Customer service is the key to continual growth

There is no doubting that the current economic climate has created difficulties for many businesses but Connaught is reaping the rewards of continued investment in local people and communities in the North West

Connaught’s North West arm has seen the number of partnerships continue to grow during the past six months and in Manchester for example the operation has doubled in size in terms of contracts won and new staff.

Conaught is a national company with more than 300 offices across the UK and over the last 25 years has grown to become the leading integrated services group. It had a turnover last year of more than £552 million and now employs over 7,300 people.

Over recent years the North West team has developed key partnerships with clients including One Vision Housing, Blackpool Coastal Housing and Halton Housing Trust.

While in the Manchester area where they started off with just eight staff and a single contract to carry out Decent Homes work for Parkway Green Housing Trust - a not-for-profit landlord with 6,000 homes in Wythenshawe, Connaught has now extended its client list to include Adactus Housing, Eastlands Homes and Contour Housing delivering on a wide range of programmes and projects including planned capital works and gas servicing and responsive maintenance, as well as Decent Homes work.

“Connaught in the North West is showing continued signs of growth and in Manchester our operation has more than doubled in the last six months during an economic downturn,” says David Mawson, Connaught area director So what is the secret of Connaught’s success? Mawson explains: “In the midst of the credit crunch and everything that has happened, we have grown from strength to strength and there is no doubting that our commitment to developing strong links with the local community has played a huge part in this.”

Mark Foster, partnership manager, also believes that it is down to team work and a high level of customer service which places clients and tenants at the heart of everything that it does.

“People know us for our Decent Homes work but we have a much wider portfolio of services, highlighted by the mix of contracts that we offer,” he said. “The growth in the past six months has been through the development of links with the community whether that is through community benefit or through legacy and it is the link of our staff into that customer experience that has helped drive it forward.”

He explained that Connaught had developed an understanding of tenant requirements across the communities in which it works and is developing its workforce to meet that need.

Going the extra mile for its customers is not unusual for Connaught, the company which pioneered the tenant liaison officer, and it has recently unveiled its new customer experience programme.

As part of that programme in the North West, Kate Kenney, customer experience manager, has played an integral role in overseeing the essential customer service delivery to tenants.

In fact she has made such an impact that she has been shortlisted for an award for achievement on site at Housing’s Women in Construction awards.

After initially recording customer satisfaction figures below anticipated levels Kenney and the customer experience team set about addressing the issues that really mattered to tenants. One such scheme was the introduction of respite bungalows in West Wythenshawe, to give tenants of Parkway Green Housing Trust a place to relax while Decent Homes works were carried out on their homes.

The idea came about after tenants, especially the elderly, felt that it would be a real help if they had somewhere else to go while improvements were ongoing to their properties.

After liaison between Parkway Green Housing Trust and the Connaught site team, brand new bathroom and kitchen facilities were installed in three empty bungalows, giving tenants somewhere to go where they could relax, watch television and even have a cup of tea, while work continued on their homes.

“We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for tenants to use the respite bungalows,” says Kenney. “Our liaison officers make daily visits to the homes of tenants undergoing the improvement works and all they need to do is ask during one of these visits and we will let them in to the bungalow. It really is as simple as that and we’ll even drive them round there if they have no transport.”

And customer satisfaction, which is regularly reviewed, is continuing to rise with 94 per cent of Eastlands and Parkway Green tenants now expressing satisfaction at Connaught’s service. As Foster explains: “We endeavour to give people that extra personal experience and make sure that they feel very much looked after while the work is being carried out in their homes and it is these good customer experiences that have helped us win the rest of our clients.”

Connaught’s links with the local communities also extend to training and employment opportunities and as well as its traditional apprenticeship scheme there is the Connaught Academy work experience ambassador programme - a scheme that was piloted in the North West.

The scheme aims to offer local people the opportunity to train and work on home improvements ongoing in their area and began with four selected pupils of St Paul’s Catholic School in Wythenshawe being invited to apply for the available work experience positions.

Each one was required to complete a standard Connaught application form as well as conducting a realistic interview process before the two successful pupils were selected.

The students had the chance to experience all aspects of employment within Connaught’s programme of home improvements, including customer services, health and safety, quantity surveying, site management and business administration in addition to trade skills such as plumbing, plastering and joinery.

To help throughout this process Kenney was appointed as the dedicated work experience ambassador. She said: “The work experience programme not only helps the pupils decide if this is a career they could be interested in but by requiring them to go through an application and interview process we are hopefully also greatly enhancing their employability skills.”

The two-week programme proved to not only be a hit with local residents it was also highly commended in the Leadership and People Development category at the Constructing Excellence Awards (Yorkshire & Humber) 2008.

In addition, further career opportunities were offered in an attempt to encourage more local people to work on the improvements to properties through a recruitment event for jobseekers in Wythenshawe.

As well as directly responding to the needs of tenants the customer experience team identified that it was essential to offer support to the local community and subsequently played a key role in organising and taking part in a host of events from fundraising for local groups to environmental improvement initiatives.

Connaught has a commitment to the long-term benefits too and to help lessen the impact on the environment 10 of its liaison officers working in the North West use Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion cars to get from A to B. It has much lower CO2 emissions than the average car and gives more miles to the gallon, making it a much more environmentally friendly option.

“All of these initiatives and activities are about understanding the community and this is what has helped us to develop and grow,” says Mawson. “This shows an understanding of our carbon footprint and the environmental side of things. It is said to be one of the greenest cars on the road, so while our liaison officers are out there on the road, they are doing their bit to reduce their carbon footprints.”

Connaught would not have been able to achieve half of what it has done in the past six months without its forwardthinking management team, which as well as Kenney and Foster, includes Christine Coates, managing surveyor, and Terry Keating , contracts manager.

But, of course, with success comes the need to expand a business and take on more staff and Connaught is in the process of adding to its management team in a bid to continue the growth through the next 12 months, with one such new appointment being that of Adam Fleming as business development manager for the North West.

A growing business also relies on efficient systems and in order to keep up with the development of the company Connaught has turned to new technology, including the introduction of ConntrolTM, a bespoke hand-held PDA system. It logs all jobs allowing them to be carried out quickly and more efficiently, as operatives no longer have to phone in or return to base for job details and clients have full access to the system as well as making Connaught’s operations completely transparent.

Business has definitely been booming for Connaught in the North West and the next six months look set to be just as exciting with new faces on the management team, integrated service offering contracts in the pipeline, and a successful customer experience programme - it’s all pointing towards a bright future.