Compliments, comments and complaints

Last modified 29/01/09 at 17:37

We also carry out Customer Satisfaction Surveys to gather feedback from customers who have had issues logged and dealt with via the formal complaints procedure. If you are contacted by a member of staff, please do take the time to complete the survey. It will only take a few minutes and will provide us with valuable feedback which we will use to make improvements to our service.

Equally your compliments and comments are just as important as they help us to understand what you think we do well so that we can mirror this in all areas of our service to you.

Set out below is some information on how to make a formal complaint and how our formal complaints procedure works.

If you would like to make a complaint, comment or compliment please contact us using one of the following methods:

• Fill out our online Complaints, Comments or Compliments form
• Send an e-mail to complaints_C33@circleanglia.org.
• Send a letter by post to: ATT: Complaints Co-ordinator, 1-7 Corsica Street, London N5 1JG
• Call our Customer Contact Centre on 0800 073 0417 or 020 7447 3100 and a Customer Service Advisor will be happy to take details of your complaint over the phone.
• Send a fax to 020 7288 4001.
• Visit one of our offices in person. For a list of Circle 33’s offices, please view our contact us page.

Complaints

Circle 33 strive to provide an excellent service to all of our customers but unfortunately, things do go wrong at times. If you feel that we have failed to deliver a service that meets your expectations or the standards we have committed to, you should bring the matter to our attention so we can put things right. When you initially report such a service failure to us, we will do all we can to sort things out to your satisfaction straight away. If we cannot resolve the problem for you there and then, you may find it appropriate to register a formal complaint using one of the methods outlined above.

In order to deal with complaints effectively and in a timely manner, we have a simple three stage procedure in place. You can view the leaflet “Putting Things Right – A Guide to Making a Complaint” (724 KB), which outlines our procedure. These leaflets are also readily available from any of our offices.

Below are examples of issues we would treat as formal complaints:

• Failure to achieve our Customer Service Standards
• Failure to meet legal or contractual obligations
• Dissatisfaction with a decision or action
• Dissatisfaction with the attitudes of our staff or contractors.

Below are examples of issues that we would not treat as formal complaints:

• The first time a required repair is reported to us. This would need to be reported to our Contact Centre in the first instance to give us the opportunity to attend to the repair as per our Customer Service Standards.
• Complaints against your neighbours. We have a dedicated Neighbourhood Team which deals with incidents of neighbour nuisance and anti social behaviour.
• Any issue which forms part of legal action that you are taking against Circle 33. Our complaints procedure is not a legal procedure and is overridden by legal proceedings.

When reporting a complaint to Circle 33, it is very important that you provide us with the following information:

• What is it that you are unhappy about or dissatisfied with; and
• What you would like Circle 33 to do to put things right and resolve the matter to your satisfaction.

This information will assist us greatly in investigating and resolving your complaint.

As soon as your complaint is received by our offices, it will be passed to our Complaints Co-ordinator so that they may ensure the complaints procedure is followed.

Stage 1

Within three working days of receiving your complaint, our Complaints Co-ordinator will log the complaint onto our housing management system, allocate a Complaint Reference Number to the matter, and send you a letter acknowledging your complaint. The letter will advise you of the Complaint Reference Number, the name of the staff member who will be investigating and responding to your complaint (known as the “Lead Handler”), and the timescale for a response. Our policy specifies that the Lead Handler must aim to send a response to your complaint within 10 working days of the matter being logged.

A copy of our “Putting Things Right – A Guide to Making a Complaint” (724 KB) leaflet will also be sent to you with the Complaint Co-ordinator’s letter.

Within the 10 working day investigation and response period, the Lead Handler will contact you personally to you to discuss the matter and try to reach agreement with you about an appropriate solution. After the Lead Handler has spoken to you they will write to you to confirm the actions that have been or will be taken to resolve your complaint.

Stage 2

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint at Stage 1, please contact us within 28 days of receiving the letter explaining the reasons why you remain unhappy and outlining what you would like Circle 33 to do to resolve the matter to your full satisfaction. Within three working day of receiving your request to escalate your complaint, the Complaints Co-ordinator will send you a letter confirming that the matter has been escalated and advising you of the name of the Team Manager who will investigate and respond to your complaint at Stage 2 of the procedure.

The relevant Team Manager will review your complaint and the previous response. They will speak to you, either in person or over the telephone, to discuss solutions to the problem and ensure that any outstanding issues are put right. After they have spoken to you, they will send a letter within 10 working days to confirm the actions that have been taken or will be taken to fully resolve your complaint.

Stage 3

In the unlikely event that you remain dissatisfied with Circle 33’s response to you complaint at Stage 2, please contact us within 28 days of receiving the Stage 2 response explaining the reasons why you remain unhappy and outlining what you would like done to do to resolve the matter to your full satisfaction. The matter will then be referred to the Assistant Director of the relevant department who will review your complaint and may contact you personally to discuss the matter. If no solution to your complaint can be agreed at this point, we will arrange for an independent panel of Circle 33 Joint Commission members (tenant representatives) and Circle 33 Board members to consider your complaint. Complaint Panel Hearings are generally held in the evening at one of our offices and you will be invited to attend to present your case to the Complaint Panel.

A report outlining the details of your complaint will be prepared by the relevant Assistant Director and will be sent to you and to each of the Panel Members two weeks prior to the date of the Complaint Panel. The aim of this report is to provide the Panel Members with some background information in advance of the hearing.

After the hearing, the Complaint Panel members will make recommendations to Circle 33 as to how the matter should be resolved. A letter will be sent to you from the Chair of the Panel outlining these recommendations.

At this point, the complaint will be said to have exhausted Circle 33’s internal complaints procedure.

External Investigation

If you are not satisfied with the findings and recommendations of the Complaint Panel, you may refer your complaint to an external organisation and request that they investigate your complaint.

If you are a tenant, leaseholder or someone applying for housing you should contact the Housing Ombudsman Service. The Housing Ombudsman will only investigate your complaint after it has been through all the stages of our internal complaints procedure.

Below are the contact details for the Housing Ombudsman Service:

Post:

Housing Ombudsman Service
81 Aldwych
London
WC2B 4HN

Telephone: 020 7421 3800
Fax: 020 7831 1942

E-mail: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk

If your complaint is about a Registered Care service provided by EPIC Trust, you should contact the Commission for Social Care Inspection using the following details:

Post:
Commission for Social Care Inspection
33 Greycoat Street
London
SW1P 2QF

Telephone: 020 7979 2000
Fax: 020 7979 2111

E-mail: enquiries@csci.gsi.gov.uk
Website: www.csci.org.uk

Compliments

When you send us a compliment using one of the methods outlined above, we will forward it on to the team or member of staff that has been complimented and also the relevant Manager/s for that department. Compliments are recorded as one of our Performance Indicators and are discussed at our monthly Performance Management Meeting to ensure good practice is shared amongst our staff.

Comments

We are very grateful for any comments or suggestions received from our customers and use them to review the ways in which we deliver our services. Any comments or suggestions that we receive are forwarded to the relevant Team Manager for their consideration.