Reflecting on the past year for the CCN is always interesting. It reminds me how much work is completed by this group of customers, independent members, non-executive directors and the executive team.  

It has been for many of us - and indeed many of Aster’s wider customer base - another year of uncertainty; will we be able to meet our loved ones in person, should we even consider it? For work, is it safe and responsible to bring people together for meetings and what do we gain and lose by not meeting together physically? As the safety of our members was the most important factor, the first time we met in person was March 2022.  

Working virtually, however, has not dampened our enthusiasm, or stopped us working on several significant areas this year including:  

• Undertaking a masterclass on service charges; this is an area that is important to Aster customers, and we wanted to be sure Aster is taking a fair and consistent approach. We discovered it is a highly complex area that is constantly reviewed to ensure fairness and value for money is maintained
• Reviewing the results of the Institute of Customer Service benchmarking exercise.  This gave us a very useful view of customer service from several different viewpoints, including of course actual customers. It enabled us to see the strengths and weaknesses which in turn allows plans to be developed more effectively.  

We also approved an updated version of Aster’s Customer Promises, which document their service commitments and what customers can expect when they choose to live in an Aster home.  

We took part in many interesting discussions and were able to influence how Aster develops its thinking, including:

• The development of the Customer Hub. We were able to encourage further work on ensuring First Contact Resolution of issues for customers. It is time consuming to be passed from person to person when trying to get something resolved and we are supporting them in the development of processes to minimise this
• Thinking about environmental sustainability from a customer’s perspective. This is an important issue and for many of us the increasing cost of living means the more we can do to manage our homes sustainably, the better. We have encouraged Aster to further include customers as part of their thinking in this area.

As always there has been lots of business as usual, with good governance, risk management and assurance from other parts of the Group. We are only able to do our part because of the valuable work undertaken by the Customer Overview Group, the Customer Scrutiny Panel, and the Designated Complaints Panel, and we would like to thank them wholeheartedly for the many hours of work they do which ensures that the customer remains at the heart of everything Aster does.