Involved customers are playing a key role in shaping our response to the Housing Ombudsman’s new Complaint Handling Code which will improve the way we respond to customer complaints.

At the end of last year members of our Local Influence Networks and Customer and Communities Influence Network came together to learn more about the code and have their say in how we will respond to it. The code specifies the maximum amount of time housing associations have to respond to a complaint once it has been raised. The customers considered in what circumstances it might be acceptable to exceed these targets and heard how our performance against these timeframes will now be recorded. The group also agreed that every six months the CCIN would review self-assessments against the code.

And before it went live at the start of this year, customers also reviewed our new complaints policy.

Head of customer experience, Kim Avery, said: “The new code presents us with an opportunity to further strengthen our complaints performance as part of our strategic aim of ensuing we listen to customers’ views and use such valuable insight to continually improve our services.

“We’ve been putting new systems in place to ensure we can track and measure our performance against the code. We’ve also introduced new guides and learning for colleagues that will allow us to create a culture right across Bromford that is focused on owning and resolving customer complaints in the best possible way. It’s been great to work with our customers on this and listen to their views on how we can continue improving the way we respond to customers when things go wrong.”

Our self-assessment against the new complaints code is now available on our Make a Complaint page, along with our new complaints policy and updated details of how you can make a complaint.