You said, we did

Learning from complaints is important to us, so we can continue to deliver a good service.

In addition, we have invested resource to ensure we are compliant with the Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code.

Below are examples of how we have learnt from when things don’t go as well as we hoped, and how we are putting them right. They illustrate our commitment to using complaints to drive service improvement and positive change within Wandle.

Case one:

A resident complained about the poor handling of a repair to their shower.

What happened?

The Housing Ombudsman decided there had been maladministration by us in our handling of the requested repair.

Whilst we offered compensation in June 2022, we did not complete the repair until May 2023. The delay and lack of communication exacerbated the issue with the resident having to chase.

Lessons learned:

Our Head of Repairs implemented a patch-based system within the repairs service to organise ownership of repairs is sorted by area postcode.

Case two:

A misunderstanding about resident and Wandle’s repair responsibilities.

What happened?

A resident contacted us to request a repair to their broken window handles, but this does not come under Wandle’s responsibility to repair. Due to this misunderstanding, there were delays and missed appointments.

Lessons learned:

Our contact centre team now own a comprehensive list of repair responsibilities, and our repairs team provide regular training on the repairs policy so it always up to date.

Case three:

A resident received a letter signed off by Blacklight (our messaging tool) and not by the complaint handler. In addition, the second letter was poorly written and did not best represent Wandle‘s high standards.

Lessons learned:

Our customer resolutions manager has implemented further complaint handling training for the team, and we are rolling out writing skill workshops across the organisation.