Decant.

verb

1. to pour (a liquid, such as wine) from one container to another, especially without disturbing any sediment

2. (transitive) to rehouse people while their homes are being rebuilt or refurbished

Unfortunately, there has been an increase in the number of temporary moves at work over the last week due to severe weather warnings and torrential downpours experienced across the east and west midlands. Its also my word of the week as the Housing Ombudsman has published a paper on key lessons for the sector relating to severe maladministration decisions on temporary accommodation when repair works are required.

So how can landlords prevent an unfortunate set of circumstances from snowballing further?

Well quite simply, know your customer. Household composition, previous contact history and communication preferences, vulnerabilities and adjustments, consider isolating factors and understand support networks/resources -continually assess and evaluate impact. Ask, review and update. None of these elements are set in stone, so we need to both acknowledge and adapt to changing customer circumstances to maintain high levels of engagement, empathy and understanding throughout the process.

Landlord initiated 'decant' projects affecting a number of homes and people will always have a dedicated lead(s), a well thought out communication plan and established daily/weekly standups to monitor and progress actions outstanding through to resolution. But a smaller number of unexpected decants …managed locally …and in isolation… can cause dysfunctional creep within an organisation leaving customers feeling abandoned and without a voice that can be heard. Colleagues need a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities within the process when both planned and unexpected circumstances arise.

Who, where, what, why and when – knowledge information management needs to be accessible, enabling visibility and accountability for those directly and indirectly involved and/or impacted. Information needs to be timely and accurate to enable improved opportunities for collaboration and problem solving to minimise the prospect of emerging complaints. But how can we mature our data to get it into a predictive state so that we can identify and predict when these scenarios might occur…Prevention rather than cure? Wouldn’t that be something.

Does the non-housing definition of a decant have any relation to our housing processes when temporary moves are needed? What else would be the disturbed sediment affecting customer experience?

I’m off to mull this over a beer… no decant required.