The Customer Involvement Team provides ways for YHN tenants and leaseholders to get involved and have a say in the services YHN provide. Stuart Clarke is a Customer Involvement Officer and has worked for YHN for four and a half years – two and a half of those in the Involvement Team.

“We use a range of different methods to get customer views and feedback on the services YHN delivers, such as focus groups, the positive activities programme, mystery shopping, and customer inspectors. Customers can get as involved as they want to depending on what they are interested in and how much time they have to commit.

“We try to offer involvement opportunities to suit all customers – we’re aware not everyone can come along to a focus group during the day. To help us engage with more customers we set up the Positive Activities programme, which is a range of different projects aimed at improving the quality of life of customers who live in the estates we manage. Positive activities include Access to Basketball and tenant training – it’s a way of engaging people and making involvement accessible, particularly to families.

“I really enjoy the variation of my job – there’s so many different ways for customers to get involved. I think it’s great we offer so many different opportunities for our customers to have a say in what happens in the services they use. We’re in a privileged position in the Customer Involvement Team in that we can see exactly what happens with customer feedback – it can make a real difference to how teams and services in YHN operate. Customer involvement isn’t a token gesture or a tick box exercise – it’s meaningful and has really helped improve and develop services within YHN.

“Here’s a day from my diary in April…”

8:30am - Focus group follow on work

I arrive at work and check my emails and appointments for the day, then start some follow up work on a focus group I facilitated yesterday. 20 customers attended a focus group about the YHN ‘out of hours’ repairs service. The customers gave their views on the service and suggestions for improvements.  I need to organise and type up my notes from the session – I’ll send these to the service manager and also to the customers who attended. We always write to customers within two weeks of the focus group to thank them for their involvement and send a copy of the notes. We’ll write to the customers who attended the focus group again in six months time to let them know what changes have been made as a result of their comments.

10:00am - Monthly ‘Your Goals Newcastle’ monitoring meeting at Westgate Community Housing Office

Your Goals Newcastle is a project for 12-18 year olds that uses football to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour on YHN estates. The young people who take part have also enrolled in sports leadership courses and completed coaching qualifications which has helped with employability and personal development. All participants sign a behavioural contract and if they break it they receive one week’s suspension and are unable to play football.

I chair a monthly monitoring meeting at the Westgate Community Housing Office which is attended by Northumbria Police, YHN Housing Service Officers, and Hat-Trick, the organisation which co-ordinates the football sessions. The police monitor and report back on crime and anti-social behaviour and have reported a huge reduction since the start of the project. Today the police report that the three areas which have seen the highest reduction in anti-social behaviour are the three areas where Your Goals Newcastle take place. The police state that there have been no reports of anti-social behaviour in the Jubilee Estate in the last six weeks – it’s a great feeling to know the project is working and shows that taking a collaborative approach really works. 

We also discuss funding applications and ways to develop the project during the meeting before I head back to YHN House.

12:00pm - Lunch

12:30pm - Mystery shopping

I prepare for our ‘mystery shoppers’ who are due at 1:00pm. We regularly test YHN services and rely on customers to help us. Today we are mystery shopping the Housing Management service by telephone.  I’ve already met with the service manager to develop a set of scenarios, and we’ve developed some expected answers so we know what response a customer should get. I read through my notes and also collect the expenses for our mystery shoppers in advance – we do not pay customers to get involved but we do give out of pocket expenses to cover their travel costs.

At 1:00pm our mystery shoppers arrive and I sit with them in a meeting room, check that they are ok with the scenario that they have prepared for and outline what we are expecting from the call. There’s a checklist of things for the mystery shopper to look for, for example whether the corporate greeting is used, how long it takes for the phone to be answered, the level of customer service etc.  Each mystery shopper makes around two or three calls, and we evaluate each call when they are finished.

Mystery shopping is a valuable tool to help us look for areas of improvement and identify good practice. We aren’t looking to catch people out and we don’t name staff in the reports – the main purpose of the exercise is to highlight the things we do well and identify ways that we can improve.

2:00pm - Phone call from new tenant

We write to all new tenants within four weeks of them moving in to let them know about the different ways to get involved. I take a phone call from a new tenant who is interested in getting involved and run through the different ways they can make a difference – there is something for everyone. The tenant is interested in attending a meeting about complaints but feels that she would need an interpreter for the session. I book the customer a place at the meeting and complete all of the necessary paperwork to ensure that an interpreter will be attending to support the customer.

2:30pm - Business Enterprise meeting

We’re working with Newcastle City Council to help, support and provide opportunities for tenants to start their own business.  We held our first Business Enterprise event at St James’ Park recently, where some of our customers took their first steps to self-employment. The event was a huge success and all of the tenants who took part are now well on their way to becoming their own boss.

We’re planning to hold another Business Enterprise event so today I meet with YHN’s Employability Co-ordinator and the Enterprise Team at Newcastle City Council to start initial discussions.

3.30pm - You’ve got the power monitoring

I am planning our second ‘You’ve got the power’ event in May where customers decide how to spend a pot of money that is available because of efficiency savings we have made. Ten projects will receive between £4,000 and £10,000, and the decision will be made entirely by YHN customers. YHN project leaders are required to submit the details about their project along with information about what they want to achieve and how the project will benefit customers. These projects have started coming in, and I start reading through them to ensure the proposals are realistic, achievable and will benefit customers.

5:00pm - Thank you party – St James’ Park

Tonight it’s our thank you party for involved customers who have taken part in three or more events this year.  It’s a great way to celebrate the achievements of involved customers and thank them for making a difference.

The Customer Involvement Team arrive at St James’ Park early to set up and decorate the room with balloons and banners, and the guests start arriving at 7pm. Our Senior Management Team come along and John Lee, YHN’s Chief Executive, makes a speech thanking all the volunteers for making such a difference to how YHN runs. It’s a great night – it’s really good for volunteers to meet each other and share experiences, and to be rewarded for their hard work. We present the ‘Volunteer of the Year’ award and there’s also a quiz and raffle. The customers enjoy a buffet and a celebratory drink before the evening comes to an end around 9:30pm.

It’s been a long but rewarding and enjoyable day. I’m proud to be part of the Customer Involvement Team and to be able to see first hand the positive difference customer involvement makes.

For more information on the Customer Involvement Team and how to get involved, visit the Getting Involved pages on our website.