At Torus we aim to deliver high-quality services every time and we don’t want there to be any surprises when customers access our services.

We wish to be open and transparent about the level of service our customers can expect and the timescales in which they can expect to receive a response.

That’s why, by working with our involved customers, we have developed a new set of standards for the services that clearly explain what our customers can expect from us.

The review and consultation period took over a year. The review started with the Tenant Scrutiny Panel working with Torus Service Leads to compare offer from other landlords to create a new set of draft standards.

Following feedback from the group and the Landlord Operations Committee (LOC), wider tenant feedback was received from; 50 involved customers with views invited from 556 Torus Talk members, 27,000 tenants invited to give views in the monthly tenants update and posted on the social media. In March 2022, the new Service Standards approved by LOC.

Our service standards are built around our customer experience principles, which promise to:

• Make sure customers can access services effortlessly (at a time that is convenient for them, via appropriate channels)
• Listen and show empathy and understanding
• Recognise that every customer is an individual and respect individual needs
• Always keep our promises
• Get it right first time
• Meet our customer service standards (providing a timely response
• Keep customers informed every step of the way

Our standards are broken down into themes, based on what matters most to our customers, covering customer service, responsiveness and accessible information, neighbourhoods, letting homes, safety, rent, tackling anti-social behaviour, complaints and getting involved.

Talking about the new standards, Torus Director of Housing, Paul Warburton, said:

“We want to ensure that our customers get the best service possible. The decision to review ‘Service Standards’ was taken as previous ‘Service Standards’ were ill-defined and now going forward as a single organisation, Torus, we wanted to make sure that it was clear to customers what they should expect from us and reminds all Torus colleague what is expected of them and the standards they will be held to.

“The process to develop the new standards with our involved customers through Tenant Voice has been really interesting, it was good to hear what good customer service meant to each of them and use what is important to them to develop the new standards.”

Our performance as a landlord will be monitored against these standards with the results being shared in future newsletters and our annual report. This is to show we are meeting the standards and customers are receiving what they have been promised but will also help us to improve services.

Find out more and read our full Customer Service Standards here.