You said, we listened, we improved

At Salix Homes, we’re committed to getting back to our roots and reinforcing our core values of providing high-quality homes and services to our customers. To achieve this, we’ve been actively implementing various initiatives aimed at enhancing our services and strengthening ties within our communities.

Why we’re doing this

Salix Homes has a strong track record of customer engagement and involvement. In 2020 we further developed our approach to customer voice and influence to ensure customers are at the heart of decision making. We reviewed our customer engagement activities and put in place a strong customer engagement framework to ensure customers are able to get their voices heard in a way that suits them.

As a result of this work, we have seen improvements in customer satisfaction with being kept informed. This has increased from 79% in 2022/21 to 85% in 2023/24. We have also seen improvement in customer satisfaction that the landlord listens and takes tenants views into account with this increasing from 60% in 2022/21 to 77% in 2023/24.

However, when looking at our customer feedback through our satisfaction surveys, dissatisfaction seems to be more with engagement at a local level.

“Salix made a promise that these new homes would have estate walkabouts. They promised to keep an eye on the estates to keep the area nice. However, we have not seen these happening.”

Through identifying this we have put in place the following initiatives:

What we’ve done so far:

Introducing quarterly Working in Neighbourhood (WIN) Days

As part of our new operating model introduced in summer 2023, we’ve relaunched WIN (Working in Neighbourhood) Days, held regularly throughout the year. These days bring teams from across our organisation out into our communities to engage directly with our customers. Our goal is to ensure that our customers’ voices are not only heard but actively listened to. By knocking on doors and engaging in face-to-face conversations, we’re creating more opportunities for our customers to shape and improve our services, and focus on the issues that matter most to them.

What this means for our customers

By carrying out these WIN Days more frequently, we can identify potential issues and better understand the needs of our customers. This helps us in building stronger, more connected communities. The feedback collected during these engagement sessions to date have informed our neighbourhood action planning process, enabling us to prioritise actions that matter most to our customers.

What’s next

Each WIN Day will focus on something different from knocking on customers doors, community events to a neighbourhood walkabout.

Our customers can stay updated on upcoming events through our events calendar on our website.

New drop-in sessions and estate walkabouts

Our neighbourhood drop-in sessions and estate walkabouts have been rebooted and are now held regularly across our communities.

We understand the importance of having accessible channels for addressing our customers’ concerns. That’s why we have dedicated housing officers in our neighbourhoods, serving as familiar faces and facilitating closer connections with our customers. These officers host regular drop-in events where customers can visit without appointments.

We have planned regular estate walkabouts where our customers can join our housing officers, local councillors and partners.

The schedule of upcoming events is available on our events calendar, allowing customers to choose the most convenient event for them.

Teaming up with Salford City Radio for a new radio show

We’ve partnered with community radio station Salford City Radio to launch “Let’s Talk Housing with Salix Homes,” a brand-new radio show. This platform invites customers to send in questions related to our homes, communities, and housing services, which are then addressed by our leadership team on air.

What this means for our customers

This initiative aims to strengthen our connection with our customers across Salford, providing an additional avenue for direct engagement. We use the show to answer questions from our customers on air, share important news and information about housing, our services, our events and activities, and provide practical advice and support.

Customers can listen to the show and submit questions through our website. New episodes are available monthly, and you can listen here.

Launching our High-Rise Month of Action

In early 2024, we initiated the High-Rise Month of Action to engage with customers living in our high-rise buildings. We held 19 sessions across these buildings, conducting home visits and communal drop-in events.

These interactions allowed us not only to perform essential safety checks and audits, but also to have meaningful discussions with our customers about their priorities and concerns.

What this means for our customers

During each session, we engaged with customers in communal areas, conducted home safety checks and tenancy audits, and gathered feedback through surveys. By understanding our customers’ priorities, we can tailor our services accordingly. The month-long initiative received positive responses, with our team completing 186 home visits and speaking to over 350 customers.

What’s next

Feedback from the Month of Action will help shape our neighbourhood action planning process and our Building Safety Engagement Strategy, which you can view here.

At Salix Homes we are committed to providing essential support to our customers, particularly during challenging times. We want to ensure that our customers have access to critical support and advice, and that they know where to find it when they need it most. In collaboration with our Customer Committee and local partners, we have developed a support package and resources to help our customers, informed by our customers.

Salix Homes has a team dedicated to providing customers with guidance and support in case they face financial difficulties and are finding it hard to pay their rent or other bills. This team, known as the Income Management Team, offers direct assistance and make referrals to external agencies and charities who are there to help.

Why are we doing this?

Salix Homes aims to ensure that our diverse range of customers receive all the benefits they are entitled to and provide them with tailored support and advice that best suits their individual needs.  Salix Homes also has a responsibility to provide good quality, well-maintained, and safe homes for our customers, while also ensuring the maintenance of their tenancy.

Involving our customers every step of the way

Salix Homes introduced its Hardship Fund in 2015, offering help to customers facing financial hardship. The Hardship Fund had strict qualifying criteria and given the Covid-19 pandemic, rising energy prices, increasing rents, and the general cost of living increases, we felt it was necessary to review the criteria in 2022 to ensure that we could offer support for a wider range of reasons.

We collaborated with our Customer Committee to review the package in place and expanded the criteria. We also received feedback that the term ‘Hardship Fund’ had negative connotations, so we changed it to ‘Customer Support Fund’.

After the successful implementation of the ‘Rise emergency energy fund,’ which offered one-off energy vouchers in December 2021, we received an increased number of calls from customers in need. This highlighted the need to include energy vouchers in the new Customer Support Fund, which would help people in fuel poverty and ensure that we could assist everyone regardless of their payment plans or energy supplier.

The proposed revisions to the Hardship Fund policy were developed in consultation with colleagues and aligned with the policies of other housing providers.

What have we done so far?

Customer Support Fund

Our Customer Support Fund is a discretionary fund that can award up to £300 to help towards rent arrears and £500 for other circumstances. We developed this fund in conjunction with our Customer Committee to provide financial support to our customers who need it the most. You can find out more about this fund here.

Food Support

We have established strong relationships with food banks and pantries across Salford, such as Salford Foodbank and Lucie’s Pantry, to support our customers with the provision of foodbank vouchers. We understand that access to food is essential, and we strive to support our customers with this basic need. Find out more about food support here.

Energy Vouchers

Energy bills can be a significant financial burden for our customers, and we aim to provide them with the support they need to manage their energy bills effectively. We have registered with the Energy Hardship Fund (HACT) to provide our customers with access to energy vouchers.

Furniture Recycling Scheme

Our Furniture Recycling Scheme is designed to help customers who struggle with the cost of buying essential furniture or appliances or can’t afford replacements if they’re broken. The scheme collects unwanted furniture, household items, and white goods so we can give them free of charge to our customers who need them the most.

Your Homes Newcastle Furniture Service (NFS)

We have become a partner of the Your Homes NFS which provides a wide range of essential household items such as fridges, beds, and cookers which can be selected, delivered and installed to customers on a rental basis.

Supporting our customers in to work

Salix Homes provides extensive support to our customers to help them secure employment. The support offered can range from assistance with writing CVs and cover letters to collaborating with our partners to provide training and even helping with the purchase of equipment like repurposed laptops.

In addition to this, we work together with seven other housing providers to organise workshops that cover skills such as IT and First Aid. We also hold volunteer events, which offer an opportunity for our customers to network and gain experience while also giving back to the community.

As a founding member of Build Salford, we are proud to support young people in securing apprenticeships and entry-level jobs. This partnership has proven to be very successful, and we have helped many young people start their careers.

Our commitment to supporting our customers to get into work is unwavering. We understand that securing employment can be challenging, and we are here to provide the necessary support and resources to make the process easier.

Free Sim Cards

We’re part of the National Databank scheme and can provide free SIM cards, pre-loaded with data, for eligible customers. We understand that access to communication is essential, and we strive to support our customers in staying connected.

Income and Expenditure Checks

We understand that many of our customers might not be aware of all the benefits they are entitled to, and we aim to provide them with all the necessary support and information, so we carry out income/expenditure checks with customers to ensure they are receiving all the benefits they are entitled to.

Cost of Living Campaign

We recognise that many of our customers are facing challenges through the cost of living crisis.  So, we developed a communications campaign across social media and our website to make sure our customers can stay up to date with the critical help available from Salix Homes, our partners, and support organisations in Salford, know key dates for benefits payments, as well as access top tips on how to reduce energy bills and manage Christmas on a budget. This campaign included a dedicated space on our website for Cost of Living support.

So, how does this benefit our customers?

In 2023/2024, we used all £50,000 of the Customer Support Fund to assist our customers. A total of 259 customers received support from this fund, which included help with rent, white goods, energy vouchers, moving costs, and property clearance. Additionally, we provided 92 foodbank vouchers and helped 109 customers access energy vouchers worth £12,226.

Since we implemented our Furniture Recycling Scheme, we have diverted 360 tonnes of furniture away from landfill sites, saved £70,000 in tipping costs, and delivered more than 3000 items to people in need. In 2023/2024 alone, we made 132 deliveries of 815 items, including washing machines, sofas, beds, mattresses, televisions, wardrobes, and other household items.

We have also supported our customers in making their claims for Universal Credit, completing income and expenditure checks, and securing an additional £49,554 in benefits for them over the last 12 months.

One customer explained:

“I have previously had some financial struggles and Steph has done everything in her power to ensure I am okay and has helped me with my rent arrears and provided me with other support which I genuinely couldn’t be more appreciative of. She is an absolute asset to your team and I am extremely grateful for everything.”

We also received some feedback on behalf of a customer:

“As well as the financial help, Gaynor (Income Management Officer) was incredibly understanding and supportive towards my client and took time to talk to him and understand the problems he was having and the stress he was experiencing as a result. This support made such a big difference to the client. Gaynor went above and beyond and was willing to listen to him talk about a number of issues that weren’t directly related to his rent arrears but allowed the client to feel comfortable and able to discuss a way forward.

The client is now making regular rent payments and is no longer in arrears. He has a good relationship with Gaynor and feels able to contact her regarding his rent account. He is in much better health and enjoying being settled in his tenancy. Thank you very much Gaynor!”

During 2023/2024 we supported 21 customers with pre-employment activity such as job search, application support, CV writing and interview skills.  We also helped five customers secure apprenticeships, 39 customers in to training and 10 customers secure employment.

Furthermore, we have provided free sim cards to 14 customers, enabling them to stay connected with their family, friends, and us.

We have made 257 referrals to external agencies for customers requiring more specialist support, such as Welfare Rights, Better Off Salford, Salford Assist, Salford City Council for Discretionary Housing Payment’s, and Citizen’s Advice Bureau. Additionally, four of our customers have used the Your Homes NFS.

So what is Salix Homes doing next to keep supporting our customers?

Salix Homes remains committed to providing our customers with the necessary support and advice. We will continue to develop new support schemes and partnerships to provide our customers with the best possible support.

In addition to this, we plan to continue with the cost of living campaign that highlights the support and advice we can offer. We also plan to align this with the Universal Credit migration. This campaign will offer advice and support to our customers who are migrating to Universal Credit. We believe that this campaign will help our customers navigate this transition with ease and provide them with the necessary support.

We are committed to continuing our Customer Support Fund. This fund will have a budget of £50,000 for 2024/2025. We believe that this fund will help our customers in need and provide them with necessary financial support during difficult times.

We have already arranged staff visits to the foodbanks in May. We plan to continue with this relationship and support the foodbank in any way possible.

Stay tuned for updates on our progress

We want to make sure customers have access to essential support and guidance so we will share regular updates.  Sign up to our e-newsletter to get the latest news and views and to find out what’s happening in your community.

At Salix Homes, we understand that moving into a new home can be both exciting and overwhelming. That’s why we’ve started a journey to review and improve communications for new customers.

Our goal is simple: to ensure that your transition into your new home is as smooth as possible, you feel supported throughout the journey, and we keep you informed with everything you need to know to settle in to your new home safely and securely.

Why we’re doing this

We recognised the importance of ensuring that our new tenants feel welcomed, informed, and supported right from the start. By reviewing our processes and communications, we aimed to improve customer satisfaction and ensure that new tenants have everything they need to settle into their new homes with ease.

How we involved customers

Your feedback and insights have been instrumental in shaping our approach. We started by reaching out to a diverse group of stakeholders, including recently moved-in customers, members of our Customer Committee, and housing officers who look after customers from day one. Through surveys, interviews and workshops, we gained valuable insights into your experiences and expectations.

Here’s what you told us you wanted when moving into your new home:

• Useful information about the local area and amenities.
• A moving process that isn’t overwhelming and a tenancy agreement you can understand.
• Clear and accessible communication across different channels including SMS, website, email, letters and videos.
• Detailed information leading up to move-in day on what to expect and how to prepare for the big day.
• Practical guidance on household utilities and services.
• Ongoing support and updates for new customers.
• Access to support Salix Homes can provide from paying rent and bills and energy saving tips to our furniture recycling scheme.

What we’ve done so far

Insights and Analysis:

We carefully analysed your feedback to identify areas for improvement.

New Customer Care Programme:

We have developed a new customer care programme called ‘Settle in with Salix’ working closely with our Customer Committee. This includes a new and comprehensive welcome pack and an updated tenancy agreement. Customers will be taken on an eight-month journey to ensure they settle in to their new home and feel supported, including regular communications and check-ins with their dedicated housing officer. From support with paying rent and bills to guidance on keeping your home safe.

Process Review:

We’re currently reviewing our onboarding process with our housing officers and producing a toolkit, to ensure they deliver a high quality and consistent service for our customers throughout their tenancy.

Trials:

We’re currently trialling and testing the new welcome packs and tenancy agreement to ensure they meet customer needs.

What this means for customers:

• Improved Experience: Our aim is to make the moving in process clear, simple, and welcoming for you.
• Informed Tenancy: We want to ensure you have all the information you need to maintain a safe, secure, and affordable home.
• Customer first Approach: Your feedback has been at the heart of our process, ensuring that our services meet your needs and expectations.

Next steps

Housing Officer Toolkit:

We’re developing resources to support our housing officers in providing the best possible service.

Customer Feedback:

We’ll be surveying customers who have experienced the new process to gather further insights. We are also tweaking the new tenancy agreement based on feedback from our trails.

Process Review:

We’ll continue to review and refine our tenancy management processes ensure we are providing the best customer service and experience.

Conclusion:

At Salix Homes, your satisfaction is our priority. Through this collaborative effort, we’re committed to ensuring that your journey with us starts on the right foot. We’re here to support you every step of the way as you settle into your new home.

In November 2023, to coincide with National Social Housing Safety and Compliance Week, we launched our Make Every Visit Count campaign to encourage our workforce to think beyond their service area when meeting with customers.

What are we doing?

This internal campaign is targeted at our workforce with highly visible campaign messages emblazoned across our sites and internal communications channels.

The message for colleagues is clear – every visit with a customer is a chance to uncover additional needs and build stronger customer relationships, so make every interaction with a customer count.

Whether our colleagues are carrying out a repair, conducting a property survey or discussing an anti-social behaviour issue, they’re urged to use the opportunity to find out more about the customer and their home and make a positive impact.

Colleagues have been provided with a check list of things to think about before visiting a customer, which includes things like:

• Check the customer file before they visit and consider the previous history of the customer and their property
• Ask them if their heating is working
• Look for signs of damp, mould, condensation or other hazards
• Look for signs they may be struggling or need some additional support
• Are there any safeguarding concerns?

 Why are we doing it?

It’s a proactive approach to improving customer satisfaction and wellbeing, supporting us in our mission to provide good quality homes and services.

The campaign forms part of our drive to get back to our roots, get to know our customers better and improve services. By looking beyond specific service areas or reason for the visit, our colleagues can help us identify issues and provide assistance that might otherwise go unnoticed.

We know how hard our colleagues work to support our customers, but sometimes opportunities can be missed, so by taking a moment to think beyond their specific roles and processes, we can make a real difference to the lives of our customers.

 Customer impact

This pro-active approach has not gone unnoticed by our customers. Feedback from one customer following a visit from a surveyor said:

 “Not only did the surveyor look into the issue that I had reported, but he also noticed another repair that needed doing. He got someone out the next day and they fixed this for me too. I can’t thank him enough.” 

Next steps

The Make Every Visit campaign continues and we’re utilising all available opportunities to continue to share the messages with our workforce and ensure it becomes part of our culture.

It also links to our values – Trustworthy, Successful and Inclusive – and we have a reward and recognition programme that honours those colleagues who embody our values. As part of this, we share success stories of those colleagues who have demonstrated our values in their roles, which includes celebrating examples of colleagues who have made every visit count, and the positive impact that has on our customers.

At Salix Homes, we are committed to providing customers with a decent, safe, secure, well-managed and affordable home. Over the past 18 months, we noticed an increase in the demand for repairs, repair-related calls and complaints from our customers. This prompted our decision to carry out an in-depth repairs review to identify the root causes, and to explore options to improve the service for our valued customers.

Why we’re doing this

Our goal is to implement a new, more efficient service delivery model that not only resolves customers’ repair needs promptly, but also leaves them feeling heard and satisfied with the repairs service and customer experience.

Involving our customers every step of the way

We believe that our customers’ voice matters the most in shaping the services we provide. That’s why we’ve engaged our customers through various channels such as surveys, focus groups, and consultations. This feedback was essential in guiding our review process.

What we’ve done so far

Last year, we initiated a comprehensive review of our repairs service involving a diverse range of customers and stakeholders, as well as the front-line teams delivering the current service.  Central to the review has been extensive input from our Customer Committee, ensuring customer voice is at the heart of shaping the new service.  We have also heavily engaged our Board throughout the review to help challenge and scrutinise our analysis and decision making.

We began by digging deep into analysing complaints, conducting consultations with dissatisfied customers, and gathering insights from staff and contractors involved in service delivery.

Recently, we also completed a series of focus groups to further understand our customers’ experiences and gather valuable feedback on areas that could be improved.

We then shared and discussed our findings and recommendations with our Board and Customer Committee via strategic workshops in Spring 2024.

You said, we listened, we are improving…

We heard lots of useful feedback and identified many great ideas for how we could make changes to improve the customer service, experience and satisfaction.  We are using these insights to develop a new repairs service, and we have also started to trial and test some ideas in response to what we heard already.

Take a look below at a summary of the feedback and key findings, and the recommended actions to shape the new repairs service:

Waiting times for appointments

Increased budget and number of operatives in the establishment for 2024/25 to support the increased demand and reduce wait times for customers. The additional budget has been put into the business plan for five years.

Quality of work

Increased supervision within the new delivery model to ensure quality of repair and workmanship is monitored more closely.

Provide better online portal functionality including ability to record videos and pictures of the job

A new repairs portal and diagnostic tool has been procured and will be rolled out by summer 2024.

Understanding different customer needs and accessibility requirements

We have commissioned Kwest to undertake a customer survey to gather customer data and cleanse the current data we hold as part of our Getting to Know You campaign, and we will use this to tailor the service to our customers’ needs.

Provide virtual video inspections

New software trialled and planned to roll out to increase surveyor productivity.

Improve customer communications

New ways of working to be launched as part of the implementation of the new service model following the success of the trial. This will ensure all customers receive a call the day before their repair, and further contact from the operative on the day to provide an estimated time of arrival. The new model also increases the number of customer liaison posts by one to support customers through major repairs i.e. severe leaks etc. Additionally, we will roll out quarterly focus group meetings with dissatisfied customers to embed a culture of continuous improvement.

Provide more flexible appointments

The new delivery model will offer evening and weekend appointments as standard. We have recently trialled this model and received great customer feedback and a reduction in customer wait times for their repair to be carried out.

Reduce the number of no access challenges

The increased communication with customers, and availability of evening and weekend appointments proved successful in reducing no access rates during the trial and this will be rolled out as a standard approach within the new delivery model.

Provide the ability to book follow on work on site

We will be implementing new measures and technology which allows the operative on site to book their own follow-on works should they not be able to support a first-time fix.

Build flexibility into diaries to increase right first time, and complete other jobs whilst on site

Roll out standard minute values across all jobs and build flexibility into the diary to enable jobs that take longer than originally anticipated to be completed, without impacting other planned jobs.

Sustaining a pipeline of skills and talent for the future

The use of apprenticeships to ensure a pipeline of skills for the future is being considered across the business as part of succession planning. Additionally, we will work closer with contracting partners to make use of apprentices through social value commitments for Salix Homes.

So, what does this mean for our customers and how will it benefit them?

This review isn’t just about identifying problems; it’s about finding solutions that directly address customer concerns and improve their overall experience of our repairs service. By listening to customer feedback, we’re committed to implementing changes that make a tangible difference in how repairs are handled, ensuring a more efficient, transparent, and customer-focused service.

Quality and regulatory assurance

Our actions are not just driven by customer feedback, but also by regulatory standards. Compliance with safety and quality standards is fundamental to us, ensuring that our service meets not only your expectations, but also regulatory requirements. This work will enable us to meet legal requirements under the new Awaab’s Law, as well as adhering to the new consumer standards, which outline that landlords must provide an effective and efficient repairs and maintenance service.

Next steps and expected outcomes

We are currently in the exciting stage of designing and building a new repairs model based on customer insights, and we expect to implement the new service from Autumn this year.

We want to make sure the new service is fit for the future and inclusive, as well as delivering first class service and value for money, to ensure we deliver the best possible service, to benefit all our customers, across all our communities.

Stay tuned for updates on our progress

We’re dedicated to transparency, and we will share regular progress updates with our customers, so they know exactly when changes are happening and what to expect from the new and improved service.