Customer involvement is at the heart of everything we do, and central to how we run our organisation and services.
There are lots of different ways in which customers can, and do, support the delivery of our work.
Auditing
We invite our customers to train in interviewing skills and auditing skills to audit alongside our Quality team to help assess, shape, and improve service delivery and quality.
Interviewing We invite our customers to sit on all our interview panels alongside current colleagues, because their input is invaluable in recruiting people who embody our values and behaviours.
Newsletter We have a quarterly newsletter for our customers, which is sent to all services. It features news, surveys, creative writing, work + learning opportunities, events, training and performance data which looks at what is going well and areas for improvement. Customers are encouraged to submit content and help with editing and formatting.
Scrutiny Express Every year our customer panel tour a ‘Scrutiny Express’ around all our services. They assess the organisation on a topic chosen by customers, for example our complaints procedure. The panel conduct in depth consultations with customers and colleagues, analyse performance data and all feedback and recommendations are given directly to our Corporate Management Team.
Survey Our annual customer survey focuses on a number of topics including maintenance and support to get our customers' opinions and ideas about our services. This gives us an idea of where we are doing well, and where there is room for improvement. We also evaluate our results with other organisations doing the same work we do to see how we compare.
Volunteering We value inclusion and we embrace customer volunteers with a range of backgrounds and experiences to reflect the diversity of our organisation. We are determined to offer the right role for individuals, whether that is facilitating an activity or sharing skills.
Work + Learning programme We want to empower our customers to develop key areas and skills they need and want to work on, before moving onto independent living in the community. This is achieved through taking part in activities and workshops happening where customers live and across the organisation.
Customer Ambassadors
Customer Ambassadors are customers who represent Evolve at external meetings or at fundraising events. Customers who are interested will receive training and will be supported by our Fundraising and Communications team.
For more information about customer involvement, contact our Work and Learning Coordinator Benita on benita.ekperi@evolvehousing.org.uk. You can also read our Co-production Strategy – outlining how we work with people in our services, here.
