Voice feedback

We are committed to taking our customers’ views into account when making decisions.

We are committed to taking our customers views into account when making decisions.

Voice is our totally anonymous customer feedback platform that lets you to give honest thoughts and opinions via polls, discussions and surveys.

Here are the results of the surveys you’ve taken part in.

Health and wellbeing services 

We wanted to understand our customer views on the health and wellbeing services we provide. There were 199 responses in total and we found:

  • customers are most likely to use web searches to access health and wellbeing services
  • 77% would prefer to receive support by having a one-to-one conversation in person
  • 87% of respondents were not aware of any of the community services offered by Grand Union

The chart below shows what areas of interest customers have for improving health and wellbeing of themselves and their families.

A graph showing wellbeing survey results.

Your feedback web page

We wanted to understand what our customers want from a feedback page on the GRnd Union website. There were 155 responses in total and we found:

  • 69% had not visited the feedback page on the website
  • 81% who hadn’t said that it was because they were not aware of the page
  • Respondents felt the existing page was easy to use and navigate, it was informative, straightforward and simple.

The following suggestions were made for improvements:

  • The feedback page needs to provide more detail about what has improved
  • it needs more detail around repairs
  • you would like to see information on answering calls

Customers said they would like to see:

  • lessons learned from complaints
  • repairs performance
  • customer satisfaction scores
  • tenant satisfaction measures

We’ve already started to add several suggestions to the page and hope to add more over the coming months.

Damp and Mould

We wanted to understand the extent damp and mould issues are affecting our customers. There were 251 responses in total and we found:

  • 59% said that they had an issue with damp and mould
  • 32% said the issue was impacting their life

The chart below shows which rooms were most likely to have a problem with mould:

A graph showing survey results for which room is most likely to have a problem with mould.

The chart below shows the preferred way to report damp and mould issues:

A graph showing survey results for the preferred way to report damp and mould issues.

Whilst this survey is now closed, our work to fix damp and mould is ongoing. Of the 146 customers who said they have an issue with damp and mould, 76 gave us their contact details and we have contacted them to resolve their issues. 

MyGUHG

We wanted to understand how MyGUHG works for our customers and identify any potential problems. There were 219 responses in total and we found:

The top five reasons customers said they have used MyGUHG for were:

  1. Report a repair
  2. Check rent statements
  3. Check status of repair
  4. Pay rent
  5. Check repairs history

The graph below shows the percentage of respondents agree with the statements we asked them about.

A graph which shows what percentage agree with the statements below.

There were some suggestions for improvements including:

  • Removing the SAM bot (which we have done)
  • Ability to log all repairs
  • Ability to log specific heating repairs
  • More time blocks for all repairs

Overall, 13 customers said that they had no improvement suggestions, with one stating ‘it is a great guide, helpful’.

Moving in 

We wanted to know more about how customers feel about how we welcome them to their new home. Customers told us that the five most useful items were:

  • cleaning supplies
  • milk
  • a kettle
  • teabags
  • a voucher for a takeout

We also asked what information was important for customers to know when they first move into their new home. The three most important were instructions on how to use your boiler, the stopcock location and how to log a repair.

We then gave customers an opportunity to share any further comments about moving into their new home. The most popular response related to ensuring the condition of the property was suitable for a customer to move in to. They also highlighted that it wasn’t always necessary to remove everything from a property as some items, such as flooring, may be wanted by those moving in. Another popular subject was around having clear guidelines around repair and maintenance responsibilities.

Pet policy

We wanted to know how customers felt about our pet policy. There were 159 responses, with 64% confirming they own a pet. The graph below shows a breakdown of the types of pets owned.

A graph that shows the types of pets owned.

Customers told us:

  • We should consider pets being allowed in all properties due to the positive impact a pet can have on mental health wellbeing as well as the companionship they provide.
  • They disagree with dogs not being allowed in flats.
  • They disagreed with dogs not being allowed in sheltered housing.
  • Cats wearing a collar isn’t a legal requirement.
  • They found the policy wording hard to understand.

As a result we have changed the pet policy. We have reworded the policy to make it easier to understand and have removed the requirement for cats to wear collars. 

Where possible we will allow one dog, one cat, one vivarium or a reasonable number of small pets in general needs flats. This does not apply to properties:

  • where they are not suitable for pets because they have no garden or small communal garden. 
  • are looked after by managing agents as we may need to seek their permission.
  • you are a leaseholder (you will need to check the terms of your lease).

We will now consider requests from those living in retirement/sheltered housing. This will be restricted to one pet, unless there are exceptional circumstances for incoming customers. Decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis and will consider the customer’s ability to care for the pet and arrangements if the customer becomes unable to care for the pet, suitability of the property and the impact on other customers.

You can read more here. https://www.guhg.co.uk/manage-a-home/your-home/pets/

Repairs appointment time blocks

We wanted to understand our customers’ views on the time blocks we provide for repairs.

We had 243 responses and found that 65% of customers said that the Monday to Friday 10-2pm time slot was their preferred time and Friday 8-10am was the least preferred with only 44% of customers preferring this time. 

The graph below shows which time blocks within our current offering were preferred.

A graph showing which additional timeslots for repairs would be preferred.

Customers also said if they were to choose a time slot we don’t currently offer they would prefer Saturday morning (60%) with the least popular being Sunday evening (31%).

The most common reason for each customer’s preferred time blocks was to fit around work commitments or childcare.

Customer contact

We wanted to understand how our customers prefer to communicate with us and their satisfaction with the channels on offer. There were 197 responses and we found: 

Most customers said that they preferred to use the telephone for most reasons, with the exception of when paying rent or checking their account balance (where MyGUHG customer portal was the preferred method of communication). 

Customers told us what channels they have used in the last 12 months, these were: 

  • Telephone (82%)
  • MyGUHG customer portal (72%)
  • Email (53%)

The graph below shows customers satisfaction with the communication channels they used.

A graph showing which communication channels they have used to contact Grand Union in the past 12 months.

Only 22% of customers said they were satisfied with their experience using the web bot. As a result the web bot has now been removed. 

Social media

We wanted to understand whether our customers are getting the most out of our social media posts and to find out their views to help us to ensure what we post is relevant. We had 196 responses and we found:

  • The most popular times for customers to check social media was between 5pm and Midnight (81%), Followed by 6am and 9am (44%)
  • Of our customers who use social media, 65% don’t follow Grand Union on any platform.
  • The main reason customers said they didn’t follow us was that they didn’t know Grand Union was active on social media. 

The graph below shows what content customers said they were interested in seeing on Grand Union’s social media platforms.

A graph showing what customers are interested in seeing on Grand Union's social media platforms.

We are using the feedback from this survey to shape the content we put on social media and ensure it is relevant and useful to our customers.

Sustainability and retrofit

We wanted to understand how our customers feel about environmental issues, what matters to them and how our service should look like for customers, should their home be selected to have and energy efficient heating system installed. There were 174 responses and we found:

The issues that are most important to our customers are:

  • Energy efficient homes (96%)
  • Recycling (92%)
  • Improving biodiversity, which is plant and animal life (86%)

The graph below shows what our customers currently do to be more environmentally friendly.

A graph showing what our customers do to be more environmentally friendly.

Our customers told us that after the installation off efficient energy systems, 91% would expect lower energy bills and 11% said they would expect this to reduce the impact of future energy increases.

Finally, our customers told us what they thought our installation process should look like. They said they would like to be:

  • contacted via email (51%)
  • given between one and two weeks notice (39%)
  • given three and four weeks notice (32%)

Customer annual report

We wanted to understand what our customers want from the Customer annual report so we can ensure it is designed to suit our customer’s needs. There were 129 responses.

Customers told us what they liked about our previous customer annual report.

• They liked to see how Grand Union is performing (55%)

• Customer stories (26%)

• Learning about the work Grand Union does in communities (26%)

Overall, nine customers commented that they didn’t like the overly positive content and that they would like to see more about areas to improve. Two customer comments also mentioned that they felt the report was too long.