Customer Feedback & Performance

Feedback from our customers is hugely important to Connexus. We actively seek it out, asking our customers if they want to participate in surveys from time to time. We also welcome our customers to become ‘involved’, which means taking part in important discussions about decisions the business needs to make that determine our future direction.

Getting your voice heard

Opportunities for customers to have their voice heard start right at the beginning of a Connexus tenancy when we offer all customers the chance to tell us about their moving in experience, covering everything from the service experienced to the home itself. If you are a customer, you might also hear from us if you’ve received repair or service, if you’ve had an upgrade like a new kitchen, or when you reach a tenancy anniversary.

Connexus works with IFF Research to conduct customer surveys, who are an independent social and market research agency with a strong reputation for delivering high quality and high impact research. IFF Research will always call from 0203 148 7645. Calls from IFF will only happen between 9am-8pm Monday to Friday and 11am-4pm on Saturdays. IFF Research may also ask to confirm your address, contact details and other personal information, but they will never refer to any financial information or other personal information. If you are ever unsure, or if you don’t want to take part in a phone survey, you are under no obligation to do so and can end the call with IFF at any time you wish, or you call our Customer Services Team on 03332 31 32 33  or email info@connexus-group.co.uk and request no contact.

We believe in creating a range of options to provide us with feedback so you can choose which works best for you. We have recently provided opportunities for customers to feedback via online, rather than phone call and are also in the process of conducting trials using short text message surveys. You may receive an email from myopinions@iffresearch.com inviting you to take part in a survey online.

IFF Research go to great lengths to preserve your privacy and protect personal data used in conducting all research. For full details about IFF Research’s privacy policy please follow visit their website via: IFF Research | GDPR

What happens to the feedback you provide

As part of our 'Triage' process, every week, Connexus teams review survey feedback  and if customers have alerted us they are dissatisfied, we work with them towards resolutions.

Every three months, we review all the feedback sent through to us (surveys, compliments, informal and formal complaints). The findings are reported to our Senior Management Team so that we are all clear on the main themes and understand what is driving satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and what we need to do to improve.

What you've told us you like most...

Your feedback has helped us understand more about what you value most about our homes and services;

• New customers felt our Lettings team were really friendly, helpful and attentive, they kept you updated and responded quickly to queries.
• You liked the layout, build quality, parking facilities and general presentation of our new build properties
• You feel the checks we complete in properties, especially for electrics and gas help you feel safe in your home.
• You feel you get value for money from Connexus for the rent you pay through your home and our services.
• You appreciate our upgrades services which deliver improvements like kitchens and bathrooms, and you enjoy liaising with the contractors or Connexus trades completing those works.
• You enjoy the peaceful, rural neighbourhoods many Connexus customers live in, there's a strong sense of community
• You welcomed adaptations made to homes where you needed them
• You were reassured by the presence and actions of our Support Services for example 'Falls Responders'
• You enjoy speaking to our friendly and professional Customer Service teams
• You appreciate our Repair services, especially enjoying time with the trades visiting who are friendly, caring, knowledgeable and efficient
• You appreciated our Tenancy Sustainment team who offered support where they could when you felt you were struggling financially
• You feel Connexus acts respectfully to all

What you want us to improve most...

Your feedback helps us maintain focus on improving what matters most to you. We're continuing to make progress on three main areas;

• Being more proactive 
• Communicating better in everything we do
• Creating an even more efficient, effective and quality repair service

Actions we've taken from your feedback

Customer Services have completed additional training so they can answer more enquiries without needing to transfer you to other business areas. We can now tell you more about your repairs, work due in your home, and decisions on changes to your property that you may have requested. We have a new phone system which is helping reduce call hold time and communicate messaging more effectively while you wait to speak to us. You can now rate your satisfaction with how we handled your enquiry using a new text message feature. We are running internal trials using WhatsApp and 'Live chat' on our website, which we hope to offer in the new year. 

In our telephone survey which happens every tenancy anniversary you now have an opportunity to request call backs. You can request to log a new repair, get help on existing repairs, discuss any damp mould or condensation, find out about tenancy or property related questions like rent queries or upgrade works. The action you request during your survey becomes an enquiry on our system. We run spot checks each month to make sure your enquiries are fully resolved.  

Our customer experience team has increased, with a focus on resolving root cause issues seen in feedback and complaints.  

We will now only send you a letter to say you are due upgrade works in your home if they will begin within twelve months time.

You told us that you need to be kept better updated with next steps after property inspections so we added more checks in our processes to make sure this is happening. If you have any snagging issues following upgrade works, or after a move to a new build property, we provide more information on what to expect in advance while delivering quicker resolutions.

In Craven Arms, Shropshire we're continuing trials to test new ways of delivering our repair services. If your repair isn't completed in one visit, our trades are booking your follow up repair appointment with you before they leave. This means there's no wait to find out when they're coming next. 

We plan to recruit more repair inspectors whose role includes spot checking the quality of completed repairs to make sure we always meet high standards.

Over the last six months we've completed a surveys health check making sure the questions we ask continue to help Connexus shape our services to your needs. We've consulted with stakeholders inside and outside Connexus, and are very appreciative of our Involved Customer group who gave up their time to review our proposals with us, which helped shape them even further. 

Our lettings and voids teams now work to a revised property standard for all new lets. This means new customers can be assured of consistency regardless of the age of the property. We've also launched a six month pilot with a new way of working in the community. This will provide you with a more personal service as key contacts will be more accessible in your neighbourhoods, to support with your enquiries.

Our key learnings from your feedback are shared regularly with our marketing teams who create content on social channels like Facebook, and newsletters about topics you've said are important to you. We're also becoming more pro-active and providing updates online and via post to notify you about anything we believe you need to be aware of that may, or will affect our most used services, and if applicable, for how long.

No matter how many months or years you have been with Connexus, you'll see we're focused on great quality experiences. 

Neighbourhood Support

Many of our customers express love for their neighbourhoods but from time to time we are seeing experiences of anti-social behaviour in comment feedback. We have robust processes in place to be able to respond to this and analysis has shown us anti-social behaviour is more likely to occur at a single address rather than affecting multiple properties in a street or neighbourhood.  Common causes customers referred to included drug related issues, excessive noise either from a neighbouring property or within a street and unacceptable behaviour directed towards them from people of all ages. If you are experiencing anti-social behaviour and would like support please contact us. 

Now and again we also receive concerns about road surface conditions, street lighting, and bins. Our Housing team will always aim to help with these issues where possible, but it’s usually best to speak directly with your local council as they are responsible and best placed to help. The phone number for Shropshire council is (0345 678 9000) and Herefordshire (01432 260000).

Your feedback also tells us that parking can be increasingly challenging in some areas, particularly in areas where homes are older. There might be limitations to what we can do but this feedback can help shape our future new build homes.

Support Services

Our Support Services, Tenancy Sustainment teams and Housing teams are continuing to respond to customer feedback, advising and signposting those who need support. In Independent Living schemes, meetings with tenants happen regularly. Support from these services has included maximising benefits (where eligible), as well as budgeting advice, applications to water and electricity charge reduction schemes, home adaptations, referrals to food bank services and signposting to employment support and community hubs.

https://reedinpartnership.co.uk/contact/ can help, people start working, improve their health, develop their skills and fulfil their potential.

Help to access food bank services is done by referral and community hubs supporting on a number of topics can be found here: https://www.talkcommunitydirectory.org/keeping-well-staying-healthy/keeping-yourself-well/talk-community-hubs/where-is-my-nearest-talk-community-hub/

No matter how good we make our service, there will be times when we fall short of expectations or the level of service to which we aspire. Our complaints policy outlines our approach to resolving such situations.

We encourage all feedback from customers and have developed the Complaints Policy along with the complaints procedure to ensure that we deal with complaints effectively and fairly.

For more information on our complaint process or details on how to make a complaint, click here.