Introduction

Innisfree is committed to providing an excellent customer service to all our residents and these standards aim to clearly set out the standards of service our residents can expect to receive from us. Customer service is how we interact with our residents, whether over the phone, in writing or in person.

Our values

When delivering customer service, we will do so in line with our corporate values:

Personal we are customer focused, responsive and always thinking about the individual in our relationships and plans.

Progressive our ambition and enthusiasm, our commitment to growth and our courage drive us to work for what is right not just popular.

Integrity is about doing things in the right way, being open and fair and treating everyone with respect, celebrating people’s differences.

Quality signals excellence in all that we do, looking for value for money and ensuring we have the best governance arrangements and staff team.

Rooted describes our ongoing connection to our original mission in serving the Irish communities and that we here for the long haul, cultivating the resources we look after.

Our commitment

Innisfree are committed to delivering excellent services to our residents, communicating in an open, honest and positive way.

Our staff are committed to delivering the best possible standard of service to our residents, going the extra mile wherever possible.

Our responsibilities

We value our relationship with our residents but we recognise that this is a two way relationship and as such we each have responsibilities to make this work.

• to treat you as an individual, politely and with dignity and respect
• to communicate with you in a professional yet friendly manner
• to communicate in a clear and open way and avoid the use of jargon
• to be open and honest about what we can and cannot do
• to keep our promises and do what we say we will
• to keep you informed and ensure any actions are followed up in a reasonable timescale
• to listen and act on your feedback
• to keep appointments we make with you, or tell you in good time if we need to cancel an appointment
• to try to resolve queries and complaints as quickly as possible
• to apologise if a mistake has been made and try to put the situation right
• to signpost you to other organisations and agencies as appropriate

Your responsibilties

• to treat our staff with courtesy and with respect
• to be patient and allow staff time to get the information you require
• keep appointments that you make with us, or tell us in good time if you need to cancel an appointment
• give us the information we ask for in order to help you

Unacceptable behaviour

Please note, we have a zero-tolerance policy of verbal or physical abuse by any member of staff or resident and appropriate action will be taken against anyone behaving in an unacceptable manner.

Repeated unacceptable behaviour by residents will be dealt with in line with our Unacceptable Behaviour Policy. Terminating a call or visit will always be a last resort and we will not do so without giving fair warning.

Getting in touch with us

We would always prefer to speak to you over the phone or face to face. However, in the interests of keeping our residents and staff safe, our office is open for appointments only, face to face contact will remain limited.

We encourage you to get in touch with us in a way that suits you and we will respond to you in a way which is convenient for you, or is most appropriate for your query.

If you have a query, we will try to give you an informative and helpful reply. If we cannot immediately answer your query, we will give you a timescale for getting back to you and identify who within Innisfree will respond to you.

We will ensure that we keep you informed with regards to your query and that you understand the time scales for responding and any actions to be taken.

If we cannot deal with your query internally, we will signpost you to further information or agencies wherever possible.

Contacting us by phone

When you phone us we will endeavour to:

• answer the phone quickly
• greet you in a friendly and professional manner and give you our name
• speak clearly
• keep the time your call is on hold to a minimum and advise you of any delays when dealing with your enquiry
• try to put you through to the right person first time
• try to resolve the query quickly
• ensure our voicemail reflects our availability and informs you when we will next be available to deal with your enquiry
• if you leave a message, we will endeavour to respond to your message within 2 working days of our return

If the person you need to speak to is not available, you will be given the choice of speaking to another member of staff or leaving a message and your contact details for the appropriate member of staff.

Contacting us via email

When you email us, we will:

• acknowledge the receipt of your email or provide an initial response within 2 working days of receipt of your email
• aim to respond in full to your email within 10 working days, if your query could not be answered first time
• ensure we have Out of Office messages enabled when away from the office, providing you with alternative contact details for another member of staff to deal with your query
• we consider emails to be as important as any other form of written communication and therefore all emails will be written to a professional standard.

Contacting us by letter

When you write to us, we will:

• ensure the letter is passed to the most relevant member of staff who will contact you directly via phone or email within 2 working days
• if you would prefer to have your query responded to by letter, or would like your conversation with a member of staff confirmed in writing, please let us know.  If requested, we will endeavour to ensure you receive a response in writing within 10 days of your request.

Visiting our offices

Our office building at 190 Iverson Road is open to visitors by pre-booked appointment only. Appointments can be made by phone on 020 7625 1818 or by email at housing@innisfree.org.uk. Our housing and repairs services continue to operate as normal.

Our Reception at our Office is often the first point of call for our residents and therefore we want you to feel welcome. Our Reception area will:

• be clean, tidy and welcoming
• clearly display our own information leaflets as well as those provided by other relevant organisations and services
• if you call into our Office, we will:
• keep to all pre-booked appointment times
• where possible, have a member of staff meet you, without an appointment, within 15 minutes to answer a general query
• not keep you waiting unnecessarily and keep you informed of what is happening and the reason for any delays
• give you the opportunity to speak to someone in private by providing a meeting room whenever possible

Visiting your home

When visiting you in your home, we will:

• wear a face mask
• clearly display an ID badge
• ask for permission to enter your home and clearly explain the reason for our appointment or visit
• be respectful of your home and lifestyle
• endeavour to meet all appointment times
• inform you at least 1 working day in advance if we need to change or cancel an appointment
• in extenuating circumstances, such as sickness or emergencies, we will endeavour to give you as much notice as possible to cancel or change an appointment

Our normal working hours are Monday-Friday 9-5pm, we will always try to make an appointment time that is convenient for you.

Repairs and maintenance

We will:

• meet our repair responsibilities outlined in our tenancy agreement, including carrying out a gas safety check every year
• publicise and provide an out-of-hours service for emergencies
• prioritise repairs and let you know the priority and times for completion
• where appropriate, make sure we consult you before we start the work
• investigate if you are not satisfied with the repairs;
• inspect a sample of completed repairs to assess the standard of work
• seek your feedback on how we can improve our repairs and maintenance programme
• take action to recover money from tenants who cause damage to their homes.

Rent and service charges

We promise to:

• keep rent levels in line with the Government’s guidelines;
• help with completing Universal Credit forms and provide information on welfare benefits where requested.
• if needed, we will signpost tenants to other agencies for financial advice and guidance
• review service-charge costs each year to make sure we provide value for money
• provide access to rent statements 24/7 through the My Tenancy portal

Antisocial behaviour

We will not put up with any form of antisocial behaviour. We will work with tenants and legal and partnership agencies to put a stop to antisocial behaviour.

If you are a victim of antisocial behaviour, we will:

• investigate all cases sensitively, fairly and within published timescales, as shown in our antisocial behaviour policy;
• provide support, carry out emergency repairs within 24 hours, remove offensive graffiti within 48 hours and give advice and support on other security measures;
• where appropriate, offer mediation if both sides agree
• take legal action where necessary to deal with incidents, including eviction.

Complaints

If we receive complaints, we will:

• make it easy for you to make a complaint;
• help anyone who requires assistance in making a complaint;
• treat you fairly and respectfully;
• listen and deal with your complaint in a prompt and courteous manner;
• keep you informed throughout the process of your complaint;
• take your complaint seriously and investigate it fully and impartially;
• apologise when we get things wrong
• put right any mistakes made and learn from them.

Tenant involvement

We will encourage and ask for your feedback through:

• resident satisfaction surveys
• repairs feedback surveys
• involvement in monitoring the services we provide.
• actively encouraging you to comment and give us feedback on the way we deliver services
• consultations on policy and procedure reviews

We will regularly communicate other ways to get involved via our newsletter, website and social media channels. Please get in touch if you would like to find out more.

Confidentiality 

We aim to respect your confidentiality and we will not disclose information about you to third parties, including neighbours, unless authorised to do so.  It is important to note that information about our residents is confidential to the organisation, not to an individual member of staff.

We will treat all personal and private information in line with relevant Data Protection legislation.

Monitoring

We will regularly review our Customer Services in order to identify how we can improve our standards. We welcome feedback from our residents and will use this to help improve our services.

We will monitor our performance by:

• carrying out resident satisfaction surveys
• implement call recording on our telephone system
• reporting on complaints and satisfaction surveys
• benchmarking against other organisations

Equality and Diversity 

Innisfree respects and values the differences of our residents, partners and staff. We will treat everybody fairly and with respect.

Wherever possible, we will communicate with residents in the way that suits them best. This could include providing information in other formats (e.g. large print or Braille), translating information or providing an interpreter if their first language is not English.