Contact Centre
Connectivity lies at the heart of innovation and efficiency within the UK housing sector.
Housing Sector
Enhancing communication
Technological change over the last few years has seen organisations adopt a ‘digital first’ approach. In many sectors this change has been welcomed, in the housing sector it can threaten to leave people behind, disrupt support systems and isolate those in need of help. While web portals and maintenance request applications have a strong role to play in the current and future relationships between housing associations and their tenants, one of their shortcomings is that certain members of the community – often those in most need of support – are unable to use them. A lack of access to technology, lack of IT literacy or disabilities can prevent tenants from accessing these platforms.
Read our Enhancing communication eBook using the link below to discover why housing associations are looking for ways to offer game-changing customer service via a platform they can trust.
Increased communication and customer service
Tenants should have a choice on how to contact their landlords. For some, face-to-face contact will be preferred, for others contacting landlords via digital channels will be more convenient. Digital transformation will create new platforms and channels that tenants and housing associations can use to facilitate effective communication. This will help to streamline processes for organisations while helping increase tenant satisfaction and confidence.
Housing associations should endeavor to keep as many communication channels open as possible to keep up with lifestyle trends and engage tenants from all walks of life. By allowing your residents to communicate via their preferred method will improve your engagement rates.
Wavenet and 8x8
Wavenet, in partnership with 8x8, helps bring voice, video, chat and contact centre communications together. It’s a single platform for all channels, with cross-platform analytics to streamline reporting and automated surveys to maximise feedback. The 8x8 platform automatically presents agents with tenant information, allowing them to provide a personalised service and make the best suggestions based on past interactions.
8x8 allows for SMS appointment notifications that residents can then confirm or respond to with feedback, 1-way or 2-way individual and bulk messages can be sent quickly and easily, anywhere in the world, performance and delivery receipts can be tracked, and One-Time Passwords (OTP) that customers can use to authenticate their access, can help to enhance data security.
With automation and real-time status update integrations, you will empower your contact centre agents, and have infrastructure to improve the tenant satisfaction measures put in place by the government. This will result in staff providing a better service and the ability to manage and monitor the quality of customer experience, ensure compliance, address inefficiencies, and share contextual information about a tenant or property, informing faster issue resolutions.
To find out more about the contact centre and communications solutions we offer, visit our dedicated 8x8 Partner page.
Cloud-based telephony
Contact centres and telephony as a means of communication between customers, tenants and internal stakeholders remains a high importance. Studies show that even when other options are available, people still pick up the phone when an issue is urgent or complex. This means that although you may be getting fewer calls, the ones you do get are likely to be of greater urgency and take more skill to resolve.
Cloud-based telephony has all the benefits of a traditional contact centre without the legacy pain points. Intelligent routing enables self-service or the ability to switch to alternative channels that enable the correct response be delivered to each interaction. For members of the community who may be left behind by the rapid digital channel shift, and for those who simply want human interaction, these changes can be as transformative as any web portal.
Live video support
From well-being check-ins to reporting repairs, Wavenet can provide your housing organisation with a Video Interaction API that lets you be there, even when you can’t. Being able to interact with people in real-time, problems can be diagnosed or solved remotely, streamlining processes, creating efficiencies, and reducing resource costs. Whether an expert is advising a repair operative, or an outreach worker is checking in, our Live Video Interaction tool enables you to solve issues the moment residents need help. You can also use this solution to virtually onboard new residents and walk them through documentation.
Discover more
How we help housing associations to improve their communication and build fast and supported networks.
Why Wavenet?
In recent years, the housing sector has come under increased scrutiny with key issues in tenant satisfaction, surfacing via the Social Housing White Paper and Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). The issues identified forced the RSH to take action, resulting in tighter tenant satisfaction measures and regulations for the quality of homes, repairs, meaningful engagement with tenants and complaint handling.
Here at Wavenet, we work with housing associations at various levels and locations, from people in the boardroom, to operations and customer service workers, as well as staff in the field. Whatever location, we can help ensure your contact centre is always able to fulfill its role as part of internal and external communications, whilst adhering to GDPR and compliance legislation.
There may be some resistance and barriers towards the change to digital transformation. Restraints such as cost, time, and historical ways of working will need to be overcome. However, there is no doubt that digital transformation is the route to change for propelling the housing sector into the future. It will help make tenant relationships more positive, streamline processes and improve operations’ efficiency and effectiveness, helping your organisation achieve your strategic goals.
Our solutions
