Compliments & Complaints

All comments from customers including complaints are essential in maintaining and improving the services offered by Anchor Staying Put. Whilst the organisation prides itself on delivering a first class service to everyone, occasionally, things can go wrong and only by hearing about them can we take them on board and ensure that the appropriate remedial action is taken.

Anchor Staying Put has a formal complaints procedure which is described in full in the Compliments, complaints and suggestions leaflet.  Customers can make a complaint by submitting a letter, email, or by telephone. All customer complaints are recorded and responded to quickly and effectively. There are three stages to the complaints procedure which are described in full in your leaflet. We aim to resolve the majority of complaints successfully at stage one. Please click on this link to view our compliments, complaints and suggestions leaflet.

If you would like to forward a compliment, suggestion or complaint by email please click on the link, ann.young@anchor.org.uk

Please include your name, address, local agency as well as your comments.

Our Performance

Our agencies receive many compliments about the services they deliver but Anchor Staying Put also records the number of complaints received so that we can analyse trends and work to reduce issues in the future.

The table below provides a comparison of the complaints received over the last three years.

How we deal with your complaints

A selection of Anchor Staying Put customers who have made a formal complaint about the service they received are sent a survey that explores their satisfaction around how their complaint has been dealt with. The feedback we get helps us to review the way we deal with complaints to make sure we are effective and listen to you to improve the service we deliver.

A review of the returned surveys since the start of the year shows the following: -

58% Respondents complained by phone

17% Respondents complained by letter

17% Respondents complained by phone and letter

8% Respondents complained in person

The areas of complaint focused around

33% Contractors

16% Delays

9% Agency admin

11% Communication

9% Lack of Funding

22% Miscellaneous

50% of respondents indicated that they received a copy of the procedure, 58% felt staff explained the procedure before the service started. Only 50% felt they understood the procedure.

83% felt Staying Put responded promptly to the complaint

67% felt their complaint was taken seriously

One respondent indicated “not at first then the TO was a Godsend”

83% felt they were dealt with fairly - 17% did not respond

67% felt it was resolved to their satisfaction, 8% said not, however 25% did not respond to that question

0% of respondents indicated their complaint went to stage 2.

75% would consider using Staying Put again

Please consider when viewing these results they are taken from only 12 returned surveys.

What we are doing

We have implemented an improved Stage 2 process to ensure complaints are dealt with effectively.

We have three Designated Senior Managers to investigate any complaints that cannot be resolved at agency level at stage 1 of the complaints procedure.

A designated complaints leaflet has been produced which clearly outlines our whole complaints procedure and is given to customers as part of their information pack on first visit.

All staff receive complaints training. The training will aim to ensure that staff deal promptly with complaints and keep customers informed. In addition each Agency will review their complaints and continue to make sure services are improved as a result of the feedback.

We are committed to reviewing the way contractor performance is monitored and electronically recorded.   This will ensure that we can spot under-performing contractors sooner and remove them from out preferred lists.

Case Study 1

Mrs K, aged 79, telephoned her regional office to make a complaint regarding work carried out by a contractor that had been completed 18 months previously. As the work was now out of its defects liability period nothing further could be done unless paid for by Mrs K.  Mrs K informed the Agency Administrator that she had spoken to staff on a number of occasions since its completion but no resulting action had been taken.

The Agency Administrator explained the Anchor Staying Put complaints procedure and Mrs K filled in a form, which was passed on to the Agency Manager. An appointment was arranged by the Agency Manager to visit her together with a Technical Officer to review the problems the following day. 

It was agreed with the Technical Officer that the works were incomplete. The Agency Manager apologised to Mrs K for any distress caused and explained that the Agency had been suffering from a shortage of administrative and technical staff due to staff vacancies and long term sickness.  The Agency Manager assured Mrs K that the work would be corrected and funded via another Minor Works Grant or through the Anchor Staying Put Hardship Fund.

Following completion of the work, the Agency Manager wrote to Mrs K asking if her complaint had been dealt with to her satisfaction.  Mrs K telephoned the office to thank us for sorting out the problem. When asked if she would use the service again, she replied that she would.

Case Study 2

Mrs N engaged an Anchor Staying Put agency privately in the construction of a large extension to her bungalow to provide living quarters for her daughter. The contractors appointed were excellent and very accommodating. 

Following the commencement of the work, Mrs N telephoned the Agency to make a verbal complaint that she was anxious about several matters concerning the contractors. These included damage to some plant bulbs, smoking in the driveway, the disposal of rubbish and the uprooting of a tree.

Within 20 minutes the Agency Manager and Technical Officer visited Mrs N with the contractor to discuss the problems:

• The contractor offered to replace the plant bulbs if there was any damage.
• The Agency Manager agreed to write a letter to the scaffolding company, who were subcontractors, requesting that their staff did not smoke whilst on site.

The rubbish pit was, in fact, a soak away, and the contractors were not throwing rubbish in it, but hardcore. This was explained to the customer.

The uprooted tree had to be moved as it was on the footprint of the new build. However, this had been done without consulting Mrs N and the Agency manager offered to replace the tree as a goodwill gesture.

It was agreed that better communication was required whilst contractors were on the site and the Agency Manager offered to make daily visits for the first week to ensure everything went as smoothly as possible. The customer was very content with these resolutions and the remainder of the build went very well.