Have confi den
in your experien
Throughout this review we’ve talked about the value of your feedback and
how important it is for you to tell us how you feel about the way we do things.
Our Customer and Communities Network (CCN) is a team of customers who
work with us to achieve more - more for you and the communities in which
you live. They work with senior colleagues and Board members to challenge
and test the business, ensuring we’re delivering what we say we will as well as
offering value for money.
We caught up with the extremely busy
Denise Amory-Reid to fi nd out what
being a member of CCN is all about.
How long have you been a
member of CCN and how did
you get involved?
II’ve been part of CCN for about a year
now and it was my housing manager
who suggested that it would be good for me
to get involved. It’s an interesti ng story really; I
suppose you could say I didn’t have the best relati onship
with her at the ti me. It was nothing major but I just felt
the way I was being treated wasn’t fair. There were a
couple of ti mes when she spoke to me in a way that I
didn’t really like and, being a bit of a thinker, I refl ected
on our conversati ons and decided to challenge her.
I didn’t think that making a complaint was the right thing
to do. As my background is working with people I put
myself in her shoes and wondered why she might speak
to me in the way she did – maybe she was having a bad
day or was feeling overwhelmed by something and got a
bit stressed. Don’t get me wrong, she didn’t do anything
terrible, she just acted in a way that I didn’t parti cularly
agree with. When I spoke to her about it she was really
apologeti c and said that she didn’t realise how her tone
and manner had come across.
She really thanked me for being so honest and said that
CCN needed people like me to share their thoughts and
ideas and to represent Bromford’s customers. So I looked
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CUSTOMER ANNUAL REVIEW 2017
into it and liked the idea of being involved and making
sure the customers’ voice was heard so I decided to give
it a go.
What was the recruitment process like?
It wasn’t easy. But that really reassured me that
Bromford take CCN seriously. They want to make sure
that the right people become members, people with the
ability to represent all customers and the confi dence to
be involved with decision making. The process included
analysing informati on and explaining how I would
respond to complaints and there was also some group
work to show how I could work as part of a team.
I was really impressed throughout the process, it was
all very professional, well structured, dignifi ed and well
organised. It made feel like an important part of the
organisati on, like I was truly valued.
I would say the whole experience of being recruited to
CCN was challenging but enjoyable.
How oft en do you meet up?
There are four meeti ngs a year and I also sit on the
Independent Complaints Panel. Although I’m busy with
work and studying (I’m a family worker and studying
towards a Doctorate in Educati on), I manage to fi t in the
meeti ngs by taking annual leave or by using my fl exi-
ti me. I think it’s important to take the opportuniti es
presented to you and it’s great being able to represent
Bromford’s customers so I make sure I fi nd the ti me.