Our customers are the heart of how our business is run. To ensure you are central to how we operate and make sure your voice is always heard, we have a number of customer forums and groups to do just that.
We recently caught up with Ann Potts, a Karbon customer who sits on Karbon’s Residents Committee, to find out more about being part of the committee and what it means to her.
Why did you decide to get involved with the Karbon Resident’s Committee?
I wanted to make sure people are getting the best deal for their money from Karbon and I found the prospect of being involved with the committee interesting.
What do members of the committee do?
We are a critical friend. We work alongside staff to make sure the customer voice is heard.
We get to look at different areas of the business and give a customer perspective.
We recently looked at how Karbon presents how they are performing to customers.
Andrew Sugden, who works in Strategic Planning and Insight at Karbon, came into our meeting to ask us to look at how Karbon is reporting on performance and whether it was user-friendly for customers.
We thought that there were ways that it could be improved and went away to figure out how this could be done.
This involved doing a survey with our tenants and asked what they wanted to report on. We also looked at how other organisations such as Gentoo, LNER and Virgin report performance.
We came up with some recommendations based on our findings which we fed back to Andrew.
These recommendations, which included using more visuals, reporting on local issues and creating a traffic light system to show how Karbon were performing, were incorporated into the reporting. They will appear in the customer annual report and on the website going forward
How have you been able to improve services at Karbon?
By making sure that the customer’s voice is always at the heart at what Karbon does.
We’ve been able to do pop-up events in Karbon’s communities where we get to talk to other customers about Karbon, giving them someone mutual to talk to and get their thoughts and opinions.
We’ve been able to go to Tenant’s Conferences where MPs will come and talk to us about different things affecting the housing industry. We can then feed this back to Karbon and look at how they can act on it.
What’s been your favourite part of being on the committee?
To make a difference. Generally, most people will only engage if they have a problem.
We get to see the bigger picture and give representation for customers to make sure things are happening for their benefit – even if they are not aware it’s happening.
We now have a scrutiny bank of 12 people who can do the scrutiny work and put forward recommendations for service improvements
How does being part of the committee make you feel?
It makes me feel very proud. Proud of the work we’re doing and the people we get to work with. Karbon do a lot to make sure we’re supported.
Thanks to Karbon, I was recently nominated for the Resident of the Year award at the Women in Housing and Housing Heroes Awards.
It was nice that I had been nominated and it showed how much they value customers.
What are the committee doing next?
We are talking about doing more in depth looks into areas of the business, including anti-social behaviour.
There are also other customer groups taking place including a scrutiny bank, a sheltered housing group, an environment group and local area forums, giving customers the chance to focus on specific areas that they may be particularly interested in.
Why do you think people should get involved with these groups?
Because the company is there to serve them – it makes sure customers are getting value for money.
We would be over the moon to have more people get involved – the more we can get in and more perspectives we have the more it helps us and improves Karbon Homes for everyone.
Would you like to play a role in supporting Karbon’s Board to improve services for all our customers?
If you would like to take part in Karbon’s Resident Committee or any of our customer groups, please contact Lewis Rimington or Sandy Swinhoe to find out more and register your interest.
Lewis Rimington – lewis.rimington@karbonhomes.co.uk
07930 842 197
Sandy Swinhoe – sandy.swinhoe@karbonhomes.co.uk
07849 847 955
Our customers are the heart of how our business is run. To ensure you are central to how we operate and make sure your voice is always heard, we have a number of customer forums and groups to do just that.
We recently caught up with Ann Potts, a Karbon customer who sits on Karbon’s Residents Committee, to find out more about being part of the committee and what it means to her.
Why did you decide to get involved with the Karbon Resident’s Committee?
I wanted to make sure people are getting the best deal for their money from Karbon and I found the prospect of being involved with the committee interesting.
What do members of the committee do?
We are a critical friend. We work alongside staff to make sure the customer voice is heard.
We get to look at different areas of the business and give a customer perspective.
We recently looked at how Karbon presents how they are performing to customers.
Andrew Sugden, who works in Strategic Planning and Insight at Karbon, came into our meeting to ask us to look at how Karbon is reporting on performance and whether it was user-friendly for customers.
We thought that there were ways that it could be improved and went away to figure out how this could be done.
This involved doing a survey with our tenants and asked what they wanted to report on. We also looked at how other organisations such as Gentoo, LNER and Virgin report performance.
We came up with some recommendations based on our findings which we fed back to Andrew.
These recommendations, which included using more visuals, reporting on local issues and creating a traffic light system to show how Karbon were performing, were incorporated into the reporting. They will appear in the customer annual report and on the website going forward
How have you been able to improve services at Karbon?
By making sure that the customer’s voice is always at the heart at what Karbon does.
We’ve been able to do pop-up events in Karbon’s communities where we get to talk to other customers about Karbon, giving them someone mutual to talk to and get their thoughts and opinions.
We’ve been able to go to Tenant’s Conferences where MPs will come and talk to us about different things affecting the housing industry. We can then feed this back to Karbon and look at how they can act on it.
What’s been your favourite part of being on the committee?
To make a difference. Generally, most people will only engage if they have a problem.
We get to see the bigger picture and give representation for customers to make sure things are happening for their benefit – even if they are not aware it’s happening.
We now have a scrutiny bank of 12 people who can do the scrutiny work and put forward recommendations for service improvements
How does being part of the committee make you feel?
It makes me feel very proud. Proud of the work we’re doing and the people we get to work with. Karbon do a lot to make sure we’re supported.
Thanks to Karbon, I was recently nominated for the Resident of the Year award at the Women in Housing and Housing Heroes Awards.
It was nice that I had been nominated and it showed how much they value customers.
What are the committee doing next?
We are talking about doing more in depth looks into areas of the business, including anti-social behaviour.
There are also other customer groups taking place including a scrutiny bank, a sheltered housing group, an environment group and local area forums, giving customers the chance to focus on specific areas that they may be particularly interested in.
Why do you think people should get involved with these groups?
Because the company is there to serve them – it makes sure customers are getting value for money.
We would be over the moon to have more people get involved – the more we can get in and more perspectives we have the more it helps us and improves Karbon Homes for everyone.
Would you like to play a role in supporting Karbon’s Board to improve services for all our customers?
If you would like to take part in Karbon’s Resident Committee or any of our customer groups, please contact Lewis Rimington or Sandy Swinhoe to find out more and register your interest.
Lewis Rimington – lewis.rimington@karbonhomes.co.uk
07930 842 197
Sandy Swinhoe – sandy.swinhoe@karbonhomes.co.uk
07849 847 955
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