Extra opening hours for Tor Homes in 2010

The Totnes-based centre was open from 8am-6pm on Mondays and Thursdays from Monday, and on Saturday mornings from 9.30 am to 12 noon, for a six-week trial period.

Zilpah Leahy, Housing & Customer Services Manager for Tor Homes explained “In a recent survey, customers told us that they would like to be able to contact us at times more convenient to them.”

The trial was run by staff volunteers. The views obtained from tenants suggested that those who were working found the extended opening hours helpful. Whilst the numbers of calls and visits we received outside our normal opening hours during the trial were too low to offer good value for money, due to the feedback we received, we are recommending a further trial for a 3 month period. We will be opening the offices from 8.00am, Monday to Friday, which is an hour earlier than usual. This time was the most popular with callers so we hope this will be a further opportunity to obtain more valuable feedback from tenants.

Over the trial period the main reason for people to phone us related to repair enquiries. As a result we are going to be doing some further work with tenants on the provision of our out of hours repairs service.

Running the trial gave us a real opportunity to engage residents in shaping and influencing how we provide our services to them.

People can call into Tor Homes’ offices at St. Peters Quay, Totnes, telephone them on a freephone number 0800 316 88 39 or e-mail on info@torhomes.com