We are committed to embedding a culture of listening to our customers and acting on their feedback.
We amplify the voices of our customers at LiveWest and ensure that their influence leads to positive improvements in service delivery.
LiveWest's scrutiny group, InFocus, was created four years ago and has been pivotal in ensuring customer involvement is the golden thread that runs through our organisation and the lens through which everything is seen, developed and delivered.
The volunteer group has been successful in elevating customer voice to develop our services for more than 80,000 LiveWest customers.
After becoming Chair of InFocus, James Masters talks about his new passion for housing and continued drive to help our customers.
James said: “What makes InFocus so rewarding is the people and being able to see the results of our work. It is very rare that LiveWest say ‘sorry, we can’t do that’ to our suggestions.
“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t seeing an end result of what we are doing and have the support that LiveWest gives us.”
James has been a long-standing customer of LiveWest and knew little about social housing before he moved into his home in Plymouth with his wife and children.
He said: “When I moved into social housing, I knew nothing about it. I just thought people paid the rent and associations made the repairs and that was about it. I didn’t know about what went on in the background. I have learnt so much.
“As someone that’s disabled, you can either sit there and do nothing or, you can keep your mind active and do something. I just hope that what I’m doing is improving services for the customers and the organisation.
“That’s always at the forefront of my mind.
“In InFocus, we’ve got people from all different backgrounds. We all live in different schemes and have different elements we want to improve on. It’s a really friendly group.”
Currently, over 40 customers are part of the InFocus group which has developed into three areas: friends of InFocus, service reviews and the policy strategy and performance group.
James explains the service review volunteers meet every week to thoroughly explore different areas of the organisation.
He said: “Sometimes, we identify ways that help LiveWest deliver its services and create efficiencies.
“If there’s a policy being written by LiveWest or it’s due to be renewed, the organisation will then share it with our members and get some feedback."
LiveWest offers a wide variety of opportunities for members to become involved and more actively seek volunteers from a range of backgrounds. You can find out more here.