Customer champions

Stacy Hartley runs her own beauty salon. She’s also been an Accent customer for more than 20 years, and a member of our customer experience committee for over a year.

As the customer champion for complaints, Stacy still sits on the customer experience committee but now also focus on how we manage customer complaints. We caught up with Stacy to learn more about what she does, and how she’s finding the position. 

"My job is to look at complaints that come in, and understand why we’re getting them in the first place! Then, I work out how we can answer them in a good way for the customers to get the best outcome for them and for Accent. 

I’m able to act impartially and request information I need, and I look over complaints documents and outcomes. It’s very transparent. 

One of my focuses is on Tenant Satisfaction Management scores around complaints, which are low at the moment. This is mostly because it takes too long for customers to get a reply to their complaint – so if we can get those complaints seen quicker and in a good manner, then we can focus on other areas and improve services all around. 

In the long term, I want to increase the perceptions of the customers and let them see what I see. Accent provides good quality homes and their whole values are aligned with serving the customer, but sometimes, it may not feel like that and that’s where us customer champions come in."

Jackie Best works with young offenders to support them with education, training and employment. She’s also been an Accent customer since 2020, and was member of our customer experience committee for just over a year before becoming our customer champion for anti-social behaviour.

"I have a real interest in improving the lives of people who are in challenging circumstances. It’s a steep learning curve but hopefully, we can support people with the challenges they face around anti-social behaviour.

As a customer champion, the big thing for me is about making the relationship between Accent and the customer as two-way and positive as possible. This is my bread and butter because it’s the same in my day job working with young offenders with complex lives who engage in anti-social behaviour. 

I have access to Accent’s reports, and information, and chat regularly with Accent staff. Data is also very important. Using that to have a deep dive into the profile of the customers helps me get a real understanding of their different characteristics, and how anti-social behaviour impacts those specific groups. 

It’s about really trying to understand who our customers are, so we can help them feel safe which is one of the fundamental things in life. If we can get a general feeling that people are happy in their homes in a tangible way, then that would be fantastic."

Helen Hutchinson has been an Accent customer since 1996, and a member of Accent’s customer experience committee for two years. As customer champion of estate services, she reviews how we deliver our estate services and listens to customers to see where we can do better.

"Years ago, I worked with Accent to give them feedback on a letter they sent to their customers. The tone of voice was confusing and even a little scary for customers. I helped them change it – I loved being involved and helping change the system to help other customers understand.   

My work as a customer champion involves getting involved in estate cases, speaking to the Housing Ombudsman, and travelling to talk to Accent customers having issues.  I really enjoy meeting people face-to-face to help them work things out, and hear their views – sometimes things don’t come across properly in text. It also means customers understand that Accent is listening, and is taking what they say seriously.  

It’s given me a much better understanding of Accent, and what they’re trying to do as an organisation. It’s not a profit-making business – instead, all the money is being reinvested into building more homes. And they really do listen. Not all customers know that."