| Thursday 30th June 2005 |
(ref: 250/2005) |
High tech plans by the borough’s housing chiefs to improve their services and make them more accessible have won the support of council tenants.
Wigan and Leigh Housing, which manages the council’s 24,000 homes, says a recent survey has revealed that most tenants now prefer to contact them by phone or even on line to report a problem.
The company unveiled plans to move away from a traditional office-based system of dealing with repairs in favour of a more personal one-to-one service last year.
Since then, a state of the art contact centre where tenants can ring for help has become increasingly popular. In just ten months the centre, based in Leigh, has taken more than 100,000 calls and is now handling over 3,600 enquiries a week.
The survey of all tenants reveals that seven out of ten prefer to deal with their landlord by phone, through the housing website and face to face in their home, rather having to call in at a local office.
The company says the second phase of plans announced last year to reduce the opening hours at some of the smaller housing offices will now go ahead.
Six ‘super’ offices in Atherton, Leigh, Platt Bridge, Ashton, Pemberton and Wigan will continue to open five days a week, offering a full range of housing services. At the same time a further seven smaller area offices will go part-time, joining the four already operating two days a week.
Peter Gee, chief executive of Wigan and Leigh Housing, said:
“These changes are part of our vision to bring services closer to customers in the way they prefer. We are responding to what our tenants have told us.
“A lot of this is down to the huge success of the contact centre in Leigh, which is now handling more than 3,600 calls every week. We can get someone out to see the customer very quickly and residents clearly prefer this than having to make the effort of trailing down to a traditional housing office.”
Mr Gee said the new approach had been prompted by a gradual shift in the way services are being provided. Local rent collection has gone, to be replaced by direct debit and post office payments, while homes are now allocated through property shops in Wigan and Leigh. He added:
“Because of the contact centre, our popular property shops in Wigan and Leigh and our interactive website, we are able to offer more services faster to our customers than ever before.
“When we changed the hours of four smaller offices last year we got few complaints, and this, plus the findings of our survey, has given us the confidence to move to the second stage of our service excellence review.”
A letter explaining the changes to dates and times of offices is going to every tenant this week.
The full list of part-time housing offices includes: Beech Hill, Golborne, Hag Fold, Higher Folds, Hindley, Ince, Marsh Green, Westleigh, Worsley Hall, Worsley Mesnes, and Tyldesley.
Further information: Peter Gee, (01942) 486507.