Reflecting on 2023's BIG Get Together

We’ve been gathering customer feedback on this year’s annual residents’ event.

Every year, Curo holds a residents’ event where colleagues get together with customers to listen, learn and share ideas. Here’s a quick look back at this year’s event.

Curo’s BIG Get Together 2023 was held on Saturday 16 September. More than 320 customers helped to come up with ideas for the event, including the venue, date, timings and what would be on offer to customers. These customers liked last year’s concept of the BIG Get Together. They enjoyed the relaxed, sociable and family-friendly event, which also gave them the opportunity to talk to teams from across Curo, share their ideas and hold us to account.

Here’s Victor da Cunha, Curo’s Chief Executive, being interviewed by Curo customer Sue Hicks:

Customers had tickets for either a morning session, running from 10am-1pm, or an afternoon session, from 1.30pm-4.30pm.

Curo colleagues from all our services, from Repairs to Recruitment, had stalls at the event. Each Curo team gave customers a snapshot of the services they offer, providing handouts with useful tips. Customers could take time to talk to them and get answers to their questions.

Here are the thoughts of Jane Tabor, Chair of the Board at Curo:

The turnout was impressive, with more than 450 Curo customers and stakeholders joining us at The Hub at Mulberry Park, Bath. 

Customers heard directly from Daisy Gaunt, Chair of the Customer Oversight Group, Jane Tabor and Victor da Cunha, who talked about:

• The challenges facing Curo
• What improvements have been made in the past 12 months
• How teams are listening to and learning from our customers
• How we’ve performed over the past year
• What the future holds for Curo

Here are the thoughts of Daisy Gaunt, Chair of the Oversight Group at Curo:

Customer also heard directly from Victor da Cunha, Paul Harris, Executive Director of Customer Service; Andrew Snee, Director of Tenancy Compliance & Management; and Lesley Hodges, Director of Customer Contact, who took part in Q&A sessions where they answered questions directly from the live audience. If you couldn’t attend and want to find out what happened during these sessions, check out these videos:

In total, we answered 22 customer questions during the Q&A sessions. The main topics were:

• Moving home
• Applying for adapted properties
• Adoption of roads
• Section 21 notices
• Site access near developments
• Grounds maintenance
• Delays of repairs
• Service charges
• Contact with non-digital customers
• Increasing timescales for complaints
• Tackling damp and mould
• Plans for villages in North East Somerset
• Consulting with local services when building
• Rent increases
• Data collection and data protection
• Reducing waste

We also held two interactive Customer Consultations on our Repairs service. These were hosted by Luke McCreery, Director of Property Safety & Building Maintenance. If you couldn’t attend and want to find out what happened during these sessions, check out the video below:

Curo’s teams were joined by colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police, Avon Fire and Rescue Service, Share and Repair, Mulberry Park Residents Association and our Charity of the Year St Peter’s Hospice, which all gave information on their services. Overall, there were more than 20 stalls at the event, and more than 200 customer interactions and queries were dealt with during the event

• More than 40 new customers registered on VoiceBox at the event.
• Eight new customers expressed an interested in getting more involved with Curo through our frontline engagement groups.
• More than 30 customers expressed their thoughts on renumeration for engaged customers.
• More than 40 customers expressed their thoughts on Consumer Standards consultation.
• The employability stall had a successful day –
  • They introduced The Hub team to two customers and supported them to create covering letters and CVs with a view to getting trial shifts at The Hub.
  • One customer was referred for a shift at The Hub café as a cook.
  • Four customers discussed active applications and roles in Curo.
• Four customers at the event signed up to receive support from our Independent Living Service.
• More than 30 customers were given lightbulb kits.
• More than 20 customers were given emergency water-testing kits.
• The Repairs team were able to help with more than 20 customer queries. The team also responded to an issue on the day of the event day, visiting the customer’s home to investigate an urgent repair.

Here are some photos of the stalls: 

There were also lots of fun activities to enjoy. To encourage more families to join us at the event this year, we introduced exciting activities such as inflatables and obstacle courses, donkey rides, face-painting, bouncy castles and a petting zone with rabbits and goats. There were also lots of games on the service stalls, inspiring young people to find out more about what we do at Curo.

Early feedback from the event showed that 88% of customers were satisfied with the event.

Thank you to the colleagues at The Hub, who helped support and deliver this amazing event for our customers. Customers had the chance to enjoy all The Hub has to offer, including its event space and café. They were also treated to a tasty BBQ with free burgers, hotdogs and hot and cold drinks. 

Curo’s 2023 BIG Get Together was our biggest and most successful annual residents’ event to date. It wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of colleagues and the customers who were there on the day. Thank you to everyone who took part.

We’re also very grateful for all of the fantastic customer feedback we’ve received so far – here are just a few of your comments:

“Thank you so much for Saturday – we had a great time.”

“To those involved with Saturday's event, thank you very much. It was an excellent event”

“It was awesome! A high-end layout and I loved that you had canopies over the team stations, where residents could get questions answered, without getting wet or feeling cold – just healthy fresh air and a relaxed atmosphere.”

“A lovely warm ambience, with very good interaction with Curo colleagues. The staff were friendly and helpful. It was lovely to see activities for children who came with their parents.”

“Overall, a brilliant team effort. Thank you to everyone I spoke to. All questions answered!”

“I loved the event so much. Clearly a lot of effort, time and planning went into it. It was brilliant and my children had the best time. I love that every age group was catered for. Thank you very much.”

If you’d like to help shape our next annual event you can do this by sharing your thoughts HERE.