Our Customer Strategy

We will:

• Review our service offer to customers using their feedback about what they value and need from our services. We will ensure that the roles, responsibilities and structures across Paradigm support the service offer. This includes repairs, how we manage new homes, the standard we let existing homes and how we manage and communicate about service charges
• Develop and roll out new Customer Care Standards, based on what customers have told us they want the service to feel like. The Standards set out how we will deliver services and how we will respond to customer needs and preferences
• Use customer insight from surveys and other methods to understand their experience of our services and identify where we need to continuously improve. We will increase the areas and ways we seek feedback, including after customers have reported anti-social behaviour, had a repair carried out and moved home
• Continue to improve how we tell customers about the actions and improvements we have made in response to their feedback, including through our website, customer portal and newsletters
• Develop our customer engagement approach, to ensure that customers have a range of ways including digital and online opportunities, as well as face-to-face, to be involved in the scrutiny and co-design of services. This also includes shaping their local service offer and improvements.

We will support our customers to manage their tenancies and minimise the times when tenancies fail by introducing a clear customer support offer, which will:

• Ensure how we work across all services proactively identifying when customers need our support and provide or sign-post to the right place. This is throughout a customer’s journey with us, from pre-tenancy to end-of- tenancy
• Develop new partnerships and build on existing partnerships with other organisations to support customers and work together with partners to access greater support and funding to benefit customers. For example Citizens Advice or social services
• Provide some housing related support services directly, including welfare benefit advice and early tenancy support.

We will provide a proactive and preventative Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) service to Paradigm customers and neighbourhoods, focused on early intervention and reduction. The service will be focused on the needs of customers, working to provide  joined up, customer-centred case management. The service will take responsible enforcement, while always dealing with victims and perpetrators of ASB with empathy and respect.

We will provide a proactive and preventative Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) service to Paradigm customers and neighbourhoods, focused on early intervention and reduction. The service will be focused on the needs of customers, working to provide  joined up, customer-centred case management. The service will take responsible enforcement, while always dealing with victims and perpetrators of ASB with empathy and respect.

Over the next three years, our transformation programme will support us to offer customers greater choice in how they contact us or access services including to self-serve where they choose to. Customers will be able to use a range of channels including online digital, telephone and face-to-face. In the short term, we will identify improvements to existing customer contact management.

At March 2023:

Customer satisfaction: We maintained 80% satisfaction for tenants in 2022/23, the same as the previous year. Our target for the Corporate Plan period (by 2026) is 88%. Satisfaction for shared owners was 52%, a slight dip from 55% the previous year. Our goal for 2026 is 65%.

Repairs service satisfaction: We’ve made great progress. Customer satisfaction with our repairs service jumped from 73% in 2021/22 to 83% in 2022/23.

Customer engagement: We set up a new Customer Engagement Framework, introducing the Readership Panel, Resident Quality Inspectors, New Paradigm Customer Oversight Group, and Scrutiny Group.

Through this framework, we engaged nearly 1,300 customers in 21 projects, marking a significant 154% increase from 500 customers in 2021/22.

Big Door Knock campaign: In our successful Big Door Knock campaign, 122 volunteers visited Paradigm estates, connecting with 575 customers and completing 365 surveys. Valuable insights were gained for service improvement.

Customer support: Our Customer Support Team saw a 55% increase in cases, supporting 314 individual customers. 965 customers received support through projects funded by us, addressing vulnerability and financial difficulties.

Financial assistance: We used our Customer Support Fund to provide 300 fuel vouchers in 2022/23 to those in greatest need. We funded emergency assistance for food and fuel costs, along with independent debt and benefits advice.

Arrears: Arrears were reduced to 3.02%, compared to our target of 3%.

Complaints management: We resolved 377 complaints during the year, with 80% fully or partially upheld. Just one Ombudsman complaint was upheld in 2022/23 compared to two in 2021/22.

Tenancy agreement conversion: Since stopping using new Fixed Term Tenancies (FTTs) on 1 April 2022, we have now converted most of our existing agreements to assured tenancies.  This excludes starter tenancies which we continue to use.