Customer Service Charter
Introduction
Guinness Midsummer is committed to providing a high standard of service to residents, potential residents and other users of our services. We seek suggestions, compliments and complaints to help us spread good practice and improve the services we provide.
Policy Statement
Our Customer Service Charter aims to:
- Ensure service users know how to make a comment or complaint
- Have a clear and understandable complaints procedure
- Ensure people are informed of the outcome of their complaint within set timescales, or if this is not possible, are kept informed of the progress of their complaint and the reason for any delay
- Learn from customers experiences, both good and bad
- Use the feedback from customers to improve our services
Compliments
Compliments are just as important as complaints because they help to tell us when we are getting things right.
If you would like to say thank you or well done then please talk, write or e-mail the member of staff who was responsible for the service you received.
All compliments received will be recorded and reported to our Board of Management and Resident Panels on an annual basis.
Suggestions
We also welcome your suggestions on how we can improve the services that we provide. We offer a number of ways for you to put forward your suggestions:
- By completing the ‘Suggestion Form’ on our website, www.midsummer.org
- By posting them in the suggestion box located in the reception area in our Offices or at our sheltered housing schemes
- By telephoning our Housing Advice Team on 01908 609577
Complaints
Guinness Midsummer is committed to providing a high standard of service to residents, potential residents and other users of our services.
We hope you will never have cause to complain about the service you receive but if you do, we have trained staff who will aim to ensure that your complaint is resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible.
If you do have a complaint we ask that you follow these stages:-
Stage One
Talk to the member of staff who is responsible for the service you are receiving and tell them what you feel has gone wrong. This is often the best and quickest way of dealing with complaints.
Stage Two
If your complaint is not resolved you may wish to make a formal complaint. You can do this by writing or telephoning the appropriate Manager (just ask the Housing Advice Team and they will tell you who this is).
Stage Three
We would hope that any complaint you have made would by now be resolved. Should you remain dissatisfied, however, you can write to the Chairman of the Association and ask them to either:
a) Convene a ‘Customer Service Panel’. This is a panel of Board Members and residents who will independently examine your complaint, or
b) Request that an independent mediator (agreed by both parties) be asked to examine your complaint.
Stage Four
If you have followed stages one to three but remain unhappy with the service you have received, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Independent Housing Ombudsman Service.
You may write to them at:-
Independent Housing Ombudsman
Norman House
105-109 Strand
London
WC2R OAA
Please note that the Ombudsman will usually require Guinness Midsummer’s complaints procedure to have been followed prior to his/her investigation of the case. A leaflet describing the Ombudsman service is available from Guinness Midsummer on request.
Contact details
If you would like to give us a compliment, make a suggestion or make a complaint you can contact us at:
Guinness Midsummer
Henshaw House
851 Silbury Boulevard
Central Milton Keynes
MK9 3JZ
Tel: 01908 609577
Fax: 01908 609558
e-mail: Info@midsummer.org
Response Times
An acknowledgement to letters of complaint will be sent within three working days.
We will investigate or review a complaint within three weeks (21 days).
If it is not possible to complete an investigation or review within this period, we will advise you of the reason why and tell you when we hope the investigation or review will be completed.
Monitoring
The Association will monitor complaints across the following headings:
- Service Area (Rental Housing, Repairs, Home Ownership, Sales & Marketing and Development)
- Target response times
- Ethnicity and Gender where this is known
- The stage at which the complaint is resolved
Performance data will be captured and reviewed quarterly by Heads of Service and information will be presented to the Board and the Resident Panels on an annual basis.
Communication
We will publicise the Customer Service Charter on our web site, via information literature and in the Residents’ Handbook. Performance data will be published regularly through articles in our residents’ magazine.
Linked Polices
By its nature, the Customer Service Charter could link to a number of Guinness Midsummer’s policies. We consider the following policies to be the most relevant to the Customer Service Charter:
Compensation
Service Standards
Resident Involvement
