A failure to communicate
An update
For those of you who remember GreenSquareAccord saw fit to leave residents at home during the festive period waiting (for what GreenSquareAccord called) an essential Health & Safety inspection. This inspection didn't take place and nobody at GreenSquareAccord thought it might be a simply brilliant idea to let the residents know.
For those of you who don’t remember (it is hard to keep track of all the short fallings of Ruth Cooke’s simply brilliant landlord service) you can recap here.
Having posted the ‘gripe’ here, on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and on GreenSquareAccord’s flagship customer portal ‘myGreenSquare’ it still took some time for a reply, acknowledgement, and apology - but I did get one.
Here (unfortunately) we must again look at why this is another tick in the naughty box for GreenSquareAccord.
Who’s pants are on fire and who’s nose is longer than a telegraph wire?
On the 7th January having given the team time to settle in after the Christmas holiday I sent an email and also placed a message on the MyGreenSquare customer portal.
I’m used to being ignored by GreenSquareAccord (and duly was) and have been placed on some sort of silly formal contact management plan, as such I now employ other methods of communicating the issues; so using one of my non-blocked Twitter accounts I went straight to the top (sharing the original failure to communicate post).
After some to-ing and fro-ing Ruth Cooke assured me that a copy of the ‘update provided to the residents’; would be sent. Being a resident and having already requested an update I was disappointed to have not received said update. I checked with all of my neighbours and none of them had received this update either nor had any of us had an apology, which was certainly overdue at this point.
The plot thickens
Did Ruth Cooke publish a lie on social media about an update that wasn't sent?
or
Had Ruth Cooke been lied to by one of her own team?
Difficult to know for sure. Ruth Cooke is an intelligent women, surely she wouldn’t publicly announce that an update had been sent to all residents when one hadn’t.
Perhaps one of her team assumed that they could lie to their CEO as she would never check and as such never know that this oversight hadn’t been dealt with in a ‘simply brilliant’ fashion.
Senior members of Ruth Cooke’s leadership team had already shown such utter contempt for residents as to dismiss them as ‘high maintenance’ for raising issues, and issues around health and safety too.
Unlike an Agatha Christie story I can’t conclude who the guilty party is in the final chapter - I leave this up to you.
Whilst Ruth Cooke lied or was lied to I was still ignored.
Let’s be honest (some of us have to be) I didn’t expect a timely response (none of us GreenSquareAccord residents do) as such I allowed well over the published response time of ten working days.
A response!
On the 1st February I had a call from a mobile number. GreenSquareAccord like to quietly sit around the table whilst one person speaks, they also don’t like all their calls being recorded.
The caller was Ross who like so many of the team was given a thankless task of calling one of their more challenging customers. To his credit Ross did his best and I am grateful for his involvement, and appreciate his courteous manner.
It was clear from the start however that Ross was very new to the business and had not been provided the luxury of being full prepped by his team leaders or the senior leadership team.
As I always say - do your best not to get angry with the frontline team in customer service, they do their best. And if you are reading this and are a member of this team or Ross himself - much love and respect to you x
Ross was kind enough to summarise our conversation in an email as I requested. I publish it here so as to not put words in Ross or GreenSquareAccord’s mouth.
Please can I say thank you for taking my telephone call earlier today. It was good to speak in person and listen to your concerns and feedback.
I am responding to your message sent regarding the lack of communication regarding a recent proposed visit by A&E to your block.
Can I take this opportunity to sincerely apologise for the lack of communication you have experienced in this matter. Through my discussions with the team, the reason for this was due to an internal communications issue around the Christmas period where colleagues were taking annual leave. As a result of this, the message was not relayed to the residents of your block to inform you the visit had already taken place and that the proposed visit for 30/12 would no longer be required. I do appreciate as discussed, the upset and inconvenience this has caused, and I am truly sorry for this error.
I have spoken with the team regarding your concerns and please be assured we have put measures in place to ensure when communications are required, they are dealt with promptly to keep you informed and updated. I have also updated the team regarding our conversation and have asked the question as to whether all residents would receive a letter regarding this event.
Please be assured we are doing all we can to ensure incidents like this do not happen and that we are committed to the Safety of all.
Kind Regards
Ross *****
It’s a good email, thank you Ross. He also sent me an update via the MyGreenSquare customer portal.
So what is my issue this time?
Internal communications issue - ongoing issue that was supposed to have been addressed in 2019 and formed part of an upheld complaint. Again I was promised that procedures had been put in place to address this several times since 2019.
Christmas period where colleagues were taking annual leave - there are no handover procedures in place to ensure a smooth transition or appropriate cover and it is a clear internal communication breakdown.
I do appreciate as discussed, the upset and inconvenience this has caused, and I am truly sorry for this error - Yet there has been no official apology to all of my neighbours, unless we count the one Ruth Cooke either lied about or assumed had been sent by one of her team, who may have lied about sending it. Either way there hasn't been an apology to the forty plus residents who waited in all day for this visit.
please be assured we have put measures in place to ensure when communications are required, they are dealt with promptly to keep you informed and updated - This is where it becomes obvious that Ross must be new here, as this is one of the many ongoing communication breakdowns and every time the issue is raised I am assured that measures have been put in place.
Please be assured we are doing all we can to ensure incidents like this do not happen - I don’t think it’s enough. The service hasn’t improved since Ruth Cooke took over, it hasn’t gotten better with the merger.
In conclusion
My grandma (the finest woman to ever draw breath) taught me the importance of owning your mistakes. We all make them. You can waste so much energy lying and covering up whilst the truth will set you free and allow you to learn and grow. This way we can move forward, and perhaps one day become simply brilliant (like my grandma).
Food for thought x