Novus Blog

Supporting and liaising with residents has always been a primary pillar on which we’ve based our business – kindness, respect, and good service should be a given, not an added ‘nice-to-have’. This is how we are prioritising residents:

Working in homes during the pandemic

During the coronavirus crisis, showing respect and kindness has rung true more than any other time.

The safety and wellbeing of the people whose homes we work in has always been of paramount importance – but perhaps never more so than now.

Our specialist customer care team always lead from the front and they’ve taken the crisis in their stride.

Dedicated customer liaison officers are responsible for considering and helping meet the needs of everyone we work around, as well as being a helpful single point of contact for residents.

Collaborating with our supply chain

It’s always important to be collaborative, but the past few months have required additional togetherness right through the supply chain to ensure that we’re operating as safely as possible.

As we’ve come to recognise over 2020, Covid-19 has generated significant confusion, with changing guidelines and grey areas creating a worrying level of uncertainty.

That’s why the very first thing we do on any project is communicate clearly and open a dialogue with all residents.

It’s vital that residents are fully informed about the works, what we do and how we’ll work with them.

This ensures safety of residents and workers, as well as everyone’s peace of mind.

Working tidily and cleanly

Once we’re working in the home, we’ve gone to another level of the quality service that comes as standard.

We’re still as tidy as ever, cleaning as we go.

Only this time, we’re armed with more anti-bacterial wipes to clean down every surface and extra bottles of hand sanitiser at our side.

Also, our operatives are working only with their own tools where possible, as well as travelling separately to ensure that contact is to a minimum.

We’re always two metres away from the residents, but try not to lose any of our personal style.

It’s our priority to make sure that residents feel at ease when we’re working in their home, and even though we’re taking extra care in everyone’s home, it’s important that we don’t dawdle.

Being punctual and prompt

Making home improvements can sometimes be inconvenient for a short while, so we always make sure we’re punctual, prompt with our work and prepared to hit the ground running on every job.

The sooner we get the job done, the sooner residents can enjoy the improvements.

Homes are our safe haven, particularly during times of crises, and so our work is just as important as it ever has been.

While these are strange times, all of us are coming together to keep everything as normal as we can – no matter how ‘new’ it is.

Repairs since lockdown

Novus have been working inside customers’ homes throughout the national lockdowns. 34 weeks on since the first national lockdown in March 2020 and we have repaired almost 50,000 homes (at the time of writing).

That equates to 292 per (working) day, 36 per (working) hour, and approximately 1 home every 2 minutes.

It’s testament to the confidence that residents have shown in Novus and our operatives to conduct themselves safely, efficiently and, respectfully.