Effective Complaint Management is a core part of resident trust, regulatory confidence, and service improvement.
In a practical session from Delivering Excellence in Housing Customer Services 2026, now available On Demand, Daniel Klemm, Director of Communication and Customer Experience at Together Housing Group, shared how Together Housing approaches complaints. Daniel explained how Together Housing is seeking to get better in managing complaints.
Daniel’s message was clear, effective complaint management is not about defending the organisation. Complaint management about listening carefully, responding promptly, resolving issues at the earliest opportunity, and using learning to improve core services.
Why complaint management matters?
Daniel opened by acknowledging a fact, when complaint handling goes wrong, bad news travels fast. Housing Ombudsman judgements and the ensuing media coverage can quickly highlight poor practice, especially where residents feel ignored, delayed, or let down.
But reputational risk is only one part of the picture. Complaints also reveal what residents are experiencing day to day. They show where repairs are not progressing, where communication has broken down, where neighbourhood issues are unresolved, or where different internal departments or services have failed to coordinate effectively.
For Together Housing Group, the focus has been on treating complaints as a journey of continuous improvement. Daniel was clear that Together Housing does not claim to get everything right and that mistakes can, and will, happen. However, the aim is to keep improving, and embed the learning from complaints into service delivery.
Ownership
One of the most valuable insights from the session was Together Housing’s operating model. Daniel described what can often become a false choice in complaint handling: should complaints be managed centrally, or should operational teams take responsibility?
Together Housing’s answer is to combine both. The organisation uses central oversight to provide consistency, governance, and support, while operational teams remain responsible for responding to most Stage One complaints. This matters because complaints usually arise from the services residents use directly, such as repairs, neighbourhood services, assets, gas, or customer service.
This means that operations teams areas cannot see complaints as something separate from their work. If a resident complains about a repair, the repairs service are the ones to respond. The central team supports the process, but the accountability sits with the part of Together Housing best placed to fix the underlying problem.
response to the resident.
At Stage Two, Together Housing’s central resolutions team becomes more directly involved, client-managing cases while senior managers carry out investigations. If a complaint reaches the Housing Ombudsman, the central team manages submissions, liaison, and evidence. This creates a stronger, more consistent process at the later stages.
Multi-Service Complaints
Daniel also explained that some complaints do require a different approach. Multi-service complaints, where an issue cuts across areas such as repairs and neighbourhoods, are handled more centrally. This avoids departments debating who should lead and ensures an effective
Promoting complaints
Together Housing actively promotes complaints. Rather than hiding the process or making it difficult to access, the landlord makes complaint routes visible on its website. Proactive resident communications are sent to residents, including within Talking Together a quarterly publication sent alongside rent statements.
Promoting complaints may increase demand. However, Together Housing believes that encouraging residents to raise issues is the right thing to do. It helps identify problems earlier and gives the landlord an opportunity to put things right before dissatisfaction escalates.
Understand your numbers
Another central theme was data. Daniel emphasised that housing providers need to know their complaint numbers but also understand what sits behind them. Together Housing monitors volumes, response times, compliance with the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code, escalation rates, and outcomes from Ombudsman cases.
He shared that repairs and maintenance remain a major source of complaints, alongside areas such as gas, neighbourhood issues, and customer services. At both Stage One and Stage Two, similar themes continue to appear.
The lesson is simple but important: if landlords want to reduce complaints, they need to improve the core services that generate them.
Embed the learning
Complaint learning only has value if it changes behaviour. Together Housing produces quarterly reporting for its operations committee and uses this internally to discuss performance and improvement areas with colleagues across the organisation. The annual complaints report also forms part of the formal governance cycle.
This regular reporting helps keep complaints visible and reinforces that complaint handling is not just a customer service function but a source of operational intelligence.
Early resolution
Daniel also discussed early resolution, where simpler complaints are registered and resolved quickly by the resolutions team, sometimes at the same point as acknowledgement. This can prevent unnecessary handoffs and provide a faster answer for residents.
Proactive compensation
Another area of focus is compensation. Together Housing is looking at being more proactive in offering compensation at Stage One where appropriate, rather than waiting until Stage Two. This reflects a wider principle: when something has gone wrong, landlords should acknowledge it early and provide fair redress.
Conclusion
Effective complaint management is about more than policies, deadlines, and case management systems. Daniel Klemm’s session showed that strong complaint handling depends on ownership, visibility, data, learning, and a willingness to resolve issues as early as possible.
Daniel’s full session is part of Delivering Excellence in Housing Customer Services 2026, which is now available On Demand for those looking to explore the discussion in more detail.