Blog: SECBE Awards 2021 finalist - Be the body …

26 May 2021

sponsored by Southern Construction Framework (SCF)

Be the body … (Sutton Housing Society)

Outstanding Customer Satisfaction SECBE Award 2021 finalist

The majority (76%) of Sutton Housing Society's homes are for older people who have been identified as the most vulnerable group during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Their ‘be the body…’ initiative seeks to ensure that every person within their team collectively delivers outstanding customer service; this is even more important during what has been the hardest of times for many people, particularly those that are older and/or living with disabilities and other vulnerabilities and having to “shield” for much of the last year. They have collectively ensured that they ‘be the body’ as they continued to focus on their customers and their individual needs.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, staff balanced remote (home working) arrangements with being on site and available to their residents (their customers).

From April 2020 to July 2020, they made weekly welfare calls to 327 (or 85%) of their older customers, checking to see how they were, promoting their online activities and introducing their new garden entertainment programme at nine (formerly called sheltered housing) schemes. Staff were kind and caring, reassuring and interested voices at the end of the line, listening - and hearing - how customers felt throughout the pandemic. These calls reduced to fortnightly before ending during September 2020.

From mid-October 2020 welfare calls re-started; prior to the November 2020 lockdown they arranged to make regular weekly/fortnightly calls to approximately 133 of their most vulnerable customers (nearly 35%). These calls were made collectively by the staff team, taking as much time as was needed for each call.

They estimate that the social value achieved due to welfare calls between April-December 2020 (based on belonging to a neighbourhood social value bank item) totals £313,965; for every £1 invested, a social return of £3.40.  

They worked with Age UK Sutton to deliver “letters of joy” to their older customers; this multi-generational initiative saw school children writing to older people, sharing their lockdown experiences. 

They ran several initiatives throughout the last year, which focussed specifically on their older customers. Many people were frightened to leave their home, even to visit the communal lounges; so they introduced a live music programme in the communal gardens during the summer months – singers and musicians entertaining and interacting with customers at a social distance, bringing much needed light relief and a sense of normality once more.  

Other initiatives involved weekly shops for customers without family or friends for several months before making other arrangements. They delivered Easter eggs and Christmas hampers to all 367 customers with a personal note, ran online coffee mornings, Zoom quizzes, festive singers during December and more for the benefit of their customers.

Over the last year, they received 188 (51%) compliments for their service from their older people customers.

Key facts:

• Not only maintained but improved performance during a pandemic
• Increased number of customer compliments
• Genuine commitment to improving services for our customers

About the Outstanding Customer Satisfaction Award: 

In the best companies, the customer drives everything. These companies really understand and then provide precisely what the end customer needs, when the customer needs it and at a price that reflects the product’s value to the customer. Activities which do not add value from the customer’s viewpoint can be classified as waste and eliminated. More info.

Find out who wins at the Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards 2021 Summit & Awards Ceremony on Thurs 1st July 2021. Free attendance.