The GSA Way Isn’t Working

Internal communications between teams

More often than not, one hand simply doesn’t know what the other hand is doing. This was highlighted numerous times in multiple housing ombudsman complaint reviews, in internal emails gained from inside GSA headquarters, and in communications to customers.

A recent example of this was a message sent to my magnificent wife via MyGreenSquare (a failed portal largely forgotten by all), in which the customer service agent apologised for the six-week delay in responding, explaining that they were just catching up on the inquiries left on this outdated and defunct piece of tech (it was never fit for purpose to be fair). If there had been a system in place for the apologetic customer service agent—who we can assume was tasked with following up on multiple outdated and missed customer responses—had GreenSquareAccord not had all their data in multiple unconnected silos, this customer service agent would have known that, having been ignored on the MyGreenSquare portal, my wife and neighbours had made multiple attempts to discuss this issue with GreenSquareAccord and they had failed and closed the case.

We know that this too is an ongoing issue dating back multiple years also highlighting this as a concern.

Stay in, we are sending someone!

External communications are no better; to some degree, it’s worse. With their own internal communication failures, at least they are wasting their time. However, when they ask people to stay at home because one of their team needs to gain entry to our homes, they also fail to update us when they’re not going to turn up.

At best, this is impolite; at worst, it hints at an outdated culture that assumes 'they’re all unemployed and at home watching daytime television.' It also indicates, again, that the person instructing residents to stay at home isn’t in touch with the team who should be making the visit and, as such, unaware that it is no longer happening.

Most recently, myself and my neighbours were informed we needed to stay at home so someone could look at our immersion heaters. While we all made best efforts to be at home, the engineer who did attend only checked a small percentage of immersions and left the rest of us waiting for a visit that never happened.

Of course, this too is an ongoing issue, dating back multiple years.

Ill-mannered, toxic culture, or inability to ensure agreed scheduled visits actually take place — you choose.

Ignoring the Voice of Their Customers

While GreenSquareAccord has made a big splash over the last ten years about listening to their customers, we must face facts, they only listen to what they want to hear.

While compiling a directory a few years back for my Housing Sector website, I linked the social media accounts of each housing provider. The only housing provider who disabled comments on their Facebook page was GreenSquareAccord. Don’t get me wrong; some of the comments left for other providers were pretty brutal, but they kept them up and allowed their residents the chance to vent.

GreenSquareAccord announced this week that they’ll be coming off X (Twitter), a platform they also limit who can contact. Their own CEO boasts that all views are her own; however, other people's views can be labeled as abuse or harassment that will earn you a block! Ruth Cooke, we must remember, is beyond criticism and will use the full force of her legal team to silence any and all critics. As a CEO of a large housing association, she is beyond negative criticism!

The reason GreenSquareAccord provides for why they’ll be leaving is another example of unfounded spin and empty rhetoric. As published on their own website:

“We have noticed a significant increase in content we feel is not aligned with our culture, including hate speech. We no longer feel it is appropriate for us to remain on this platform.”

I have multiple accounts and can’t find any examples of hate speech. I’d have to look for these examples, and I don’t feel the need nor desire to do so. Hate speech doesn’t just appear in my feed, and if it did, I’d ignore it and if needed, block that account. Something we know GreenSquareAccord has the technical ability to do so; this is a skill they possess!

When their own culture forces people to pay a service charge for services that are not provided, while they, through neglect, allow people to live in homes that are unsafe, cold, and wet, I’m glad I’m not seeing an increase in content that aligns with their own culture!

“We do monitor engagement on all our social media channels, and we have also seen a significant drop in engagement on Twitter.”

This too is largely untrue, and here are some screenshots of past activity. As you can see, they’ve never really made much of an impact.

The reason people don't engage is because these posts are nothing more than self-congratulatory propaganda pushed out by a housing association desperate to manage its online brand reputation!

And when residents do engage GreenSquareAccord aren’t able to control the narrative, this is the real reason they are stepping away from this platform!

GreenSquareAccord is happy to stay on LinkedIn and Facebook, where they are alone in not allowing comments on any of their posts, as well as Instagram. This shows that the reason for leaving X has little to do with customer engagement. On Instagram, they have a mere 733 followers, less than 2% of their customer base, and the engagement for each post averages three engagements! Don’t take my word for it; look for yourself!

They used to employ surveys; however, the response was again underwhelming, and the results often failed to tally!

And when it comes to this platform, a site that provides a true account of the state of play at GreenSquareAccord, well, we all know the methods they employed in an attempt to shut me up!

Empty Rhetoric!

Time and time again, GreenSquareAccord has published aims, goals, promises, and aspirations, most of which have never materialised.

The most notable of such is, of course, their almost bi-yearly re-release of their corporate strategy. The go-to excuse so often employed by Ruth Cooke is a variant of the tried and tested: "We are introducing our new (which is always just the latest) corporate strategy. In this, we are focused on addressing - insert whatever issues that have been failing," etc. This approach often works as a sticky plaster to fix all and quell concern. If MPs or local councillors question a failing, it can quickly be put to bed by stating: "In our corporate strategy, we will ensure," etc.

This seems to keep her internal team happy, as well as her board, the communities she fails, governing bodies, Parliament—the list is almost endless!

We've recognised the need for GreenSquare to refocus its efforts on being a great landlord and have launched a three-year corporate plan to deliver this change. The plan features much that will benefit customers, including:

Transforming our contact center so that we can fully resolve most queries straight away;

Strengthening the ways in which we obtain feedback and collaborate with customers and use what we learn to ensure customers are at the heart of change and decision making;

Continuing to improve our health and safety and compliance management so that the safety of customers in their homes is assured;

Transforming our repairs and maintenance service;

Ensuring all existing properties meet a ‘GreenSquare standard,’ which ensures that a property is safe, warm, and affordable, with modern components; and

Providing 1,500 new homes for truly affordable rent and home ownership between now and 2023.

Ruth Cooke - email dated 27th August 2020

And here we are, one year into the latest corporate strategy with the same promises being pushed upon us.

But it isn’t just empty and failed corporate strategies that should concern us. Following on from concerns about residents being unaware of fire procedures, as highlighted in the Oxford Mail, GreenSquareAccord proudly published the following on social media and on their own website:

But of course, this never happened. Perhaps it is enough to just post your intentions for others to see and celebrate without actually coming good on the promise. This of course further damages the relationship between residents and provider, and when it's associated with fire safety, it puts lives at risk.

Another example is the constant 'bandwagon jumping,' where they jump on someone else’s good deeds, for example, #InternationalWomensDay, happy to promote this without providing any evidence of their support beyond the empty rhetoric of 'We’re celebrating IWD today by sharing colleague experiences and achievements to raise awareness of why equity is so important.' However, they didn’t share any colleague experiences and achievements to raise awareness of why equity is so important; they just claimed to by posting it online, in a post that had the comments disabled so nobody could ask what they were actually doing

With an all-female Executive team team largely failing to bring any of their goals and aspirations to life, I’m forced to consider that GreenSquareAccord might actually be blocking female empowerment and the feminist movement. This is a shame. Having been brought up by strong, independent females, I believe that women should be running the world. However, for this to happen, we need strong women able to share their views and opinions, allowed to bring their expertise to the table, rather than just being employed as token echo chambers to repeat the stale and defunct narrative.

This has been going on for years but has become more prevalent as they grow their communications team, wages that perhaps could be much better spent on their repairs team. Of course, this underscores the issue at hand. It is easier to manage your brand reputation with a false, well-executed narrative than it is to actually provide the service you charge for. It is easier to hide problems under a glossy use of animations than it is to bring them to life.

Let’s not dwell. For those looking for some further examples, they can be found here, here, here, and for good measure here.

Disjointed Tech

Due to a series of mergers, GreenSquareAccord finds itself entangled in a web of disparate technologies and platforms. The amalgamation of multiple housing associations has resulted in an assortment of legacy systems that simply do not integrate seamlessly. As a consequence, essential data is scattered across various silos, making it arduous to access and utilise effectively.

This disjointed tech landscape has forced GreenSquareAccord to heavily rely on Excel spreadsheets to manage critical operations. Despite advancements in technology, the organisation struggles to harness the full potential of modern software solutions due to the incompatible nature of its legacy systems. Consequently, important tasks such as record-keeping, reporting, and data management become cumbersome and prone to errors.

Without a trustworthy and capable centralised and cohesive tech infrastructure, ensuring data integrity and compliance is a daunting challenge. Moreover, the disjointed working environment resulting from incompatible systems hampers collaboration and efficiency among teams.

This failure has severely impacted staff and residents alike. It stems from rushed mergers and a failure to understand the capabilities and restrictions of their multiple software platforms. MyGreenSquare quickly became obsolete due to the merger, and was acquired cheaply without real expertise behind the purchase. Orchid, their internal CRM, was considered outdated and clunky even when new, according to those who worked with it. Another cost-saving measure that has resulted in the need for more costs to cover the multiple failures.

A Lack of Trust

Perhaps the biggest fallout from the failures is the loss of trust. And with the loss of trust comes the end of the relationship. Yet if we can’t leave, we all end up stuck in a toxic and abusive relationship.

With a failure to provide accurate reporting, us residents simply can’t trust (and neither should you) the figures as shared by GreenSquareAccord. The figures themselves are already pretty damning; however, I expect the real figures are much worse. We have, so to speak, only seen the tip of the iceberg.

When they continuously fail to provide an acceptable level of service yet increase our service charge year on year, the disdain for them becomes palpable.

When our homes are unsafe, cold, and damp, they fail our communities. Once this happens, surely they should be held accountable, surely? Yet despite multiple cases being upheld by the Housing Ombudsman, despite Michael Gove sharing his concerns, they are still allowed to build new homes and profit from this devil's pact that holds us all.

When Ruth Cooke is allowed to fail time and time again without repercussion while banking over a million pounds in salary now, we must ask how long will this be allowed to continue.

Unfortunately, we know how long it’ll last.

It will take a loss of life, another Grenfell, or a child to die due to damp.

Once this happens, the attention will once again return from the Post Office Scandal back to housing. When this unfortunately happens, I’ll know what side of the fence I was on. I continue to work to raise issues on behalf of myself, my neighbours, and residents across multiple counties. I’ve raised and shared issues with you all. I’ve done my best to hold Ruth Cooke and her team to account, and I have been persecuted for doing so. We all know it’s only a matter of time. Will you be able to say you did your best to prevent it, or will you have come to terms with the fact that you ignored, hid, and dismissed the issues that were raised?

The GSA Way isn’t working.  What shall we do about it?