Achievements and outcomes showcased in our latest Customer Annual Report
2020/21 is a year that many of us won’t forget as a result of COVID-19. As a business, we had to act quickly to put measures in place to protect our colleagues and customers, while still delivering the services that our customers rely on. Our organisational resilience was tested, but because of our committed colleagues we were able to adapt and continue to provide services to our customers.
During the lockdowns we had to move to an emergency service only which impacted our repairs and maintenance teams and created an unavoidable backlog of work, however, in other areas we were able to come up with innovative solutions which meant that we could continue to move forward and help find people homes. Some of these solutions, like virtual viewings have been so beneficial that we’ve adopted them as part of our standard processes.
A key highlight from the year was the way in which our customers chose to work with us. Amplifying Customer Voice is a key part of our transformation and it was great to see an increase in the number of customers engaging with us by taking the time to leave feedback, taking part in our consultations, and helping to co-design our future services. We genuinely want customers to influence the services they receive and the homes and communities they live in.
In addition to this, we’ve also been mindful about keeping up with the pace of change across the sector. We continue to enhance our digital self-serve offer and recently launched our webchat service Live Chat, allowing customers to message us in real time through our online portal MyAster. We’re looking at how we can further use remote diagnostic technology to meet our customers’ needs, drive efficiency and enhance our services, and testing is ongoing in this area. As part of our commitment to provide sustainable services we’ve also invested in growing our electric green fleet. Keeping customers connected to these changes is essential, so we’ve involved over 4000 customers in a range of our activities, from policy development, to scrutiny exercises and the co-design of our services.
Despite the very many challenges we all faced, we performed well this year and continued to provide our customers with a good service throughout 2020/21. There is always more we can do and as part of the transformational work we’re undergoing at the moment called The Future of Customer Experience within the business, we are committed to enhancing our services so they continue to meet the demands of our customers today and tomorrow.
To read our Customer Annual Report in detail, click here.
We’ve also summarised our highlights in this infographic.
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