Cambridge Housing Society increase feedback on repairs contractors

Low response rates for repairs and maintenance

Cambridge Housing Society, (CHS) owns and manages 2,466 affordable homes and 343 shared ownership homes in Cambridgeshire. They struggled with low responses rate for repairs and maintenance. Consequently they did not gather sufficient feedback about the quality of repairs delivered by contractors and were not able to gain customer insights to improve services. Traditional paper-based surveys and telephone calls had not secured much response from tenants, therefore CHS looked for an alternative solution. They appointed Voicescape, to help them measure customer satisfaction with repairs and to monitor contractor performance.

Valuable, impartial feedback

Voicescape technology surveyed over 1,500 customers and boosted response rates to 54% from historic levels of 10%.This freed up valuable time for the customer services team, assisted in contractor accountability and helped resolve internal repairs process issues. Nasrullah Khan, Cambridge Housing Society Scrutiny Panel member, said; “Tenants feel confident to give their feedback, particularly on responsive repairs, when the request comes from and outside expert. This solution has encouraged more tenants to participate and provide valuable feedback.”

Solves the problem

Helen Tonks, Head of Housing and Customer Services at CHS, added: “Voicescapes feedback tool has solved that problem of gathering sufficient feedback for us and our repairs contractors. It is also incredibly simple to use and intuitive for staff, contractors and customers – both to get up and running as well as to monitor and respond to the feedback being received.” Response rates are rocketing in housing associations, thanks to the speed, timing and simplicity of Voicescapes technology we have useful feedback on a range of services; including repairs and maintenance.

Measurable benefits:

• Customer response rates up more than 440%
• Freed up resource in customer services team
• Improved contractor accountability