SOCIAL HOUSING CUSTOMER SERVICE
Delivering the experience your customers deserve
Customer growth in housing association terms, refers to the growing number of residents in a developing portfolio and is a sign of success. But providing a customer experience that harbours loyalty is key to sustained growth and is a challenge that UK housing associations have faced for years.
Guided by housing association customers, our understanding of the industry reflects the challenges faced on a daily basis. To achieve great social housing customer service, digital strategies must be aligned with the goals of all areas of the business. It is not unusual for customer service departments and portfolio growth to act independently within a single housing association. However, it is the data from the customers that should guide the decisions made elsewhere. Therefore providing great customer service with the means to analyse, deconstruct and utilise the data is the key to moving forward and enabling success.
The omnichannel experience
Advancements in technology has heightened customer expectations across all industries. For housing associations this means it is no longer viable to offer just one means of communication to residents, and issue resolution is now an official KPI.
In reflection, customer service should be at the top of housing association agendas, and the way to achieve great customer service which results in loyalty and longevity, is to provide the customer with a means with which to communicate complaints, in which ever medium they choose.
An omnichannel contact centre provides residents with the ability to raise a support ticket, check for updates, or to speak to somebody, via an online portal, an app, via telephone, and even by using a chat session hosted on the association’s website.
The omnichannel approach to contact centres is the first step in gathering data and appeasing customers.
The data behind the service
By providing customer facing employees with resident data, call times are slashed, resulting in faster resolution, improved employee productivity and happier residents. When a customer initiates a call, analysts need to see the caller’s history. This removes the need for repeated questions and invokes a sense of trust.
By using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), accurate data can be obtained even before the customer reaches an analyst. Again, this reduces call time, and by implementing ML, can even resolve calls without the need for human intervention.
The modern world is fast paced. Residents do not have the time to spend reporting leaks or breakages. Expectations are high, and the best way to meet those high expectations is to use the data gleaned from an omnichannel contact centre to provide a first class service.
The service behind the data
Data analytics is the new gold that digital business are using to their advantage. With intelligence built into every aspect of customer service, information can be fed through as far as the design stages of new developments. The ability to analyse trends, identify risks and communicate via an omnichannel presence, provides housing associations with the advantage over competitors that are still mining data manually to spot weakness in their strategies.
Both historic and real-time data can be used to provide a service that shines, allowing housing associations to communicate issues before the customer is even aware.
Providing residents with exceptional customer service will increase engagement. By embracing a digital platform with inherent intelligence, data analytics, AI and ML, customers become advocates, loyalty is improved, and resident longevity is increased.
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