Autumn 2018/Issue 31 Connecting customer and community Customer annual report How we did last year and our plans for the year ahead. Win 50 in shopping vouchers! Keeping you safe What we re doing in fire safety and data protection.
Introduction Welcome This edition of Home is packed with information about how we re working to improve your services and increase customer satisfaction. Inside, you ll find our four-page customer annual report, where we present you with the results of our performance over the past year. This is our opportunity to let you know how we re planning to build on current success, as well as improve in other areas. On pages 6 and 7, we pay particular attention to services we provide to your estate, discussing projects we re currently working on to improve your community. Also in this edition, we explain the work we ve been doing in fire safety and data protection (page 4), and have an update on our Fit for the Future programme, which we introduced for the first time in Home last year (see page 5). 4 6 Feature article Focusing on your community. Keeping you safe Focusing on areas of fire safety and data protection. 8 Our Oxford office has moved The address to our new Oxford office after we moved in August. Finally, don t forget to enter our quiz! See page 8 for details. 5 Plans are taking shape We ve been hard at work since introducing our business transformation programme last year. 8 Enter our quiz to win 50! Answer three questions in Home for three chances to win 50 in high street shopping vouchers. 7 Your choice Our customers have played a central part in our project to improve services to our estates. 8 Christmas opening hours Find out when we re open over the Christmas period. Choose the easy option Margot Knight Editor When it comes to making payments, Direct Debit is your most convenient option. Simply decide how regularly you want money to leave your account, and then sit back and relax as you say goodbye to the unwanted hassle of monthly manual payments. You can also have peace of mind knowing you re protected by Direct Debit Guarantee. Start saving time today. Call us on 0800 432 0077 to set up a Direct Debit or complete our online form at a2dominion.co.uk/set-up-a-direct-debit On the cover: William, playing in one of our gardens in Surrey. Left: Anne, a resident, at her community café on one of our estates in Ealing. Register for My Account now at a2dominion.co.uk/myaccount 3
Keeping you safe Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, we want to reassure you that we re continuing to take fire safety very seriously. In this article, we explain the various measures we take to protect your building from fire. Quiz Question What came into effect in May this year? See page 8 on how to enter. We take fire and safety standards in our buildings very seriously. All our buildings meet strict safety regulations, right from the initial stages of construction and throughout the life of the building. All our homes and communal areas are fitted with at least one smoke alarm, and shared corridors in blocks of flats have self-closing fire doors, designed to stop the spread of fire and smoke. In 2017/18, we spent 2.6m on fire safety in our buildings. Going forward, we ll continue to conduct regular risk assessments and, where needed, carry out additional assessments to identify any extra actions we can take to maintain safety in your building. It s important that you, too, are doing all you can to keep safe from the threat of fire. To find out how, please visit the Safety and security section of our website at a2dominion.co.uk/help 4 Got a question? Visit 2dominion.co.uk/help GDPR, A2Dominion and your data Following General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect in May this year, we re trying to be as clear as possible about how we re complying with the new law in the way we process your data. We sent a letter to all our customers in May, stating what data we re allowed to use and why. If you re still wondering how we process your data in keeping with GDPR, you can learn full details by referring to our privacy policy on our website, a2dominion.co.uk/privacy Still have questions? Please email them to governance@a2dominion.co.uk or call 0800 432 0077 and ask to speak to our Governance team. Customer annual report 2017/18 Our customer annual report shows you how we ve performed over the last year and how we ve been developing and improving our services. Last year we said we wanted to: Create more new homes Respond to anti-social behaviour cases more quickly Support you with work, volunteering opportunities, digital training and financial awareness Protect your homes from fire, gas and electrical incidents. As a result, we provided 954 new homes. Of these, around 60% were for rent and shared ownership, with the remaining homes for sale. Us at a glance We are a residential property group with over 65,000 customers in 37,000 homes across London and southern England. We reinvest 100% of our profits back into our work, helping to deliver new homes and better services, and support local communities. In 2017/18, we built 954 new homes to meet a wide variety of needs. We had an 82% satisfaction rate following case reviews of anti-social behaviour complaints, by continuing to invest in mediation programmes and further develop our neighbourhood team s relationships with the local police, councils and you, our customers. 1,033 of our residents took part in employment, enterprise and educational programmes in local communities, and we carried out over 1,000 fire risk assessments across our properties. 221 AFFORDABLE RENT 226 PRIVATE RENT 406 PRIVATE SALE 101 SHARED OWNERSHIP A2Dominion Customer Annual Report 2017/18
Prioritising customer satisfaction Our Customer Contact Centre achieved a satisfaction rate of 83% and on average we answered calls one minute quicker than we did last year. We made changes to our ways of working to enable our customer service agents to answer your questions consistently and effectively. As part of our 20m technology investment we ll be removing call options so you speak directly to a member of our team when you call us. We ll also be introducing live chat so you can contact our team online quickly and without having to call. 83% CUSTOMER CONTACT CENTRE SATISFACTION RATE Valerie Doy, 76, lives at Lord Knyvett Court, Stanwell, with her sister. I really like the community here and I love our home. The staff at the community centre are like family. Looking after your neighbourhood Between 2018 and 2019, we will be reviewing our environmental services supplier contracts, including communal cleaning, gardening and decorating services. This is due to be completed in 2019 and we will be contacting customers regularly with updates between now and then. Give us your feedback Your feedback is essential to us providing an outstanding service and we value your input and suggestions. If you have something you d like to tell us about the services you ve received, please get in touch with us by filling out our form online at a2dominion.co.uk/ customerfeedback Improving our repairs service We achieved 86% customer satisfaction for our repairs service and completed routine repairs a day-and-a-half quicker than last year, on average. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN REPAIRS 77 % 86 % 2017 2018 Continuing our care and support services We received over 1m funding for care and support services and accommodation. These included: Creating 10 additional beds in our Oxford hostel Gaining a new contract in Woking, to deliver personal care and support to residents over the age of 60 Expanding our domestic abuse services in Oxfordshire and West Berkshire to support the safety and recovery of victims of domestic abuse Receiving a new contract to develop our young people and parents services in Surrey, West Berkshire and Wiltshire to provide support and advice to local young parents for the next four years. 1m Investing in your home We invested 24.7m on the refurbishment of the homes we manage. This included the replacement of kitchens, bathrooms, roofs, windows and doors, estate improvements and internal and external decoration. 24.7m We set up our Customer Advisory Panel (CAP), consisting of customers, industry experts and A2Dominion Board members. The panel aims to improve our services and communications by taking part in regular meetings, advising on customer projects and testing new services. Providing support in times of financial difficulty Our employees provide financial guidance and over the last year they secured 5.8m in extra benefits for customers - 300,000 more than last year. 5.8m FUNDING SECURED FOR NEW CARE AND SUPPORT CONTRACTS INVESTED IN UPGRADING OUR EXISTING HOMES, INCLUDING NEW KITCHENS AND BATHROOMS FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND GUIDANCE A2Dominion Customer Annual Report 2017/18 A2Dominion Customer Annual Report 2017/18
Supporting our communities We ve been working in local communities to carry out programmes focussing on health and wellbeing, financial and digital inclusion, employment, enterprise and education. We also had more than 31,000 customers engage in neighbourhood and community centre activities. This has included over 1,033 customers engaged in our employment, enterprise and educational programme, leading to 99% of them saying their incomes had improved since joining the programme. Investing in your businesses We invested 35,000 into our Dragon s Den-style business enterprise programme, supporting budding entrepreneurs with mentoring and grant funding to launch or expand their businesses. Plans are taking shape Quiz Question Name a benefit of Fit for the Future. See page 8 on how to enter. L-R: Andrea Tierney, Linda Chicout, Kylie Crosby, Elizabeth Wanjiru and Claire Tolba Five female entrepreneurs won a combined 15,000 in business funding after presenting their business ideas at the end of the programme. Looking ahead to next year Last year, we introduced plans for our 20m business change programme, Fit for the Future, to significantly improve our services and become more responsive to your needs and expectations. You ll soon start to experience the first of the changes we re making. This will include introduction of live chat on our My Account portal and a brand new customer website launching in 2019, which will enable you to use more of our services online. Look out for more information and further updates as the programme progresses. Our other priorities over the next year include: Delivering 900 new homes for rent, shared ownership and sale, helping to meet demand for high quality new homes Sustaining and improving satisfaction with our Customer Contact Centre and repairs services Continue to invest in upgrading and maintaining the homes we manage Investing in initiatives to support local communities, including help for residents to get online and coaching programmes. For more information about our performance, please view our Annual Report and Accounts 2017/18 at a2dominiongroup.co.uk/about/reports-and-accounts A2Dominion Community Coordinator, Vanessa, with residents Val and Fred in Stanwell, Surrey. A year ago in Home, we told you about our plans to invest 20 million into our business transformation programme, Fit for the Future... Around this time a year ago, we announced the start of Fit for the Future, our 20m business transformation programme. Since then, we ve been building, testing and introducing new technology and ways of working that will help our staff to work more efficiently in order to enhance your experience with our services. One of the ways we ll do this is by making it quicker and easier for customers to get in touch with us. For example, we ll be introducing a new and improved website, integrated with our customer portal, My Account, and we ll also be upgrading our contact centre systems so that your calls and emails are dealt with in the most efficient way. It is important to us that your voice is at the centre of Fit for the Future, so each year of the programme we re conducting around 2,000 interviews with customers and carrying out over 15,000 customer surveys. We re also engaging with our Customer Advisory Panel, a small, mixed group of A2Dominion customers, Board members and others with specific knowledge and interests in our customer services, as we make progress with the programme. Look out for more news Stay tuned for more updates in the future. We ll let you know about the work we ve been doing and how this will be of benefit to you. 5 Get the latest news at www.a2dominion.co.uk/customers Register for My Account now at a2dominion.co.uk/myaccount 5 A2Dominion Customer Annual Report 2017/18
Olivia with her mother and A2Dominion resident, Demi. Your choice It s a perfect time for us to find out how we can best meet your needs, providing you with the services you require at the best value. Quiz Question When will we announce any changes to our estate services? See page 8 on how to enter. Focusing on your community Vinita, living in Surrey with her family We re busy working on improving the way we provide services to our estates, and we re involving our customers throughout the process. Six years ago, we came up with a list of requirements for the contractors we employ to look after your estate. These are known as our environment services contracts. As these contracts are now coming to an end, it s time to review the way we provide services to your estate and get ready to draw up new contracts. This means that it s a perfect time for us to find out how we can best meet your needs, providing you with the services you require at the best value. To do this well, we ve been asking customers what is most important to them in the way we look after their estate. We sent an email survey to over 24,000 customers, asking questions around areas such as communal cleaning, bulk refuse removal and environmental responsibility. We re now in the process of drawing up our requirements for new service contracts, based on customer feedback, and we re determining whether we need to make any changes to the way we re currently providing services to your estate, such as whether we need to provide new services or work with new contractors. Look out for announcements from us in July 2019, when we ll tell you whether we re making any changes to our estate services. Didn t receive our email? Your voice is important to us. To take part in future online surveys, please call 0800 432 0077 or email customer.services@ a2dominion.co.uk and provide us with your email address. We ve been investing in a new programme called Great Places to Live to help us improve our services to your community. A pilot programme, Great Places to Live is currently running across a number of our estates. One part of the programme is to hold monthly workshops where staff and customers plan and run initiatives that help to improve the community. As part of the pilot programme, we ve launched a new handy person service across a number of our estates. The new service allows us to respond faster to urgent minor, communal repairs. Should feedback remain positive about the Great Places to Live programme, we plan on launching it at all schemes managed directly by A2Dominion. Want to see an improvement in your own community? We ve also set up a new fund dedicated to supporting improvements in your community. If you have an idea for an improvement in your local community, please register your interest online by filling in our form at a2dominion.co.uk/gplfund Oxford office moves to new location Our Oxford office has moved! The new address is 6 Collins Street, OX 4 1NN. The new office is conveniently located closer to the centre of town and the majority of customers who live in the area. All other details remain the same: Opening hours Mon-Thurs, 8:30am to 5pm Fri, 8:30am to 5pm Phone number 0800 432 0077 6 Got a question? Visit 2dominion.co.uk/help Register for My Account now at a2dominion.co.uk/myaccount 7
Contact us Sign up to My Account to access your rental account online, wherever and whenever you like. Left to right: Ashhad, Lillian and Elolo, living in student accommodation in Oxford. Enter our quiz to win 50! With My Account you can: Request repairs View repairs history Check statements Pay bills online Set up a Direct Debit Tell us about an issue Update your details Register today for instant access: Answer three questions in Home for three chances to win 50 in high street shopping vouchers. Submit your answers online at a2dominion.co.uk/competition Or you can enter by post to: Communications, A2Dominion Group, The Point, 37 North Wharf Road, London, W2 1BD. Make sure you submit your entry before 28 September 2018, when the competition closes. Visit a2dominion.co.uk/ competitionrules for terms and conditions. Congratulations to Neela Raggoo, Gary Grimshaw and Jenny Lynn Walsh for each winning the quiz competition in our Spring 2018 issue! For all other enquiries, you can contact us: Online a2dominion.co.uk By email customer.services @a2dominion.co.uk Christmas opening hours Our main and local offices will be closed for Christmas from 5pm on Friday 21 December until 8:30am on Wednesday 2 January 2019. If you re calling us over the Christmas period, please note that our customer contact centre will be closed for Christmas on 25 and 26 December 2018, and then again for New Year s Day on 1 January 2019. During normal office hours, please call us on 0800 432 0077, but if you have an emergency when the contact centre is closed, please call us on 0800 316 9880. We expect to be busy on Thursday 27 December and Wednesday 2 January. If your query is not urgent, you may want to call later in the week to avoid waiting in a queue. By phone 0800 432 0077 (Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm) You can write to us at A2Dominion Group 113 Uxbridge Road Ealing, London W5 5TL /a2dominion /a2dominion 8 Got a question? Visit 2dominion.co.uk/help CU-0618-0122