At CHS we really value engagement with our tenants and customers in order to provide services that exceed expectations.

Over the next three years CHS is committed to improving engagement with tenants and customers to deliver a shared vision and has pledged to:

  • Improve services by listening to tenants and customers
  • Ensure tenants and customers feel they can influence CHS
  • Enable tenants and customers to have their say in whatever way suits them
  • Remove any barriers to engagement
  • Communicate effectively

There are five key ways customers and tenants can get involved

1.  Be informed – through monthly Tenant Newsletters, annual report, website, social media, myCHS, day to day contact

2. Provide feedback – via surveys, raising complaints, day to day contact

3. Contribute to discussions – take part in focus groups or our online feedback panel or be an estate inspector

4. Collaborate with working groups – join our Scrutiny Panel, Complaints Panel, contractor core groups or our Task & Finish groups

5. Lead on the tenant voice – join our Tenant Committee, our Customer & Homes Committee or become a Board member

Our three-year action plan

1. Improve Communication

What we want to achieve

  • Communicate in a variety of formats to suit all customers
  • Ensure customers feel clear about CHS services and standards
  • Increase customer understanding of CHS goals, challenges, value for money aims
  • Widely share CHS performance data
  • Ensure customers are able to see the impact of their contribution

How we will achieve it 

  • Develop a new customer communication strategy
  • Improve and promote customer engagement opportunities on website
  • Develop monthly newsletter
  • Share more case studies
  • Collect and update customer contact details and communication preferences

 2. Offer different ways tenants can influence CHS

What we want to achieve

  • Improve tenant satisfaction by listening to tenants and shared owners’ views and keeping them informed
  • Engage regularly with more, and diverse, customers
  • Customers know how they can have their say
  • Policies take account of the views of those affected by them

How we will achieve it 

  • Share with customers a clear roadmap of how they can be engaged
  • Hold bespoke consultations for policy reviews with those most affected
  • Develop an online Customer Feedback Panel for topical surveys
  • Develop engagement with shared owners

3. Support our involved tenants

What we want to achieve

  • A strong sense of collaboration and trust between CHS and our involved tenants
  • Increased numbers of Tenant Committee and Panel members
  • Tenant Committee is accessible to anyone who wants to be involved
  • Sufficient resources to support our involved tenants and meet their aims
  • Develop future tenant leaders

How we will achieve it 

  • Increase resources to provide support, training, projects and incentives to our involved tenants
  • Make more personal contact to nurture tenants interested in being involved
  • Agree format and timings of Tenant Committee meetings to suit future and existing members
  • Ongoing review of this strategy with Tenant Committee

4. Learn from complaints

What we want to achieve

  • Increased satisfaction with our complaint handling
  • Learning from complaints used to improve services
  • Continued partnership working between CHS and Complaints Panel
  • Fully compliant with the Housing Ombudsman Code for complaint handling

How we will achieve it 

  • Improve website messaging about raising complaints
  • Share with customers any learning from complaints received
  • Regularly review all stages of completed complaints with Complaints Panel

5. Accountability & Scrutiny

What we want to achieve

  • An independent, well trained Scrutiny Panel to work with CHS to improve services and efficiency
  • Service delivery scrutinised based on evidence and research
  • Scrutiny Panel to have direct access to CHS Board to oversee outcomes

How we will achieve it 

  • Support Scrutiny Panel to gain and train new members
  • Share relevant data with Scrutiny Panel
  • Support Scrutiny Panel to gather feedback from other tenants
  • Provide separate budget for scrutiny projects
  • Scrutiny recommendations reported to Committees and CHS Board

6. Data / Knowledge

What we want to achieve

  • To know our customers better in order to inform decisions and tailor services
  • To ensure CHS is inclusive and promote equality and diversity
  • To better use and learn from the information and feedback we collect in day-to-day contact with customers

How we will achieve it 

  • Contact customers to increase information collected – contact details, communication preferences, household, support needs
  • Increase analysis of customer feedback, including day to day contact
  • Use data to identify and reach out to those customers who rarely contact us
  • Engage all customer facing staff in gathering and capturing customer data