Tenants’ feedback has given us important insight into our strengths and where we need to improve, says Kevin Murphy, Cromwood’s strategic director
In late 2023 we published the findings of an independent survey based on the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) drawn up by the Regulator of Social Housing.
It was all about getting tenants’ feedback on the services we provide – from repairs to tackling antisocial behaviour. That exercise created an important baseline for us to gauge how we’re doing as we move forward and earlier this year we carried out a follow-up survey.
We’re incredibly encouraged by the findings. They show that satisfaction has increased in nine of the 12 measures while one remained the same and two have fallen.
The survey reveals that tenants are particularly happy with the ways we respond to their views, communicate and provide information, and value and respect our residents.
Our survey was carried out by independent consultancy, CX-Feedback. When compared with similar housing organisations that they have surveyed, overall satisfaction levels are higher than average with around three-quarters of our tenants happy with the services we provide.
However, the main objective for carrying out regular TSM surveys is to identify where we can improve. One message was clear – too few tenants are happy with the way we handle complaints.
A key way we have sought to improve this area is by committing to an annual complaints performance and service improvement report – the first of which has just been published. It sets out our complaints process, how we’re performing, what actions we’re taking to make improvements and how we’ll measure our progress. For example, we’ve integrated clearer signposting to the Housing Ombudsman.
The report shows we have made improvements since the latest TSM survey and continue to resolve complaints without the need for external intervention. We will continue to work hard to ensure we sustain this progress.
Finally, the survey is just one way we engage with our tenants. Our team interact with residents every day and we encourage everyone to let us know how we’re doing as a matter of course.
About the survey
The online survey was carried out in February and March of this year by CX-Feedback, an independent firm specialising in surveys for public sector and housing clients. We invited 320 tenants to take part in the survey and 103 people completed the questionnaire – a response rate of 32% (up from 30% last time). Cromwood’s performance was compared against an average drawn from 17,400 responses across other housing providers surveyed by CX-Feedback. We have also indicated how performance compares to our 2023 survey.
