A social landlord and a software company have won a UK leading housing award.
Platform Housing Group, one of the UK’s largest housing associations, and software company Voicescape have won the Best Customer Impact category in the NHMF – National Housing Maintenance Forum – awards.
The winners were unveiled at the National Housing Maintenance Forum Conference on Tuesday 24 January in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.
The entry focused on the social landlord’s employment of the Voicescape Compliance solution resulting in a significant increase in customer’s first-time gas appointments.
Voicescape Compliance helps compliance teams meet their statutory property maintenance requirements; in the case of Platform Property Care, it is being used for annual gas safety checks. In essence, the software automates the process of booking, confirming and rescheduling appointments with customers before they happen. This prevents both non-compliance and the cost of no-access visits.
Prior to using this new technology, the social landlord was booking gas appointments through either letters or texts; if a customer needed to rearrange an appointment it required the customer to make contact.
Lee Vernalls, Assistant Director at Platform Property Care said: “We are absolutely delighted to win the Best Customer Impact Award; it is really a credit to both Voicescape’s powerful digital solution and our colleagues at Platform who have embraced it.
“Voicescape has allowed us to change the way we schedule our gas servicing appointments, moving from a prescriptive approach to a more consultative approach. We are now providing a better service for our customers and ultimately reducing the cost and inefficiency of no access appointments. We can now see, in real time, the customers who have confirmed appointments and those who still require contact. Having this level of information is truly changing how we work.”
Bill Williams, Chief Revenue Officer at Voicescape said: “We’re incredibly proud of our work with Platform Property Care. No access appointments are an age old challenge for the social housing sector which requires a new approach. Not only is compliance a reputational risk, it carries a cost burden. By automating a traditionally labour intensive task, organisations can free up valuable people to have more meaningful and impactful interactions – better for teams and for customers. I am confident the sector wide impact of the Voicescape Compliance solution, as evidenced by the results at Platform Property Care, will be significant.”
In 10 months, the rate of no-access appointments has reduced by 10 per cent; it is hoped that – thanks to this powerful digital solution – this figure will continue to rise.
Lee concluded : “Voicescape has provided us with a faster, more proactive approach to engaging with our customers and having quality conversations to meet their requirements. Our access rates have increased, allowing us to book appointments that suit the customers whilst also managing our compliance.”
For further information please contact Lee Vernalls, Assistant Director at Platform Property Care at Lee.Vernalls@Platformhg.com.
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