Transforming customer service through a stronger contact centre and customer hub

We’ve been listening closely to what our customers and communities need from us — faster responses, clearer processes, and support that feels genuinely helpful. Over the past few months, we’ve made some big changes across our Contact Centre and Customer Hub, and we’re already seeing the impact.

The Contact Centre has been reshaped to make it easier for customers to get the help they need first time, no matter how they choose to get in touch. The team has focused on three key improvements:

• Resolving more enquiries at the first point of contact
• Removing the triage centre and bringing those functions into the Customer Hub
• Strengthening training and simplifying how complex queries are escalated

These changes are paying off. Since 1 October, average call wait times have dropped from 12 minutes 53 seconds (July–September) to 4 minutes 55 seconds (October–December) and to 3 minutes 22 seconds (January – March) This puts us comfortably within the CFC target of 4 minutes 40 seconds – a huge achievement in such a short space of time.

We’ve also removed the old 9–10am emergency hour and introduced a dedicated emergency repairs line available throughout the working day, making it easier for customers to get urgent help when they need it. Out‑of‑hours emergencies continue to be handled by Orca.

To keep the Contact Centre focused on customers, we’re also reducing internal requests.

Advisors currently receive around 1,000 internal emails each month, many for tasks that can be completed within departments. Cutting this down means more time spent supporting customers directly.

A stronger Customer Hub supporting neighbourhoods

The Customer Hub is now the central support engine for our neighbourhood model. By bringing together assistants from lettings and tenancy and integrating Triage Officers, we’re creating a more joined‑up, efficient service behind the scenes.

The Hub now:

• Takes on transactional admin so Neighbourhood Officers can spend more time in their communities
• Manages property advertising, shortlisting, and checks before cases are passed on
• Strengthens antisocial behaviour triage for better case management
• Introduces a new Support Officer role to reduce admin for field teams

The Hub will also take responsibility for managing urgent repair “no access” cases, working closely with Neighbourhood Officers to ensure issues are resolved quickly and effectively.

Delivering a service that works for our communities

These improvements are already making a real difference – quicker responses, clearer processes, and better support for both customers and frontline teams. And while we’re proud of the progress so far, we know there’s more to do.

We’ll keep refining, strengthening, and listening, because our goal remains the same: a service that’s responsive, reliable, and built around the needs of our customers and communities.