Service Delivery Process

INTRODUCTION

Home Comfort Retrofits is committed to providing you, our customer, with a first class service and this Customer Service Delivery Process sets out what we will do for you, how we propose to do it and in what timescale. Furthermore, Home Comfort Retrofits is committed to continuously monitoring and improving the quality of service we give to you.

Our aim as a One Stop Shop home energy upgrade service, is to use our skills, knowledge and experience to provide our customers with a first class service at each stage of your home energy upgrade. To achieve this, we have developed a set of processes which are aimed at providing you, our customer, with a professional, courteous and stress free experience, as you undertake your journey to a home energy upgrade.

A home energy upgrade is a big undertaking, not only in terms of the scale of the alterations required, but also in the financial commitment needed to fund the works. At the heart of our service is the belief that a well-designed energy upgrade strategy, clearly and simply communicated to our customers and with appropriate training where necessary, can make the journey, very pleasant, seamless and stress free.

 

Stages of Our One Stop Shop Service

 

Stage 1 – Initial Customer Contact

We can be contacted using the “Contact Us” page on our website, www.homecomfortretrofits.ie, by email at info@homecomfortretrofits.ie, in writing, or by telephone, all of our contact details are available at the top of this document and on the “Contact us” page of our website. When you initially make contact we commit to replying to your enquiry within 3 working days. As part of our reply we will outline the next stage in the process and we may ask you to provide us with some personal and home information details so we can take your enquiry to the next stage. All telephone calls and mail replies will only be from our directly employed staff members, we will not use third parties for communicating with our customers or the public in general.

 

Stage 2 – Scheduling a Home Energy Assessment

If, following your initial contact, you then wish to proceed to stage 2 of the process, we will outline for you the steps involved in a home energy assessment, the costs associated with completing the assessment, what to expect following the assessment and, subject to your agreement, the date and time that the assessment will be carried out. We will confirm, in writing, the details of the assessment as well as the cost, including SEAI Grant amount, for this service. Your home energy assessment will normally take about 2 hours to complete and we will always aim to have it carried out no later than 10 working days from the time of booking.

 

Stage 3 – Completing a Home Energy Assessment

On the day of your home energy assessment, normally 2 people will arrive at your home on our behalf, an independent Building Energy Rating (BER) assessor and a member of our staff. As part of our agreement with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) for the provision of a One Stop Shop service, we are required to use an independent BER assessor to complete the energy assessment of your home. At all times this independent BER assessor will be accompanied by a directly employed member of our staff and our staff member will be carrying identification and contact details.

The assessment will normally take about 2 hours to complete and will involve an inspection and survey of each area inside and outside your home. At the end of this assessment, we will have gathered the information necessary to prepare a BER Certificate, assess the suitability of installing a heat pump and examine the feasibility of installing the various options for your proposed upgrade. In addition, our staff representative will take the opportunity to fully explain the steps involved in the home energy upgrade, outline timeframes for the various works, inform you of any inconvenience to you during the works and most importantly, will answer any questions you may have about any aspect of the process.

Following completion of the home energy assessment, we will, within 10 working days, send you the completed BER Certificate, the Heat Pump Assessment, our recommended measures to improve your BER rating to at least a BER rating of B2 and a quotation of costs to complete these works, as well as any SEAI Grants you would be entitled to receive. Upon receipt of these various documents, you can then choose to progress to stage 4 of our service or you can take the information we have provided and seek recommendations and quotations from any other registered One Stop Shop provider.

 

Stage 4 – Planning Your Home Energy Upgrade

If following receipt of our recommendations and quotation you then wish to use Home Comfort Retrofits to carry out your home energy upgrade, we will contact you to arrange a visit to discuss your works in detail. On the date of this visit, it will be a directly employed member of our staff who will call to your home and they will present identification and contact details to you.

This member of staff will be an expert in home energy upgrades and the aim of their visit will be to discuss the various aspects and elements with you in detail. They will also outline the inconvenience our works will cause, the extent of the changes to your home that will be necessary and the approximate timelines for completion of the works on site. The most important element of their visit will be, the opportunity to outline for you the benefits of the changes we propose, support you in understanding those changes and answer any questions you may have on any aspect of the energy upgrade or our approach and recommendations.

If at the end of this visit, you are satisfied with our approach and recommendations, you will be given a contract for signing and will be made aware of the various terms and conditions attached to the SEAI One Stop Shop home energy upgrade service. Finally, our representative will discuss options for the allocation of a start date to commence your works on site.

 

Stage 5 – Home Energy Upgrade – Pre Commencement Meeting and Follow up

Once a date for commencement of your works has been agreed, contracts have been signed and initial requested payment has been made, we will arrange for you to meet with our Project Manager and your allocated Site Supervisor at your home. The purpose of their visit will be to introduce themselves to you, familiarise themselves with the extent of your works and plan the logistics of your home energy upgrade. They will also begin the process of listing and ordering the materials and equipment necessary for the completion of your home energy upgrade. In addition, they will outline for you, their strategy, sequence and timeline for completing your works and any inconveniences or disruptions there may be, to your normal day to day living while your works are in progress.

Both our Project Manager and your allocated Site Supervisor will be direct employees of Home Comfort Retrofits and will have proof of identity and contact details for you upon their arrival at your home. While our staff are on site, completing your project, your allocated Site Supervisor will be the first point of contact for all aspects of your home energy upgrade. It will be necessary from time to time for our materials and equipment suppliers to visit your home, prior to your works commencing, to measure, assess or survey certain aspects of the project.

When this is the case, your allocated Site Supervisor will inform you of these necessary visits, in advance, and will accompany visitors throughout their time at your home.

 

Stage 6 – Home Energy Upgrade – Commencement and Completion of Works

On the day of commencement of your home energy upgrade works, your site supervisor will be the first person to arrive at your home and will be accompanied by his installation team. He will outline for them the works we intend to undertake and, if you wish, will introduce them to you. Our on-site installation teams will, in most cases be direct employees of Home Comfort Retrofits, but on occasion it may be necessary for us to use a third party for a particular or specialised element of your works.

All our direct employees as well as any third parties representing us will always behave in a dignified and respectful manner towards you, your family members and your home and will be courteous at all times during their time at your home. They will be fully trained in the individual element or elements of the installation they are completing as well as in the best method of installation to minimise disruption to you and your home. It will on occasion, be necessary, to complete elements which will cause disruption and when this is the case, your site supervisor will inform you in advance and get your agreement before commencing any such disruption.

At all times while any of our installation teams are on-site at your home, they will fully comply with all, health & safety, construction and employment legislation including working time directives. Our primary aim at Home Comfort Retrofits is to make the journey through your home energy upgrade as seamless, smooth and stress free as possible for you, your family and your neighbours. All of our staff and any third parties that we engage for your upgrade will be fully aware of our aim to make your journey stress free and will always be mindful of that aim. If at any time during our time on-site at your home, you feel it necessary to raise an issue or concern, please talk to your site supervisor who will make every effort to address your issue or concern.

 

Stage 7 – Home Energy Upgrade – Post Works Quality Control and Handover

At Home Comfort Retrofits we have a directly employed, quality control and inspection team who are independent of our Project Delivery Teams. Their role is to monitor and inspect all of our installation work, complete quality control checks and generally ensure that your works have been carried out fully in line with manufacturer recommendations & directives, to the standard or level required by current legislation or regulation and in all cases to the highest possible standard of installation.

This quality control team will, from time to time during your works, make visits to carry out this role. In addition, when your works are nearing completion they will visit to ensure we have completed all works as required and to test the performance of the various elements of your works. Prior to handover of your completed home energy upgrade, all relevant documentation, instructions, product manuals, certificates and product warranties will be compiled into a single folder and this folder will be given to you at the handover stage. At the same time, a member of our training staff, accompanied by your site supervisor, will take the time to show you how the various elements and equipment we have installed can be operated and controlled. They will provide any necessary training to familiarise you with how to control your systems and ensure that you are confident in their operation. They may, for certain items, request that you don’t make changes to its settings or controls, as such changes may interfere with its most economic or optimal performance. In these cases, they will explain why it is important not to make changes to controls or settings. Finally, during this visit, they will provide you with the contact number for a member of our team, should you need to report or get guidance on any aspect of the operation of your systems, controls or settings.

 

Stage 8 – Auditing and Quality Inspections by SEAI External Auditors

As your upgrade works are being part funded by grants from SEAI, they reserve the right to inspect any aspect of your works for quality control and performance purposes. They employ a team of quality control inspectors to carry out these inspections on their behalf. If your home has been chosen for inspection, they will normally make arrangements in advance, with Home Comfort Retrofits and we will inform you of the date and time they intend to visit and will accompany them on such visits. Both the SEAI inspector and our staff member will have proof of identity and contact details which they will present to you on arrival for your peace of mind.

As your upgrade works are being part funded by grants from SEAI, we are required to share certain customer information with them for grant administration and records reasons. SEAI reserve the right to make contact with you independently of Home Comfort Retrofits and may do so, from time to time, for quality control, research or marketing purposes.

 

Feedback and Comments

At Home Comfort Retrofits we welcome any feedback or comments you may have on any aspect of our service. We are continually reviewing our service with the aim of making it better and your feedback and comments help us with that process. Our contact details are printed at the top of this Customer Service Process and on our website, so please feel free to give us your feedback or comments at any time.

 

Complaints

If at any time you are unhappy with any aspect of the service we have provided or feel it necessary to complain about our service, you can do so using our Customer Charter. This charter has three different levels of action to process your complaint, as briefly outlined below:

• The first is informal and we would hope to resolve most issues at this stage
• The second, more formal approach will be handled by our Customer Services Manager
• The third, an opportunity for you to appeal, if you are not happy with outcomes from stage one or two of our procedure

We review all complaints and outcomes as part of our Management Review and Continuous Improvement Process. The aim of this review is to help us eliminate weaknesses in our service, identify issues which may affect our service delivery and above all, help us to improve our service and your experience. Full details of how to make a complaint is contained in our Customer Charter which is available on our website, www.homecomfortretrofits.ie.

 

What we would ask of you

Central to our aim as a One Stop Shop service provider is a commitment to first class customer service and satisfaction. We greatly value and appreciate the contribution of all our staff in helping us deliver on this commitment and would therefore, ask you, our customers, to treat all our staff with courtesy and respect in all your dealings with them. They have rights in employment law and we want to uphold and respect those rights at all times. We would ask that you don’t resort to aggressive or abusive behaviour, unreasonable demands or unreasonable persistence. If for any reason you feel it necessary to raise an issue please contact your Site Supervisor or our Customer Services Manager whose contact details are available at the top of this document and on our website, www.homecomfortretrofits.ie.

When using our services, we will always inform you of quotations, payments and payment due dates in writing, when we make a request for payment we would ask that you make that payment on or before its due date. This will help us to provide you with a first class service, deliver your upgrade on time and support us in maintaining our reputation with our staff and suppliers.

 

Privacy and Confidentiality

At Home Comfort Retrofits we are fully committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of you and your personal data. All information, both personal and business, provided by you, will be dealt with in total confidence and in a manner that respects your dignity and right to privacy. We will fully comply with current legislation and regulations relating to GDPR and Data Protection and have developed and implemented a GDPR and Data Protection Policy which is available to view on our website, www.homecomfortretrofits.ie.

 

Summary

Home Comfort Retrofits was founded and developed on the principle of delivering a first class customer service and we hope from reading this Customer Service Process, as well as your dealings with us, to date, we are fully delivering on that principle. We believe in and are fully committed to, the aims and benefits of home energy upgrades not only from the Carbon reduction and environmental benefits point of view, but also and more importantly, from an individual customers point of view, the improved comfort, the health benefits as well as the energy and cost saving it brings.