Complaints performance

* Note this is not a direct comparison as from 1 April 2024 we allowed customers 12 months to escalate a complaint, compared to four weeks previously. The Stage 2 Summary by business area and theme below provides a full overview.

Failed promises are the biggest theme in Stage 2 complaints in 2024/25 as well as 2023/24, indicating this is the most emotive theme for customers.

How we’re tackling this:

• To address failed promises the Customer Experience team now track all Stage 1 complaint commitments, with 420 commitments monitored through to completion in 2024/25.
• Our planning team now has visibility of complaint-related repairs, helping prevent unnecessary rescheduling and reducing customer dissatisfaction.

*variance due to one case remaining live at customer’s request at time of reporting.

The profile of customers raising a complaint generally mirrors One Manchester's overall customer base, with the exception of Black / Black British African customers who are underrepresented. This data has been cross referenced with our TSM data which tells us Black / Black African customers are generally more satisfied with One Manchester (79% compared to a 73% average) and significantly more satisfied with complaint handling (57% compared to a 43% average) so a lower volume of complaints does align here. However, we will actively encourage representation from Black / Black African customers when we recruit to our complaints and performance customer group in 2025/26.
 
There are five neighbourhoods where we received over 60 complaints per neighbourhood. Three of the five were in the Central region which is also the region with the most complaints overall. This is not unexpected as the majority (58%) of our high-rise stock falls within this one region. Analysis shows that our high-rise customers are proportionally more dissatisfied than customers of other property types (14.3% of complaints compared to 11% of stock). We’re addressing this by increasing stock condition surveys to understand property condition and what repairs and maintenance are needed. We’ll explore this further with our customer groups in 2025/26 and also regularly review complaints by neighbourhood to review and address any emerging themes.

Customers can escalate to the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) if they feel that our complaints process has been exhausted and they remain dissatisfied.

The restructuring of the Customer Experience team and ongoing recruitment throughout 2024/25 — expanding the team from seven to nine members — has made sure we’re resourced to manage complaints in full compliance with the Housing Ombudsman Service's Complaints Handling Code. This also enables us to maintain a strong focus on learning from complaints and enhancing customer engagement.

How we’re striving to improve:

• Complaints learning sessions and customer journey mapping with Repairs, Neighbourhoods, and Assets have taken place regularly throughout the year, with any tactical interventions and outcomes reported to our Leadership Team, Customer and Communities committee, and Board.
• To address failures to resolve complaints at Stage 1, the Customer Experience team has implemented tracking of all “promises” made during a Stage 1 complaint investigation and these actions are reviewed regularly through to completion.
• We introduced complaints transactional surveys in December 2024 to identify what was and wasn’t working well for customers around complaints handling. Responses indicated that a high proportion of customers found the triage step which was introduced from April 2024 (to fully understand the complaint, the desired outcome, and any reasonable adjustments) beneficial.
• Following our “Big Listen” customer consultation in 2023/24, and the high volume of repairs-related complaints, we implemented a repairs intervention in 2024/25. The intervention team, working closely with our Customer Scrutiny Panel, have completed the intervention “check” phase. We’re carrying out identified improvements and throughout 2025/26 new ways of working will be rolled out to improve the customer experience and address recurring themes of dissatisfaction. 

We’ve also implemented multiple fixes to address customer dissatisfaction outside of the intervention, including:

• To address the high volume of joinery related complaints we have recruited to the team to increase appointment availability and reduce work backlog. This led to a reduction of joinery related complaints in the latter part of the year.
• In recognition of a large volume of complaints relating to fencing we utilised a sub-contractor to clear a back-log of jobs and in turn improve customer satisfaction. We also agreed a budget to increase in-house fencing team resource in 2025/26 to reduce a reliance on subcontractors giving us greater control of timescale and communication.
• Completed stock condition surveys to 75% of high-rise properties, meaning greater pro-activity around repair and replacements.
• To address complaints about ongoing repairs, and escalations due to work remaining incomplete we introduced a new approach to follow on work. By the end of the year this resulted in a 60% reduction in outstanding work, and where a first time fix was not possible outstanding work was booked in within 24 hours resulting in better communication and clarity for customers.
• Reduction in repairs backlog from January to April 2025.
• To reduce customer dissatisfaction around missed appointments we implemented a new “no access” procedure in repairs which reduced instances of no access by 50% by the end of March 2025.
• Monthly reviews of complaints by ethnicity revealed high arrears in one ethnic minority group, enabling us to tailor support messaging. We’ve also regularly reviewed compensation payments by ethnicity to ensure there is no conscious or unconscious bias in our compensation offers.
• In 2025/26 we will be co-creating welcome packs and service standards with customers to better manage expectation and clarity around services, and gas safety letters with customers as a result of increased complaint volumes in Q3.
• We’ll implement improvements recommended by our customer scrutiny panel once their complaints handling scrutiny in Q1 2025/26 is complete.
• Our current complaints position is shared with all complaint handlers and the Leadership Team on a weekly basis. Complaints performance has also been shared quarterly with Customers and Communities Committee and Board, and regular meetings have taken place between the Head of Customer Experience and our Member Responsible for Complaints (MRC). Actions arising from MRC meetings are documented and shared with Customers and Communities Committee.