Angel Tan, Chirpy Heat
Listening to our clients and ensuring their voice is at the heart of our decision-making is very important to us and will always be.
With full regulation on the horizon, we’ve conducted our first annual client survey to help us learn more from our clients who are tackling heat network issues day in day out.
Overall experience
100% of our clients who participated in the survey said they’d recommend us to other housing providers.
Our clients value Chirpy Heat’s specialist, in-depth knowledge of heat networks in the housing sector as well as our professional approach, clear advice and effective communication. We asked them to score us out of 10 for other aspects of our services:
- Quality of service: 9.59
- Service delivery and efficiency: 9.59
- Quality of communications: 9.55
- Value for money: 9.05
We are really pleased to get really positive feedback and we will continue to work on improving the scores in the future.
Positive outcomes
The main outcomes our clients have enjoyed since working with us are:
- Assurance they are compliant with existing heat network regulations
- Senior leaders are more engaged with heat network issues
- Able to access funding to improve heat network
These are all critical to the development of good heat network management and working towards full compliance. For our clients, gaining an understanding of their current position is always the first step and sometimes the biggest challenge is engaging with the rest of their organisation, particularly at a senior level.
We are also very proud of our success in accessing funding for the sector, successfully supporting 16 bids for optimisation funding (50% of all projects awarded) and a further 2 bids capital funding in the first window of the Heat Network Efficiency Scheme.
Challenge and priorities for the sector in 2024
There were clear trends from our clients in terms of priorities for next year, with the top three being:
Though this does not come as a surprise to anyone who has to deal with heat networks, it does not make the finding any less significant. Again and again housing providers name these as their biggest issues and once again with full regulation on the way this is starting to create hard deadlines for action.
Listening and acting on client feedback – how we’re responding in 2024
The client survey has shown us how we can improve and develop our overall service offering. Based on clients’ feedback, our key initiatives in 2024 are to:
- Focus our consultancy work on regulations and compliance: to help clients understand and prepare for the significant changes required for the incoming heat network regulations in 2025.
- More regular update meetings and briefings: for clients that take out annual support plans
- Engage other teams across housing providers: including compliance, finance and new build
To discuss how we can help you to create simply better heat networks and prepare for the forthcoming regulations, do get in touch with us at info@chirpyheat.com.