The difference we make

Our first review of the year was the Homechoice Service, who customers engage with to apply for a home at Stockport Homes. Because most residents of Stockport Homes have at some point used this service, we felt that it made sense for us to assess how easy it was to apply for a home and how effectively applicant’s expectations of the service are managed.

We focused our review on the customer journey of the application process. As part of the review, we undertook a number of activities to help us form judgements about how effective the service was. These included reviewing letters from throughout the customer journey, reviewing information on the website and surveying 2,020 applicants who had applied for a home within the last six months for their views on the service.

We found that overall, the Homechoice Service is good, and applicants can easily apply for a property and clear information is available on how to bid for a property. We did however find that that improvements could be made regarding communication between the service and applicants. We hope that our recommendations of improvements to the service will help customers who use the service.

A number of our recommendations relied on a new Homechoice system being developed. Because of this, we asked to be consulted on the new system before it was rolled out to customers. In March, we met with the Homechoice Manager, who provided a demonstration on the system and they asked for feedback on its effectiveness from a customer’s perspective.