Community-based housing association, South Liverpool Homes (SLH) was formed in 1999 following a stock transfer from Liverpool City Council. They manage approximately 3,850 homes predominantly based in the Speke and Garston areas of south Liverpool, and are a member of CIH’s Rethinking Repairs and Maintenance best practice group.

SLH has a strong focus on community engagement with over 300 volunteers, who help deliver community activities which make a real difference to the lives of customers. SLH’s repairs and maintenance service is delivered through a joint venture arrangement with Avela Home Service, which was established over ten years ago.

“We recognised there was a lack of understanding about what a responsive repair was”

In 2022, although SLH had a 96 per cent satisfaction rate, they were completing a high number of repairs on each home – around five per home. On top of that, the organisation was receiving a lot of complaints and completing repairs that should have been undertaken by residents. There was also a lack of understanding across the whole organisation about what a responsive repair was and their responsibility as a landlord.

SLH came up with a plan to address these issues:

• They set up a quarterly repairs focus group, made up of customers who had been dissatisfied with a recent repair, in addition to holding a focus group with disabled customers to understand if their needs were being met
• The organisation’s tenant scrutiny panel followed the repairs process from end to end, conducting deep dives into two processes closely linked with repairs: void standards and their damp, mould and condensation process
• To strengthen the link between customers and SLH’s board, the organisation introduced a customer services committee to sit above the scrutiny panel, to help deal with overall customer satisfaction
• SLH’s directors sat in on repairs calls to gain a greater understanding of the issues
• Job shadowing was introduced throughout the organisation, to help colleagues develop an understanding of repairs
• At every board meeting, they share a customer story about when things have gone wrong to make a direct link between customer and board and focus each meeting on what really matters.

“SLH knows that engagement with tenants is not a one-off exercise – it needs to be continuous”

From the feedback received, communication was highlighted as one of the biggest issues on a number of different levels – from details on the different types of repairs, to expectations of SLH vs. the customer, and how long certain home components were expected to last. Customers wanted more from SLH, so the organisation made plans to make improvements.

In response to the issues, SLH implemented several new processes:

• An improved customer feedback report, including a summary of all repairs, complaints, and lessons learned
• Working with their tenant scrutiny panel, the new customer service committee developed a 'What is a Repair?' tenant guide, which was issued to all existing customers and included in handover packs for new customers
• More KPIs were identified to monitor and manage areas of customer dissatisfaction
• Improvements were made to the website with information outlining tenants’ responsibilities and work they can undertake themselves
• Target timescales were updated and communicated for different types of repairs.

During this work, SLH found that engagement with tenants is not a one-off exercise – it needs to be continuous, and target different groups, not just tenants who are already engaged. They learned to keep their language and wording simple with less jargon, and to have KPIs that truly tell you what’s happening.