Inadequate Communcations and Follow-ups

We felt a desire for collaboration ,and observed communication efforts from our administration in the immediate aftermath of the submission of our petition, but the improvement has NOT been sustained. Many tenants complain about not receiving callbacks or messages, or receiving inadequate or confusing responses, without results. It creates a lot of unnecessary frustration.

Serious problems persist in terms of communication, both with tenants and with employees and suppliers. The administration MUST realize that it operates in the housing sector and has legal and moral obligations to the people who live here. It persists in acting with a mix of stubborn lack of responsiveness, and thoughtless haste.

Regional Director Contarini, during our first meeting (12.09.23), informed us that he would already require that every Friday, the coordinators send him, by email, a report of all communications and responses made to tenant requests. Since Regional Director Contarini was not present at our meeting today, it will be imperative, at our next meeting in a month, to discuss this again to assess whether these changes have indeed resulted in an improvement in communications and follow-ups.

The Property Manager takes this into account and only aims for improvement in communications. He says he is the first to suffer the consequences of these poor communications. Tenants are getting frustrated and angry, which seriously bothers him in his work. So, like all of us, he aims for improvement as soon as possible. He has changed the entire telephone system for all members of the administration to more efficient devices. Each employee now has a headset for better handling of phone exchanges. Unfortunately the problem is not technological: it is not caused by mishearing the sounds of the people speaking but not using active listening, empathy and a sense of urgency when discussing problems with the tenants.

Many tenants complain about not receiving callbacks or messages, or receiving inadequate or confusing responses, without results. It creates a lot of unnecessary frustration.

Without addressing this issue, the quality of service will remain inadequate despite other efforts.

• Is there a review process for customer communications, as suggested by Mr. Contarini during the discussion on September 12, 2023?
• Messages sent to the service email remain unanswered—is it an actual department or more of a shared email inbox? If so, should there not be a public relations expert, potentially shared with other Minto properties in Montreal?
• Are there proper procedures in place for managing maintenance and communicating with tenants?
• Are there time resolution goals to measure operational efficiency?
• Is it possible to establish a process to inform the tenant of the status of progress in resolving reported issues? How is information transparency ensured?

• Establish a documented procedure for communications with tenants, including expectations regarding callbacks by a real person (not an automated email) within a fixed timeframe (e.g., 24 hours);
• Include a procedure for initiating access to the tenant's apartment during regular hours, respecting the need to obtain the tenant's approval and providing necessary information to understand the impact of the work (for non-urgent cases);
• Provide training on active listening or other means to deliver clear and informative communications.