The company’s repairs and maintenance team in its Birmingham North and Birmingham South branches both gained a gold award for ‘Service Excellence’ from the city’s Tenant Performance Monitoring Group (TPMG). The group monitors customer service, understanding and response to the diverse needs of tenants’ repairs and maintenance, in line with targets set by Birmingham City Council.
Willmott Dixon’s local teams were assessed and evaluated on response times, customer satisfaction and its ‘right first time’ initiative. It is the second time that the company’s Birmingham North branch has gained a gold award for Service Excellence while the Birmingham South branch has previously gained a Silver award for Improved Service.
Willmott Dixon Partnerships is currently working with Birmingham City Council to repair and maintain 60,000 properties in the city. Its two contracts, for the north and south of the city, include the areas of Edgbaston, Hall Green, Northfield, Selly Oak, Ladywood, Erdington, Perry Bar and Sutton Coldfield. The company aims to reduce the cost of this service by £47m over the five year terms of the two contracts.
Pauline Chatt, Willmott Dixon’s Birmingham north branch manager, said, “Our local workforce repair and maintain thousands of properties in the city on behalf of Birmingham City Council, including occupied and empty properties. Jobs can vary from simple routine repairs to emergency incidents, including loss of electricity, burst water pipes and heating problems. We work closely with the council and local tenants to constantly identify ways of improving the service. It is the third time that our Birmingham north branch has been assessed, and second time that the Birmingham south branch has been evaluated, and we are thrilled that the hard work and efforts of our staff have been recognised in this way.”
Joan Goodwin, chair of the TPMG says, “The Birmingham north branch won a gold award last year, and the south branch won a silver, so we were pleased to award both with a gold award on this occasion. Sometimes we understand that problems occur, like flooding, but its good to have numbers we can ring and know that action will be taken quickly. The tenants speak very highly of the local teams and really appreciate the effort they put in, especially the Customer and Community Officers who have regular contact with tenant groups and communication with residents in general.”