| This applies over all our areas of operation and this document sets out procedures for dealing with Associations Customers and Customers Complaints. All Staff should be aware of the Complaints Procedure and should be conscious that in all dealings with the public, be it, Tenants, Contractors, Tradesmen or Other Agencies, they are representing the Association and as such must not give Customers cause for complaint. In an effort to minimise or prevent complaints Staff should be mindful of the following, and try where possible to meet standards for Customer Care. 1. General Requirements 1.1 Fulfil statutory and contractual duties to customers. 1.2 Have regard to relevant codes of practice and circulars and follow their advice unless there are justifiable grounds for not doing so. 1.3 Have clear definitions of the respective roles and responsibilities of staff and committee members. 1.4 Have formal written policies and procedures for all aspects of the associations activities, in particular for customer care and equal opportunities. 1.5 Ensure that policies and procedures are understood by staff and are accessible to them in the form of simple to use procedure manuals. 1.6 Have effective systems, procedures and guidelines for staff to enable them to carry out their tasks. These:
1.7 Compile and maintain adequate, up-to-date records of action taken, meetings held, correspondence sent and received, telephone calls made and received etc. 1.8 Have arrangements to achieve effective liaison and co-operation between sections and with other agencies. 1.9 Ensure that decisions are made objectively, fairly and consistently in accordance with the associations policies. 1.10 Take decisions concerning customers only after making an adequate investigation of all the facts. 1.11 Obtain specialist advice to help formulate decisions where necessary, for example, medical opinions on rehousing needs. 1.12 Ensure that decisions and actions are taken at the appropriate time and without delay. 1.13 Aim to minimise mistakes and deviations from policies and procedures through effective staff training, supervision, management and performance monitoring. 1.14 Inform customers in writing about decisions of personal or collective concern to them with reasons, such as reasons for changing priority or removal from the housing waiting list, reasons for changing layouts of designs etc. 2. Customer Care Policy 2.1 Have a customer-orientated service which aims to put the customer first. 2.2 Where the Association is unable to provide the type of services required by customers, advise them of the availability of these services from other agencies and make referrals as appropriate. 2.3 Aim to provide the highest standard of service possible within the resources available. 2.4 Provide services that are appropriate and responsive to customers’ needs at the local level. 2.5 Provide services close to the customer so that they can easily contact staff through local offices, and home visits as appropriate. 2.6 Ensure that there are sufficient front-line and support staff to provide an efficient and effective customer service. 2.7 Set, monitor and review service standards in consultation with customers. 2.8 Publish details of the Associations service standards and make these available to customers. 2.9 Give customers a formal commitment to deliver quality services through providing a service statement and having effective complaints procedures. 2.10 Have a customer care code which sets out service standards and the conduct and behaviour required of staff and contractors in dealing with customers. 2.11 Specify compliance with the customer care code in service agreements, for example, with other departments or agencies and in conditions of engagement for contractors. 2.12 The customer care code requires the following behaviour of all staff:
2.13 The customer care code makes additional requirements of repairs and maintenance operatives:
2.14 Have a formal system for seeking and monitoring customers’ views of services, such as satisfaction surveys and customer comment cards. 2.15 Provide services that are accountable to customers and take their views into account in reviewing and developing services. 2.16 Report customers’ views to committee, customer groups, staff and contractors. 2.17 Record and monitor the ethnicity, gender and disability of customers to assess whether they are treated fairly in accordance with the equal opportunities policy. 3. Offices, Reception And Interview Facilities 3.1 Have offices that are accessible to customers and with convenient opening hours, for example, local offices, evenings opening where possible. 3.2 Ensure that external and internal location signs on or inside the Associations offices, housing stock and other premises are prominently displayed, up-to-date, well maintained and in community languages where appropriate. 3.3 Publicise the opening times of offices and notify customers in advance of any forthcoming changes. 3.4 Ensure that offices are:
3.5 Ensure that reception and interviewing areas have: (where possible)
3.6 Monitor the conditions in reception and interviewing areas through management inspections in consultation with customers. 3.7 Ensure that information notices in public areas of offices are relevant, up-to-date, clean and tidy. 3.8 Ensure that displays and supplies of customer leaflets in public areas are relevant, up-to-date, adequately stocked, well presented, neat and tidy. 3.9 Require staff not to eat, drink or smoke in the public areas of offices, such as reception. 3.10 Ensure that reception staff have appropriate training in the associations services and in issues such as customer care, equal opportunities and dealing with violent and difficult situations. 3.11 Aim to minimise the number of customer queries that receptionists have to pass on to other staff. 4. Appointments 4.1 Arrange appointments with customers for office interviews and home visits at mutually convenient times. 4.2 Make home visits out of office hours if and where necessary. 4.3 Keep appointments made with customers and where this is not possible, notify them in advance with reasons. 4.4 Have a simple and fair queuing system for customers waiting to see an officer without an appointment. 4.5 Ensure that customers without an appointment do not have to wait a long time to be seen, for example, not more than 20 minutes, and where this is not possible, inform customers of the likely waiting time and reasons for delay. 4.6 Leave a calling card when a house visit is made and the customer is not at home. 5. Confidentiality 5.1 Have a confidentiality policy which seeks to ensure that access to confidential information about customers is strictly limited on a need to know basis. 5.2 Have a confidentiality policy which covers information such as medical details, rent arrears, domestic violence, child abuse, criminal behaviour and harassment etc. 5.3 Have a confidentiality policy which covers matters such as the security of filing systems, the passing of information between sections and between agencies, and the disclosure of information to customers. 5.4 Ensure that confidential information is only given to staff and agencies where there is an essential need to know and require them to observe confidentiality principles. 5.5 Have security arrangements to prevent unauthorised access to customers’ records held on paper or computer files. 5.6 Inform customers of the confidentiality policy at the first point of contact and seek their consent to pass on information internally and to other agencies on a need to know basis. 5.7 Ensure that interviews and conversations with customers about personal, confidential or contentious issues are carried out in private. 5.8 All customers to inspect information about them held in the Associations records, free of charge, and in accordance with their legal rights. 6. Dealing With Telephone Calls 6.1 Aim to provide a prompt and efficient response to customers’ telephone calls. 6.2 Deal with customers’ telephone requests immediately wherever possible, otherwise telephone them back on the same day or at a time which is mutually convenient. 6.3 Provide customers with details of telephone numbers for each service area and for named staff. 6.4 Provide a telephone line for customers to report emergencies out of office hours. 6.5 Ensure that the telephone system is technically capable of coping with the volume of calls received. 6.6 Ensure that telephone receptionists have adequate training and information about the associations staff and services to enable them to route calls promptly and correctly. 6.7 Provide guidelines for all staff and training, where necessary, on using the telephone system and on how to conduct telephone conversations with customers. 6.8 Have arrangements to deal with telephone calls when staff are unavailable. 7. Communicating With Customers 7.1 Ensure that written communications to customers are clear, concise, simple to understand and inviting to read. 7.2 Ensure that written communications to customers use everyday language in accordance with the Plain English Campaign’s guidelines and avoid jargon and patronising, pompous, sexist, racist, technical and legal language. 7.3 Produce information suited to the specific needs of different groups of customers, for example, older people. 7.4 Ensure that written communications to customers have a clear, attractive design and format and follow principles of good design practice such as:
7.5 Ensure that forms:
7.6 Provide written communications in relevant community languages, where appropriate. 7.7 Have clear criteria for deciding which customer literature should be provided in translation. 7.8 Have arrangements to translate literature into community languages which ensure that the translation is:
7.9 Arrange for language interpreters to be present at interviews with customers who have difficulty speaking or understanding English. 7.10 Make use of audio-tapes to provide information to customers with reading difficulties. 7.11 Make appropriate arrangements for communicating with people who have visual impairments, for example, by providing information in large print, in Braille and on audio-tape. 7.12 Make appropriate arrangements for communicating with customers who have special needs, such as learning difficulties. 7.13 Arrange for signers or interpreters, as appropriate, to be present at interviews with customers who have hearing difficulties. 7.14 Produce newsletters for tenants on a regular basis and involve tenants in decisions about the design and content. 7.15 Produce newsletters and leaflets about the associations proposals to change policies and practices, as appropriate. 7.16 Give all tenants an annual report reviewing the associations performance on services to tenants and involve tenants in decisions about the design and content. 7.17 Ensure that all customer literature and forms bear a publication date and are regularly reviewed and revised as necessary. 7.18 Make information literature about the landlord’s services available at its offices and venues used by customers, such as libraries, advice centres and community groups. 7.19 Monitor the effectiveness of communications through customer surveys and consultations with customer groups. 8. Dealing With Customer Correspondence 8.1 Record details and dates of incoming and outgoing mail. 8.2 Reply to correspondence from customers politely and promptly within target response times. 8.3 Ensure that all correspondence and written communications to customers are sent in the name of the officer dealing with the matter. 8.4 Address correspondence to the customer by name, wherever possible. 8.5 Send out forms and literature requested by customers promptly within target response times. 8.6 Provide customers with written confirmation of any verbal information given to them and of action taken, as appropriate. 9. Customer Complaints 9.1 Have a formal complaints system for investigating and responding to complaints and claims for compensation made by individual customers and by groups of customers. 9.2 Aim to resolve complaints effectively and speedily within time targets. 9.3 Ensure that the complaints system:
9.4 Apologise to customers with justified complaints, take appropriate remedial action and, where relevant, pay compensation appropriate to the inconvenience or loss suffered. 9.5 Have clear criteria as to the circumstances in which compensation is payable and for deciding the amount paid. 9.6 Monitor customer complaints and ensure that justified complaints are taken into account when reviewing the service and the performance of staff and contractors. 9.7 Report details of customer complaints by type and outcome to committee, customer groups and contractors. 9.8 Provide customers with information about how to complain about the associations services and how to challenge decisions through its complaints system. 9.9 Provide customers with information about independent sources of help in making complaints and obtaining redress, for example, the Housing Association Ombudsman. 10. Staffing Issues 10.1 Ensure that staff have the appropriate skills and knowledge to perform their jobs effectively by employing people with relevant qualifications or experience and by providing suitable training opportunities. 10.2 Ensure that all staff understand and comply with:
10.3 Have a staff training programme based on regular surveys of training needs. 10.4 Train staff, in such matters interviewing skills, dealing with difficult and violent situations, customer care and equal opportunities. 10.5 Have a staff development strategy to ensure that staff are well motivated and well trained and encouraged to reach their full potential. 11. Performance Monitoring 11.1 Carry out systematic performance monitoring of the associations services to ensure that customer care is achieved in practice. This includes:
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