Celebrate the wins, hide the faults!
Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. A quote often attributed to President John Kennedy (from his televised account of the Bay of Pigs invasion).
I’ve used it here as this very public and humble apology by JFK caused his ratings to soar, confidence was restored, and for the first time this young president was seen (even by many of his doubters) as presidential. While scholars and historians (and conspiracy theorists) can (and will) continue to argue about his merit as a president for decades more to come, he will always be remembered for what he might have achieved; but his very public and sincere apology to the American people (and the free world) and its positive result cannot be denied. Perhaps it was his finest moment in office.
You would think over fifty years later we would have all realised the benefits that can be achieved by the simple act of acknowledging our short falling. An apology frees us from the mistake and allows us to correct our course, enabling us to regain the faith of the people we’ve wronged.
What a shame that in this litigious age an apology is seen as an acceptance of fault, and as such companies will do all they can to avoid apologising. Without an apology and with a need to keep their public persona in good shape these companies must shout about their wins while keeping their faults hidden. Which brings us on to GreenSquareAccord.
Before we start
A sincere congratulations to Maxine Espley MBE on being awarded an MBE in recognition of the support and great work she provides. Thank you Maxine.
The Wins
Hoorah! A lockable shipping container!
Taking inspiration from their customers GreenSquareAccord made much of a new and innovative step.
We asked ourselves what we could do to improve this (repair service) and based on feedback received from our customers and teams, we worked with our partner Jewson Partnership Solutions (JPS) to introduce an innovative solution we think will transform the service – the UK’s first smart collection points.
Rachel Crownshaw executive director of operations at GreenSquareAccord
That’s right the UK’s first smart collection point (the aforementioned lockable shipping container) although as this article later points out, it isn’t the UK’s first collection point by any means. You can read the article yourself.
Is this inability to collect parts the biggest issues in GreenSquareAccord’s repair procedures? Is this what has been letting them down and negatively impacting their residents?
A little unlikely I suspect.
Jewson’s operate over six-hundred sites across the UK and there are ten within driving distance of GreenSquareAccords head office.
Jewson depots within driving distance from GreenSquareAccord head office
GreenSquareAccord’s Birmingham office is less than thirty-five miles from Jewsons HQ, perhaps there is a little networking going on here (no reason why there shouldn’t be) as long as the customers benefit from this extra spend.
Ken Neale who since introducing this intuitive leap and example of ‘out-of-the-box’ (no pun intended) thinking has stepped down from his role, said in a Housing Digital article:
“This modern approach will make a real difference to how we work – our operatives will have the necessary parts and equipment to complete a job first time for our customers, without the need to spend time checking stock in local stores or having to travel to branches.
“We’re expecting to see real benefits across the whole business, with a reduction in multiple visits to customers and less calls into our contact centre.
“Very importantly, by improving our efficiency, we drive better outcomes for customers, including faster repairs and greater appointment availability.”
Ken Neale, former director of Repairs and Maintenance at GreenSquareAccord
I hope he’s right, however I’m not sure spending our money on containers when Jewson already have a network of nationwide collection points and also offer a delivery service is the way forward. I’m sure it didn’t require celebrating so widely.
We will comeback to this article later.
Keep on winning!
What happens when you put a former chief financial officer in charge of a customer focused not-for-profit organisation?
While further alienating residents from across two former associations GreenSquareAccord were the winner in this years Corporate Finance category, again widely shared and celebrated.
As many residents struggle to keep up with the cost of living and with GreenSquareAccords increasing their service charge, tuxedos were rented, champagne was drunk, and backs were firmly slapped.
The Deals of the Year Awards, which took place on 31 March 2022, champion the outstanding work of treasurers from around the world and their contribution to their organisation’s success. Awards were given based on work and transactions undertaken during 2021. The winners were chosen by an esteemed panel of judges, experienced practitioners from across the treasury, corporate finance, banking and advisory worlds.
Let us all hope that by putting our homes in the hands of such financially astute (and celebrated) bean counters GreenSquareAccord will soon be passing on the fruits of their success to the people who need it the most, their residents.
So confident are they in their financial prowess, GreenSquareAccord offered their service to their many residents via a Facebook posts:
And what did many of GreenSquareAccord residents have to say about this advice being offered, well it wasn’t favourable.
The Faults
Widely published?
In her own article in which she bragged about shipping containers being the next big thing for the sector Ms Crownshaw in the role of Executive Director of Operations at GreenSquareAccord wrote:
A simple lesson for us is that listening to our customers and using their voice as business intelligence - as we would use data - is what helps us to arrive at the best solutions and outcomes. This new technology will bring improvements that we know will directly benefit our customers, because they told us.
This simple yet valued lesson was (in part) gained from a customer baseline survey that was conducted throughout October-December 2021 (and well beyond in what appears to be an attempt to perhaps sweeten the results). These results were to be published in early 2022. However, residents had to wait until late March 2022 while the survey remained open. The results were and continue to be worrying.
I’d like to publish them here. However as GreenSquareAccord tend to object to me sharing the ‘voice of the customer’, I will instead link to it here.
Strangely enough, there wasn’t a link to these results shared via Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, and you have to dig deep on their own website to see what’s not being celebrated.
In conclusion
In a timeframe where most residents told GreenSquareAccord they were not happy with the current level of service, GreenSquareAccord told them that their rent and service charge would be increased.
As GreenSquareAccord downplayed the ‘voice of the customer’, Ruth Cooke and her simply brilliant team won an award for being being good at cutting deals with funders, as they spent customers’ money on lockable containers, with the first one being installed less than a mile from their office and within spitting distance of (you guessed it) a Jewsons store.
Well done team GreenSquareAccord, money well spent!
Will GreenSquareAccord help shape the future of housing associations by owning their mistakes, by listening and sharing both the good and bad feedback from their residents, or will they continue to bask in self glory such as…
One of GreenSquareAccord new containers (in view of what looks like their head office).