Welcome
to your annual review
for customers 2020
and what a year it has been.
We started the
year by launching
our Bromford
Strategy 2019-
2023. Following
the launch, we
completed several
initiatives to focus our efforts on
our core business to enable us to
create even stronger relationships
with our customers. Creating a
single Bromford has enabled us
to deliver planned efficiencies
and expand our neighbourhood
coaching approach so we now
have 244 coaches working across
44,000 homes aiming to enable
customers to thrive. This came to
the fore during the coronavirus
pandemic with coaches contacting
nearly all our customers to provide
reassurance and assistance.
As a result of our strategy and our robust
financial position we have continued to make
good progress in minimising rent arrears and
customer debt. Arrears remain relatively low at
2%, and we’ve continued to invest in your homes,
spending £39m and completing 17,256 home
improvements.
We’ve also been making changes behind the
scenes to improve the speed, consistency and
efficiency of services, including bringing together
our customer service team and an improved
online offer. Over the next 12 months we will do
more and are looking to release our new selfservice
platform, which will provide you with an
even better experience and enable you to do
more online.
Our focus on bringing the organisation together
has impacted some aspects of performance,
notably customer advocacy, positively since
January we have seen performance improve
which has continued across the challenges of
recent months. This is good news and it is important
we continue to make excellent progress.
The end of the year was dominated by the
coronavirus pandemic. The stories of how
customers and colleagues have responded and
come together have been brilliant and reminds
us of the importance of community and the role
we all play in making that a success. During this
time, we focussed on keeping our customers and
colleagues safe and took a conscious decision
to keep services turned on. I’d like to thank the
Bromford team for the fantastic work they did
during this period. Without their brilliant work we’d
have struggled to repair and service homes,
support customers living in our older person
accommodation, help people with money issues
and help homeless families move home during
the challenging time – at Bromford we’re hugely
grateful for their efforts, dedication and hard work.
The team have simply been brilliant.
I’d also like to thank our Customer and Community
Influence Network, a group of customers from
across Bromford who come together to scrutinise
our performance, shape and influence our ways
of working and have helped produce this annual
review. We hope you enjoy it.
Paul Coates
Executive director of customer experience
2
Annual Review For Customers 2020