Complaints against HomeServe fall 40% as business looks to get back on track
COMPLAINTS against Walsall-based home emergency maintenance business HomeServe have fallen by almost 40% in the last quarter as the company looks to get back on track following its mis-selling scandal.
In an interim management statement ahead of today’s AGM, the company – which announced 300 redundancies in May as part of a cost-cutting strategy – said it was making strong progress towards its goal of attracting 200,000 new customers for the current financial year.
The statement said the business was trading in line with expectations. In the first four months of the current financial year it increased UK customer marketing activity and improved its retention rate. It said its International businesses were also continuing to grow customer numbers.
It added that its financial position remained strong with net debt at June 30, 2013 of £26m, compared to £43m at March 31, 2013.
Trading would, it added, be weighted towards the second half of the financial year, reflecting the seasonality of the marketing activity and associated renewals profile.
In the UK it said: “We are making progress towards achieving our target of 0.2m gross new customers during FY2014 with our direct mail, digital and sales through partner call centres marketing activity in line with expectations. We are also on track to achieve our targets of around 1.9m customers at 31 March 2014 and a FY2014 retention rate of around 80%.
“We are continuing to improve our customer service and have now rolled out our improved Plumbing and Drains policy to new and existing customers.
“Customer complaints in the first three months of this financial year are 39% lower than in the same period last year.”
It added that it continued to cooperate with the Financial Conduct Authority following an investigation into the company’s selling activities.
The mis-selling scandal cost the business £24m and lead to 200 job losses last year. The problems began in October 2011 when the company suspended its sales and marketing activity after a business review identified problems over the mis-selling of policies to customers.
