Louder & Stronger

 By ‘customers’ we mean: 

• Anyone who lives in a home provided by Trent & Dove
• Future tenants, leaseholders, owners and their families
• People living in and near the communities where we work

We also work closely and need to engage with other important partners including:

•  Local councils
• Health and social care providers
• Police and other emergency services
• Charities and voluntary organisations
• Community and faith groups
• Membership bodies (for example, National Housing Federation, Chartered Institute of Housing, PlaceShapers, tpas).

The new strategy explained here encompasses all of these groups and individuals.

The groups, structures and opportunities we’ve had in place for many years have achieved some great things, but are in some cases starting to show their age.
The Government, Social Housing Regulator and Housing Ombudsman Service now rightly expect housing providers to do more to listen to their residents and act on what they say.

So it’s time for a change, and we also want to learn from how other successful organisations engage with their customers, including new methods and technologies.

We have already adopted the National Housing Federation’s Together with Tenants Charter (Click Here)

This covers six commitments:

1. Relationships: treating all residents with respect, through relationships based on openness, honesty and transparency.
2. Communication: providing residents with clear, accessible and timely information on the issues that matter to them, including homes, communities, how we address problems, how we’re run and our performance.
3. Voice and influence: seeking and valuing the views of residents, and using this information to inform decisions. Making sure every individual feels listened to and can speak without fear.
4. Accountability: working in partnership with residents to scrutinise and hold us to account for our decisions, homes and services.
5. Quality: providing high-quality, well maintained, safe and well-managed homes.
6. When things go wrong: giving residents simple and accessible routes to raise issues, make complaints and seek redress, with timely advice and support when things go wrong.

The Customer Voice Strategy that has been created is about:

• Listening to customers so we can improve homes and services, and how we contribute to and invest in our communities.
• Making sure that our strategy and long-term plans are aligned with and influenced by customers’ views, needs and expectations.
• Showing customers how their views influence our actions and decisions at every level
• Helping us to play an important and influential role in the communities we serve, to make them successful, thriving and sustainable.

You can read the strategy in full here.

To achieve a louder & stronger customer voice we want to:

• Offer a wider range of opportunities for customers to share their views, tailored to the reasons why they want their voice to be heard and how they prefer to engage
• Gather high-quality data to obtain meaningful customer insight we can use throughout our business to achieve our vision and objectives
• Be clear about who our customers are, and how we can best interact with different groups and individuals
• Reach and learn from groups that have previously been less involved
• Distinguish better between our responsibilities as a housing provider and the broader role we play in local communities
• Ensure that involved customers feel valued, supported and encouraged to keep on giving their views and input
• Assure our Board that the views of all customers are listened to and acted upon appropriately
• Meet the expectations set out in the Social Housing White Paper, National Housing Federation Code of Governance and Together with Tenants Charter.

Our vision is to build a vibrant, valued, supportive group of people who are all passionate about improving their area and homes. Improving things for themselves and others.

With your help, the committee will make sure that Trent & Dove’s customers’ views are listened to and acted upon. You will help shape and monitor our work as we transform homes, lives, and communities.

The new committee will report directly to the Board, focusing on our role as a housing provider and on our community investment activity.

For more information and to apply to join the committee please click here.