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What a wonderful few weeks of sunshine and sport we’ve been having and I can’t believe there’s more to come with the Olympics just around the corner.  

This month I’d like to focus on honesty. It’s part of our DNA at Bromford and it’s something that I hope you agree is important for everyone to embrace. I overhead Mitch, one of our colleagues say: "I will try my best in every situation and evolve every decision around what’s best for the customer." This is what we aim for within our team on a daily basis.

Our repair service. 

As we come out of lockdown we’ve noticed a big increase in the demand for repairs. It’s great to see that so many of you are now happy to have our colleagues in your homes and to reassure you, we continue to follow covid secure processes.

In the spirit of being honest, right now, due to this increased demand of our services, we may take longer to visit you than we aspire to. We are committed to resolving any delays as we understand how important these repairs are to you. We are increasing the number of visits our engineers carry out in a day, to make sure we can resume our standard service in the next 4-6 weeks. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.  

Getting it right. 

If you do receive a visit from one of our engineers over the coming weeks, did we get it right? Were you happy with the service we provided? To help us provide the best service for you, please give us feedback on how we did by using our new YouMatter feedback service which has now launched. All you need to do is look out for a text message or an email after a visit from our engineers and answer a few simple questions. The more you can be honest with us, the more we can do to offer you the very best service. In the coming months we will share with you what we’ve learnt so far and any changes we’ve made as a consequence of this feedback.

How else have we been listening?  

Earlier in the year we asked you to take part in some workshops and provide feedback on a survey that focused around Bromford’s approach to equality, diversity and inclusion.

To those that took part, thank you for taking the time to provide your say. It was good to receive positive feedback, however it was more valuable for us to learn about the areas where we can improve. Over the next twelve months we will be working on these recommendations that include sourcing a wider range of customers' stories to demonstrate how we’ve listened and what actions we’ve put in place. Other areas include developing more comprehensive policies and guidelines and encouraging underrepresented groups to become involved in our Locality Influence Network. If you’d like to know more or get involved, here’s a quick reminder of what our Locality Influence Network’s get up to.

Are you up for the challenge?

I always say I want to do more for the environment but I’m never sure where to start. Coming up there’s a movement called Plastic Free July. Their aim is to have cleaner streets and beautiful communities and I felt this was something that you may wish to get involved with too. I often get overwhelmed by what I should be doing but their website provides the simplest of changes that we can do that can make a difference. I’m signing up for the challenge by avoiding single-use plastic packaging for the month.

Why not choose your own challenge and let us know how you’re getting on by sharing this on our Facebook or Twitter pages?

Is it too late to start planting? 

I enjoy hearing how passionate our colleagues are about all sorts of topics. Recently I was talking to Michael about his love of gardening. He’s got some great advice on what you can do in the garden at this time of year. It includes help on getting the best out of your lawn, what you can still plant at this time of year (it’s never too late!), and how you can effectively manage any trees and hedges in your garden. 

Help us improve our website.

Do you have time to help us make our website better? If so, you could win one of two £25 Love2Shop gift vouchers (terms and conditions apply). We want to make our website easier to use so we've created two activities that gives us your valuable feedback.

Each activity should take around 10 minutes to finish, and each one has its own £25 gift voucher. 

I’m already looking forward to being in touch with you next month as we’ll be able to provide you with more information around our digital services that will make things easier for you. I won’t tell you any more now but look out for our updates.

All the best

Rohini