Is saying sorry so hard?

As a resident of GreenSquareAccord, this four-letter word often seems elusive. If you charge a customer for a service that you ultimately fail to provide, would you not feel obliged to offer them an apology?

Let’s face the cold hard fact. There aren’t many sectors in which you could work and consistently fail to provide the service you charge for, and still expect to keep your customers. And if you did fail, you'd need a really good excuse to keep any customer on your books.

So, housing providers find themselves in the envious position of being able to charge customers for a service they do not provide, without having to offer valid reasons or excuses for their failures, nor having to apologise, explain, or justify their shortcomings. And they can do so without fear of repercussions or a dent in the customer database. What a great sector to be a CEO of!

GreenSquareAccord has, until recent years, mostly kept their failures out of the public domain. With the sector under growing scrutiny, there is a growing need to justify some of their failures. Perhaps this is why we are now starting to see apologies. However insincere they may seem, this is definitely a step in the right direction. However, as you see in this latest case, it took some prompting to get this apology out of them.

A lack of apologies

An apology from GreenSquareAccord is often harder to find than ants' teeth!

I suspect there was a directive from the senior leadership team that stated that GreenSquareAccord must never apologise; by apologising, they would be admitting fault, and GreenSquareAccord must not be held accountable, so they cannot be at fault. How true this is, we'll never know, but it would certainly explain the lack of apologies for systemic failures over multiple years and across multiple counties.

When they were forced to apologise, it was the sort of apology that lacked any sincerity. They would use words such as "I'm sorry you feel that way," implying that the upset has been caused by our own feelings, rather than their failings.

It took years of raising issues with GreenSquareAccord via their customer service team and through their three-tier complaint process, with external support from local press, MPs, local councils, and the Housing Ombudsman, to force GreenSquareAccord to write an apology letter to myself.

It was Maxine Espley who, once she had been awarded the OBE, was quickly snapped up by Ruth Cooke (and replaced her right-hand woman Rachel Crownshaw) who was given the unenviable task of having to apologise to myself in writing. You can read for yourself here. And even then, as you can tell, it lacks any real emotion, any real sincerity, and was composed with the sole purpose of appeasing the Housing Ombudsman.

As this apology letter was quickly followed by court summons, Ms. Espley can ‘stuff her sorries in a sack!!’

This week's apologies

In a case that has been closed this week, our client was left without hot water and heating over Christmas. Being without hot water or heating is an issue at any time of the year, but its impact was felt this time due to it being over the festive period and the negative impact this had on her friends, family, and of course, her own mental health. The main gripe this time was that GreenSquareAccord was aware that her heating and boiler needed further work, but they had failed to proactively fix this issue, instead waiting for it to fail which it duly did over the festive period.  Our client is not alone in being left without heating or hot water, far from it, and don’t think the elderly are guaranteed this basic service either! 

Of course, while we're all aware that these things happen, it's how you deal with these things when they happen which shows your true character. And the failings here warranted an apology.

It's important to note that this complaint was escalated to a Customer Care Specialist. Due to the nature of the title, it is fair for us to assume that they have a firm understanding of customer care, how to handle issues from customers, and have a strong focus on the customer if we are to assume that they are indeed a customer care specialist.

However, we needed to remind this customer care specialist via email that her correspondence lacked a compassionate tone and could have been more apologetic. It was also necessary to send a chase email to this customer care specialist to remind her that she had failed to follow up as agreed. Due to these failings, I advised the client to take this to stage three of GreenSquareAccord's complaint process, which offered a review by the senior leadership team.

Once this review had taken place, we received a letter from Julian Britton, Director of Customer Services, who wrote:

‘Finally, I would like to acknowledge your feedback regarding the need to chase the written confirmation of the phone call which ***** promised to provide. I’m sorry this was overlooked, although I was pleased to see ***** did send this promptly once she received your reminder. I know this will have added to your frustration, and it should not have been necessary for you to chase us for this. Please be assured we have reminded the Customer Care team of the importance of always delivering on the promises we make, as I completely agree we can only build back trust with our customers by doing what we say we will. Thank you for this valuable feedback.’

Julianne Britton 

Director of Customer Services 

It is reassuring to discover that the director of customer services believes that it is important to always deliver on the promises they make. Although GreenSquareAccord goes to great lengths to stop me, perhaps they are starting to value my feedback through my clients, and the advice I offer.

Unfortunately, no matter how specialist these customer service teams are, they will follow the actions and examples of their leaders. So it was disappointing to see Julian Britton also have to write an email apologising to another customer for her failure to respond in a timely manner.

I am so sorry for not responding sooner. As Ruth knows we have been in contact about other issues in your home she asked if I could respond to you and I’m afraid this week has sped by and I have failed to acknowledge your email as promptly as I had planned to.

Julianne Britton 

Director of Customer Services 

14th February 2024

Let's take comfort and offer praise where we can. We have indeed turned a corner, and there seems to be a push towards a more apologetic culture from GreenSquareAccord. Although this is long overdue, it should indeed be welcomed. Let's hope that their customer service Director does agree with me when she writes ‘we can only build back trust with our customers by doing what we say we will’. Perhaps myself and Ms Britton will have time for a coffee and a little chitchat ahead of our next court date.