or impairments are just as likely to complain as anyone else
-
Property type
We have identified that more complaints have been raised by customers living in flats compared to other types of property.
- 58.4% of complaints from those living in flats compared to 49.67% of flats in our stock.
This is due to estate management complaints such as communal cleaning and grounds maintenance.
-
Local areas
We have found no areas where complaints are more common.
When we looked at the reasons behind the complaints that were referred to the Housing Ombudsman, we found it was often because we are not ‘doing what we say we will do’.
As part of this, we could improve at keeping record of information to keep track of issues.
This is what the Housing Ombudsman cases were about and the reasons for referral:
- Anti-Social Behaviour & Damp and Mould
- Record keeping
- Complaint handling
- Estate management
- Complaint handling
- Record keeping
- Gas servicing
- Recording keeping
- Keeping the customer informed
- Damp & Mould
- Record keeping
- Complaint handling
- Repairs
- Record keeping
- Repairs outside of timescales
There has been no annual report about Thrive's performance from the Ombudsman for the period of 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024 and no other relevant reports or publications produced by the Ombudsman in relation to the work of the Thrive during 2023/2024.
Actions taken because of complaints
Listening to your feedback, we made the following changes to prevent further complaints and improve your experience:
- Increased colleagues in our repairs planning team and engineers
- Dedicated a group of engineers to respond to complaint disrepair cases more quickly
- Brought forward plans to renew and upgrade some of our communal door entry systems
- Increased inspections around bin stores where there is a higher risk (Weekly where we have identified issues)
- Recognised we needed to centralise our complaints team to improve quality of responses, customer experience and value for money
- Updated the complaints policy
Areas for focus this year (2024-25)
- Respond to all complaints within our agreed timescales
- Reduce the number of escalations to stage 2 complaints by providing better quality stage 1 responses
- Improve record keeping
- Get back to customer when we say we will
- Review complaints letter and email templates to make them more customer friendly with the help of Thrive Customer Voice members
- Keep customers informed throughout the complaints process
- Centralise the complaints team to allow teams to identify causes and implement fixes before it turns into a complaint
- Regularly share lessons learned from complaints and complaints performance with customers
Looking at the common reasons for stage 1 complaints, we’ve pinpointed three main areas as follows:
Doing what we say we will do
103 complaints
Listening and acting
91 complaints
Being easy to deal with
39 complaints
Stage 2 complaints breakdown
Looking at the common reasons for stage 2 complaints, we’ve pinpointed three main areas as follows:
Doing what we say we will do:
30 complaints
Listening and acting:
23 complaints
Easy to deal with:
10 complaints