GLASGOW Housing Association has been recognised for its standards of customer service.

The organisation has been given a Customer Service Excellence award - the UK national standard for public sector organisations overseen by the Cabinet Office.

And its standards are such the group is to be used as an example by the Government to show others best practice.

Executive director of Housing Services at GHA Martin Armstrong said: "We are delighted that the massive improvements which our staff have worked hard to deliver for our tenants in the last year have been recognised with the Customer Service Excellence award.

"We have launched our 24-hour customer service centre and had an overhaul of our customer complaints procedure.

"We've also seen significant improvements in our rent collection, rent arrears and letting performances.

"But we won't rest on our laurels. We are committed to continually improving services and our tenants and factored homeowners can expect more and even better services in the future."

Since it introduced 24-hour one-stop-shop customer service centre this year, it has dealt with more than 240,000 inquiries and taken £9million in payments.

It has also launched a £40m a year repairs and maintenance service to improve value for money and provide better quality, faster repairs.

According to the Cabinet Office's assessors, GHA, which has also invested in revamping areas such as Halley Square in Yoker, is showing best practice in areas including the involvement of all staff in promoting a customer-focused culture, its complaints procedure and 24-hour concierge service at multi-storey flats.

Customer service excellence assessor John Wood said: "The commitment of GHA's frontline staff was impressive.

"The frontline staff really understand what their customers want, and the management team have given them the power to change the organisation and deliver it.

"I spent the vast majority of my time during the assessment with frontline staff and their customers and they all spoke of the great changes taking place.

"Is it all perfect? Of course it's not. But the staff want to know if it's not right for their customers, and their track record over the past year shows that they will fix it."