Community Engagement Strategy 2016

leadership

viability

customers

growth

support

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

STRATEGY 2016 - 2020

2

mission

vision

values

Homes people choose

Pride Passion Respect Innovation Teamwork

Deliver quality homes, build communities & improve lives

MA CD O C LD NA OURT

In delivering our vision, we expect to achieve a number of key outcomes: Provide a choice of good quality homes and services.

Deliver excellent services tailored to the needs of individual residents, with additional support for those who need it.

Support the development of vibrant, sustainable communities.

Continue to provide new homes, working within financial constraints.

key themes From the Corporate Strategy 2016-2020 • Viability – continued viability, innovation, efficiency and financial capacity • Growth – growth and asset investment • Customers – keeping residents at the heart of our business • Leadership - effective governance, leadership and people • Support – supporting the most vulnerable in our homes.

While all are relevant to customer engagement, the most pertinent theme is ‘customer’ with its objective to: • Be an excellent landlord, deliver efficient, excellent core services and listen to the views of our residents.

Our five key themes & objectives are: • Use customer profile information to target customer engagement activities • Increase the number of informal customer engagement opportunities • Demonstrate customer influence on services • Promote accessibility, including bespoke, localised approaches in rural/more remote locations and for vulnerable residents as required • Provide more digital customer engagement.

community engagement strategy • The making of decisions about how housing related services are delivered, including the setting of service standards • The scrutiny of their landlord’s performance and the making of recommendations to their landlord about how performance might be improved

Our customer is at the heart of everything we do.

• The management of their homes, where Without exception, we want to enable all customers applicable to have real influence on services. Furthermore, • The management of repair and maintenance we are determined to achieve this regardless of services, such as commissioning and where our customers live, their age, ethnicity, undertaking a range of repair tasks, as agreed employment/economic status, physical mobility or with landlords, and the sharing in savings made any other impediment which may otherwise deter • Agreeing local offers for service delivery. engagement.

This strategy is also intends to reflect the evolving Although we have developed this customer landscape in the wider social housing sector and engagement strategy in line with the Homes the changing business needs of TCHG. Given & Communities Agency’s (HCA’s) consumer the intrinsic links between the two service areas, standards regarding tenant involvement and it will serve as an interim document until the empowerment, we want to exceed these. The customer engagement strategy can be combined standards require registered providers to ensure with the customer services strategy. The existing that tenants are given a wide range of opportunities customer services strategy is valid until 2016 and to influence and be involved in the following: will be rewritten following the outcomes of the • The formulation of their landlord’s housing ongoing organisational service review, due for related policies and strategic priorities implementation from April 2017.

4 Themes & objectives

1

objectiv e

Use customer

profile information to target customer engagement activities

Driver • Limited customer engagement resources mean that every customer engagement interaction must count and be used for a pre-determined purpose.

Targets: • Use the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, demographic data, intelligence from colleagues, partnership organisations and other anecdotal information to target our resources most effectively.

• Deliver ‘needs’ led customer engagement activities, meaning events and dialogue will be undertaken with communities where there is an opportunity for customer consultation to influence the outcome of a specific service review, project or similar initiative.

5

2

objectiv e

Increase the

number of informal customer engagement opportunities

Driver • The demands of modern life mean the majority of our customers are likely to be ‘time poor’ with a preference for lighter touch customer engagement methods.

Targets: • Continue to use existing informal customer engagement opportunities including targeted emails, our websites, social media, Spotlight, Community Neighbours and Pop Up events. These remain popular vehicles for consultation, information exchange and provide a more accessible way for the majority of customers to influence service provision.

• Create other customer engagement methods as business needs dictate. For example, we may facilitate ‘one off’ focus groups or attend partner events as required.

• Review and improve the mechanisms for how we receive and use regular feedback on services from customers e.g. estate services.

6

3

objectiv e

Demonstrate customer influence on services

Driver • We want to deliver consistently excellent services and improved customer satisfaction.

Targets: • Demonstrate customer influence on services by diligently reporting back consultation outcomes through a variety of vehicles including targeted emails, our websites, social media, Spotlight and the annual report for tenants.

• As overall satisfaction with services is impacted by how satisfied customers are that their views have been taken into account, give consideration about how best to measure satisfaction. This may be through obtaining satisfaction feedback at the end of customer engagement/Foundation activities and agreeing a percentage target to be reported at the end of March 2017.

• Where customer views are actively sought to support Resident Scrutiny Panel (RSP) reviews, ensure that customers are given clear information about how RSP has positively influenced services.

7

4

objectiv e

Promote accessibility, including bespoke, localised approaches in rural/more remote locations and for vulnerable residents as required

Driver • We want to enable all customers to influence service provision but recognise that one size does not fit all.

Targets: • Deliver bespoke and localised approaches to customer engagement, especially in areas where stock is geographically dispersed such as in East Kent, in more rural and remote areas and for elderly and vulnerable customers in all locations. This may involve identifying and partnering with existing local groups and external organisations to undertake consultation and research • Where there is a need, also utilise these opportunities to promote digital inclusion initiatives and for access and/or signposting to other tenancy sustainment interventions such as learning, skills & employment, health & wellbeing and financial inclusion.

8

5

objectiv e

Provide more digital customer engagement

Driver • We want to deliver efficient, value for money customer engagement and recognise for the majority of customers, digital methods represent the most accessible way to influence service provision, as require a relatively small time commitment and non physical presence.

Target: • Increasingly utilise ICT to ensure our customers have the opportunity to engage with us in the most appropriate and effective way. This will involve the further use of targeted emails, our websites, social media, Spotlight, external partner websites where appropriate and SMS text messaging for short surveys and to undertake consultation when this becomes available through CRM.

9 Conclusion This customer engagement strategy provides a framework to deliver meaningful customer engagement intended to tangibly influence service provision. It purposefully contains fewer objectives than the previous version to provide greater focus. The accompanying customer engagement action plan 2016-17 details measures, timescales, accountable officer/s, progress to date and projected future actions to deliver the five key themes & objectives.

All teams are responsible for customer engagement when developing services, strategies & policies although the customer engagement team is available to offer assistance and support as required. With this in mind, a consultation plan for 2016-17 has been developed which includes 13 different customer engagement/consultation topics from eight separate service areas. This is intended to serve as a working document and will be added to as required.

leadership

viability

customers

growth

support

Monson House Monson Way Tunbridge Wells Kent TN1 1LQ 01892 501480 www.tchg.org.uk