How we’re doing: Performance and satisfaction
Each year we set performance and satisfaction targets for all of our services, to make sure customers are getting the best experience and value from our resources. This was another challenging year for Southway as the pandemic continued to impact our frontline service delivery. We are focused on supporting our customers and working to help communities in a post pandemic, but economically challenging environment. Where we were not meeting targets, we were happy with, and improvements have been put in place, we are already starting to see some benefits;
RENT 4.7*
The team has achieved excellent performance, with the year-end rent collection of 99.73% only just below our target of 99.98%. We will continue to support tenants as the cost of living, including fuel and food, increases. Our financial support funds, Energy Buddies, Welfare Rights, Budgeting, Debt Advice and Employment Team continue to provide guidance and support assisting wherever possible.
Call Handling 4.5*
The number of calls answered at 83%, and long call waiting times at an average of 397 seconds, are disappointing. However, our satisfaction feedback tells us that the quality of service our Advisors provide is high. The return to the office has helped to improve call handling generally, as our Call Centre works more effectively when many of the team are working alongside colleagues and are able to engage face to face. We have appointed five additional advisors to help us answer the phone more quickly whilst we carry out improvements to the service.
Repairs 4.7*
As lockdown lifted, we were able to return to delivering more than just an emergency repair service. However, we had built up a significant backlog of outstanding repairs – 613 at the start of May. Issues with materials shortages, sickness within the Repairs Service, and problems with recruiting to vacant positions, meant we have not been able to reduce this backlog as quickly as we wanted to. We know we need to return to our high levels of performance in this area and have set up a full new Repairs Planning Team who will work to clear the repairs backlog by the end of September 2022.
Anti-Social Behaviour 2.6*
We had fewer cases of ASB during 21-22 than we did in 20-21, down by 31%. Our tenants are not always happy with the service they receive so we’ll be looking to further improve our work and satisfaction around ASB as lockdown restrictions ease. We recognise there is still work to do, and we will have more details on this in our next edition of Southway Stories.