What Residents Want

“What do our residents want? They want to be told when and what time somebody is going to come to fix a repair,” says Councillor Mohammed Nazir, Cabinet Member for Housing at Slough Borough Council. “If their heating has broken, or they have a leak, they need to be assured that somebody will be there on time.”
From 1st December 2017, Osborne will enter a partnership with Slough Borough Council providing repairs, maintenance and investment services to over 7,000 local homes.
Cllr Nazir was one of the team responsible for selecting Osborne as the local authority’s new property services provider. “Slough Borough Council is here for our residents – they are our customers. Now we have Osborne as our partner, we’re very confident that service levels will improve in all areas.”

Next week he will be speaking at the Homes Event 2017 at Olympia, London, alongside Nick Sterling, Managing Director of Osborne Communities, Carol Bailey and Managing Director of Osborne Property Services, in a session focussing on customer journey mapping.

“I expect delegates at the Homes Event will be interested in finding out why Slough Borough Council chose Osborne,” says Cllr Nazir. “Customer service was the major factor. We think Osborne will provide a personalised service to our residents.”

Last month, he took part in a customer journey mapping workshop organised by Osborne, in which Slough residents shared their own customer experiences. The aim was for their new property services provider to gain an understanding of what is important them and how services can be improved.

Residents were asked a series of questions about their experiences at each part of the customer journey, detailing the things they have liked and disliked.
“Some quite powerful messages came out of the session,” says Cllr Nazir. “It confirmed to me that good service is good service, no matter what sector you’re working in.”

A councillor for more than five years, Cllr Nazir has spent his working life in financial services. His day job is in retail banking. “In both banking and property services, customers need to know what they are going to get, when they are getting it, and that it offers good value for money,” he states. “If there’s a hiccup, you have to be upfront. You always have to be honest.”
“I believe Osborne will improve Slough residents’ customer experiences. Throughout the various stages we went through in appointing them, we focused on customer service and they kept surprising us.”

Homes Conference and Exhibition is a two day event being held from 22nd November to the 23rd November 2017 at the Olympia London and supports all things Housing. Join us and Councilor Nazir on 22nd November at 1.45pm to see why we invest in our residents.