You said, we did | Improving your call waiting times

We understood that you were unhappy with long call waiting times, so we made improvements to our Customer Contact Centre.

We are pleased to say that because of these improvements, the average call waiting time over the past 6 months has been 5 minutes.

Please note that as these are average wait times, we do expect to see longer wait times during our typically busy periods. This would be, for example, Mondays, days following a bank holiday, times of emergency weather warnings, and periods following important updates to our tenants.

 

What we did

We created a Customer Access Strategy, which was shared with and supported by our involved tenants in 2023.

As part of this:

  • We made sure we recruited the right colleagues with the right skills
  • Our Contact Centre colleagues were able to be more flexible in responding to peak call demands in our different queues
  • We reviewed our Contact Centre technology to make sure we prioritise the right things
  • We made sure our Contact Centre colleagues were given the right information and updates to resolve more calls at the first point or direct to the right person/team. This avoids unnecessary, repeat contact and therefore reduces call volumes.
  • We worked with other teams within the Group to identify opportunities to improve

 

How this impacts you, our tenants

 

  • Reduced wait times, improving your overall satisfaction
  • You have been able to access services quickly, reducing risk during urgent or emergency issues
  • Enables more time to be spent with people who need additional support
  • Peace of mind that your query has been dealt with efficiently and accurately  

 

Neil Bergin-Faragher, Head of Group Customer Experience, said: “I’m pleased that our call wait times has reduced over the past 6 months.

"I hope our tenants and customers have found it much easier to get in touch with us via whichever channel of contact they choose. This has enabled us to now focus on what else is needed, such as developing our online tenant account for those who wish to and are able to use it.

"We’re also working on a new ‘one place’ for Contact Centre colleagues to access support with faster, first-time contact resolution.

"As we continue to keep call wait times low, we also aim to improve the opportunity for tenants and customers to have their query answered and resolved at first time of asking.”

 

About the author

Progress Housing Group