Northwards Housing Association
Reduce Calls & Increase Collection Rates with CONTACT
Summary
Northwards Housing Association manages 13,000 City Council homes
in North Manchester and is responsible for a range of services,
from collecting rent to scheduling repairs and making improvements
to the estates. The organization turned to Datasquirt to improve
the timely payment of rent and streamline the process for
scheduling maintenance and repairs. Datasquirt's CONTACT SMS
web-based solution was quickly implemented in several days and
immediately proved successful at providing a non-confrontational
communications channel to remind tenants of rent repayments,
instalments and due dates; along with confirmations of maintenance
and repairs appointments.
Situation
Northwards Housing Association faced several business
challenges:
- Debt collection and payment management. The
organization employed a full contact centre to call and remind
tenants of rent payments, schedule maintenance and repair
appointments. Given that many tenants did not have land-lines, many
were avoiding calls about outstanding rent and calls to mobiles are
more expensive; this ongoing task proved quite challenging and
costly.
- Need to improve communications cost
effectively. Northwards required a solution that did not
require extensive training, new software or hardware. The Housing
Association also was looking to implement consistent and proactive
communications and be respectful of call costs for tenants.
Datasquirt Solution
Northwards Housing Association implemented the Datasquirt
CONTACT SMS solution for:
- SMS reminders to remind council tenants
of rent payment dates
- SMS notifications of overdue
payments
- SMS reminders of maintenance/repairs
appointments
The solution allowed contact centre agents to easily reach all
outstanding debtors and send follow-up reminders, view message
history, determine inactive contact details and also maximize
contact centre time by allowing tenants to reply via SMS.
Benefits
Northwards experienced immediate ROI and benefits from the
CONTACT solution:
- Rapid deployment, easy-to-use tools. Minimal
training: The CONTACT solution took only days to implement and
offers an easy way to reach tenants.
- Improved debt management. CONTACT reduced
failed payments with proactive reminders and made it easier for
tenants to reach the association.
View the
demo or contact us to find out more.
