Service charges and further failures to communicate…

This could have been a great opportunity for GreenSquareAccord to demonstrate how they have embraced the GSA Way, but alas it turned out to be another disappointment…

Many residents had their service charged increased this month, but to many this was the first they’d heard about it. As we know the GSA Way is all about ensuring that residents are treated with respect, it’s about GreenSquareAccord putting their residents (although they use the word ‘customer’) at the heart of everything they do, it’s about respect and relationship building. As you can probably imagine having direct debits leave banks for considerably higher amounts ruffled some of their residents feathers, it proved again just how far away GreenSquareAccord are from the aspirational ‘GSA Way’.

Then again perhaps we’re not, perhaps this is the GSA Way!

8:27am

This was when I first heard the rumblings of upset, the threats of banks being contacted, the utter disgrace, and the usual ‘why are GreenSquareAccord so utterly useless at everything?’

Why were residents reaching out to me?

Because I set up a website when I thought it couldn’t be just me and my neighbours that GreenSquareAccord repeatedly failed, it couldn’t just be us that GreenSquareAccord were unable to provide a basic level of service to. And of course almost as soon as the site went live other residents from across three counties confirmed that it wasn’t just me and my neighbours, these failings were systemic.

Throughout the day

Further messages, so being that I’m a general ‘do-gooder’ and an almost constant pain in the arse for GreenSquareAccord I reached out to these award nominated sector leaders, and I shared some of the messages I’d received. Being that I am a ’solution led’ kind of guy I asked if I should provide these disgruntled GreenSquareAccord residents with the known email address for the person I assumed was still heading up the service charge increase.

‘No’ I was told, GreenSquareAccord would ask all customers to follow the contact route provided in the letter they were sent, to allow the correct team to respond. And this is a valid response, however the residents who had contacted me hadn’t received said letter, hence their surprise and anger. It was also a little ironic as in this same email we were already discussing how GreenSquareAccord had failed to communicate with myself as they had used an incorrect email address!

Let’s recap

During a period of time that has been labeled a ‘Cost of Living Crisis’ GreenSquareAccord have increased their service charge, something I don’t necessarily agree with (not whilst so many are happy to take a wage from this not-for-profit without generating any value) but I understand why GreenSquareAccord felt they had to increase this charge.

Many residents haven’t received a letter informing them of said increase, this has caused upset.

At this point I suggested to this innovative housing association that perhaps a social media post offering the disgruntled residents the guidance as (presumably) outlined in the lost letter, this way they could direct their concerns to the correct team.

But instead GreenSquareAccord chose to boast again about their virtually plastic new homes for 12 soon to be very annoyed residents.

In conclusion

GreenSquareAccord suck at communicating - I have too many examples here on this site, if they are able to send out a letter it breaches basic DPA, they often fail to send out emails to the correct address and if they do — they breach DPA

GreenSquareAccord are focused on spin over results - When offered with a solution they ignored it as it appears they find it easier to deal with residents when they are held in customer service queues, and awaiting responses that in all likelihood won’t happen. Rather than share a post that could have supported residents (and directed them to the correct team) they opted to post a video (created at the cost of the residents) boasting about how great they are, in order we can assume to offset any negative publicity caused by the fallout of this latest failure.

GreenSquareAccord don’t want to engage with residents - The new Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications, Steve Hayes has blocked me on Twitter and now LinkedIn (I’ve got a whole article about him that needs to be shared). The reason Steve joins Ruth Cooke and Rachel Crownshaw in blocking me isn’t because what I share is incorrect or untrue (if it were they’d take legal action) it’s because they don’t want to legitimise me (fair enough). They don’t want someone sharing their failures online, and worse still — it’s because they want to be able to claim they didn't know. This is really worrying when you consider that I've raised many issues that will hinder the growth and successful implementation of the GSA Way, and even more worrying when you consider that I raised concerns about their failure to provide proper gas boiler services.

Look out team GreenSquareAccord, the senior leadership team are going to ensure any blame doesn’t stick to them, it won’t affect their careers, it won’t hinder them at all, they can claim they didn't even know about it.

Food for thought…