Tell us your views - we're all ears
Consultation has concluded
**Consultation closed**
We believe it’s important to tackle rent arrears at the earliest possible opportunity. However, we recognise that we’re currently encountering a time where people are experiencing financial pressures due to the cost of living crisis.
Despite this, we don’t believe it does our customers any favours to allow them to get into debt.
We aim to support those who may be experiencing difficulties in paying their rent and we’re reviewing our Income Management Policy and would like as many customer views as possible to help with this.
You can give us your views by selecting the 'Survey' tool below.
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You said, we did
Our Income Management policy is currently under review and on 11 October 2022 we contacted all our customers who are tenants and have an email address with a link to a survey.
The main purpose of the survey was to find out:
How aware customers are of our income management processes.
To share key sections of our Income Management policy.
To gauge customer preferences, particularly around ways in which customers prefer to communicate with us.
To collect suggestions for how we can enhance the support we offer.
We received 510 responses to the online survey. We asked customers what ‘Rent First’ meant to them.
Most customers who responded described it as rent being the number one priority payment; some described it as the key to security, safety and a roof above their head.
The results:
Of the 109 customers who answered that they had experienced difficulties, 23 had accessed financial support through Longhurst Group. The remaining 86 hadn't. We wanted to know why this was and asked customers what barriers stand in the way when contacting us if they're experiencing difficulties paying their rent.
When we asked what barriers were getting in the way of customers reaching out for support, the most common suggestions were (in order):
- Stress, anxiety, mental health, fear.
- Embarrassed, being judged, shame.
- Too long to answer the call, not answering the call.
- Unsympathetic staff.
- Lack of phone credit, internet, access to a phone.
- In hospital, illness.
- Hearing or speech difficulties.
Customers generally felt that Longhurst Group offer enough support. We'll focus on how we can make sure the support available is easily accessed in a way to suit customers, no matter what difficulties they might be experiencing.
When a customer is behind with their rent, we'll make contact at the earliest opportunity. Thinking about communication preferences, we asked customers to select how they'd prefer us to make contact.
Please note, customers were able to select more than one option for their response. The chart shows the number of times each option was selected.
In order of preference, email was the preferred option, followed by telephone, letter then text.
We asked would you prefer to pay your rent using an online payment method? 327 customers said no and 183 customers said yes.
Thank you for taking to the time to share your views, we've taken your feedback on board and put the following recommendations into practice:
You said We did Timescale
To send regular communications explaining how we can help customers who are experiencing difficulties with paying their rent.
The information is available in Our Voice customer magazine.
This information will be added to our recorded message.
3 months
To contact customers using email in the first instance, following up with a phone call.
We place high importance on having quality conversations, so we'll call a customer in the first instance. The reason behind this is to enable us to have a detailed discussion with the customer. This helps us to fully understand the customer’s position. An email, or other options, are sent if no contact can be made by phone.
N/A
To understand the customer's additional needs as soon as possible so they can be better supported in a way that suits them.
Whilst checking the customer's email and phone number, the agent will ask if there are support needs.
We'll assess a customers individual needs on a case-by-case basis.
We'll signpost a customer to the Wellbeing Hub if they are in need of specialist support services.
Immediate start
To continue to show empathy when speaking with customers and where necessary provide additional training as well as support for colleagues who handle calls of this nature.
The team complete mandatory training, including how to have difficult conversations sensitively.
Call quality is managed though call audits and one-to-ones and our Rant and Rave survey responses.
Ongoing
To recognise that Paypal isn’t the preferred choice of the majority of customers answering this survey.
This response will be shared with key colleagues and feedback used if in the future we introduce additional payment options.
November 2022
To answer income calls promptly
This is always our priority and is monitored closely through targeted key performance indicators..
Ongoing - overseen by the Customer Forum
