The Tenant Communication & Support Group and Tenant Scrutiny Group have been busy over the past few months.
As part of their role working with Saffron, the Chairs of the tenant groups meet quarterly with Saffron’s Service Quality Committee (SQC) where they have a chance to discuss what the groups have been doing and give their input as tenants to a group of executives, board members and independent members.
At the most recent meeting a number of recommendations were put forward and were accepted by SQC. They were:
- When departments receive a communication from the Customer Contact Team (CCT) about a tenant query, they acknowledge it and provide a timeframe when the tenant should expect a final response.
- All departments should have a timeframe or Service Level Agreement (SLA) on the length of time for responses to queries. CCT to have access to the SLAs to be able to let tenants know when to expect a response.
- Suggestion for Neighbourhood Officers to do a duty day in the office, answering queries as they come in.
- Improving the scripts CCT use when speaking to tenants to diagnose repairs, working alongside craftworkers and the Change Team. There will be a review in 6-9 months to see how effective it has been.
The tenant groups also asked for a review of the Tenant Alterations and Permissions Policy, which will include a consultation with tenants. Keep an eye out on our website and social media channels over the coming weeks about how you can be part of the consultation and have your say.
As a result of this challenge, a new process to ensure tenants have the opportunity to review all policies and changes affecting tenants has been approved. The Tenants and Communities Team (formerly Customer Engagement), worked closely with the tenant group Chairs on creating the new consultation procedure, to make sure the tenant voice is heard.
You can find out more about the tenant groups, how to be involved and have your say by clicking here.