Showing posts with label Resident. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Resident. Show all posts

Tuesday, 23 April 2024

Insecurity

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

It was a low-key announcement last week from the UK ICO (Information Commissioner Office) that caught my eye, but an important one for the socialhousing sector

They issued a reprimand to the Clyde Valley Housing Association in Lanarkshire, Scotland after personal information was accessible to other residents on an online customer portal. In fairness CVH are not the only provider in the news recently. Lets not forget that digital self-service for residents is essential.

It was stated that it was a resident user on the first day of use, that discovered they could easily access other tenant data, including documents and personal information.

Other residents reported the same issue and due to lack of escalation, the situation continued for five days. The danger of criminals (or just optimists) obtaining personal information for nefarious purposes is real and can easily lead to identity theft.

This situation was most likely caused by a number of factors, all of which could have easily been detected and mitigated quite easily.

More attention to secure design would have been a start. By the looks of the login it uses a relatively standard turnkey resident portal with a design layer from a third party web partner over the top. This is a very popular strategy and can be executed very securely in most cases. It does however need good design considerations.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is an essential stage, one that often has scant attention for many implementations. It often needs to be lengthy and detailed which puts many organisations off. Also, it should not be ignored that most staff have never had to thoroughly test software before. Some coaching is needed with inexperienced staff, where skilled testing staff (or staff that have tested before) are not involved.

I have worked with many organisations to build UAT plans for them and produce some training materials to help them understand the process and execute it well, creating audit for each test.

Lastly, engaging a third party security organisation to look at access, do some penetration testing and other probing of the solution, to determine any flaws and means of accessing inappropriate data, is recommended. Browser based solutions open many more vulnerabilities than many older legacy applications and are best checked over more frequently, at least annually.

The above precautions should also be repeated at each upgrade or application of patches. While this all sounds like hard work, its all about keeping secure. Applying upgrades is also part of that. Leaving too long between upgrades potentially introduces new vulnerabilities and may also violate your contract with suppliers. As for the latter, make best use of their help desk services if you are paying annual maintenance for them. Often working as a Critical Friend, not enough is made of this and relationships with suppliers can be poor (& get poorer!).

Where you may have built portals internally and they are home-grown by your ICT team, remember they then need to take on these responsibilities, as essentially what they have built will be one of a kind.

I hope my notes here provide some takeaways and help you avoid anything similar happening in your organisation.

Full ICO article text here.

Acutance Consulting can help you with Self-Service, UAT & staying secure, 
please just get in touch , for a chat over a brew 😋

       Related Post: After Covid, are we embracing the New Normal ?

 

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*** Join the discussion with Claire & Aiden ***

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Metronomy – InsecurityMetronomy – Insecurity.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.


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Wednesday, 9 November 2022

Processed Complaints

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

Following on from my blogpost last month, focused on how residents can effectively raise issues and complaints effectively, how should Social and Council Housing best effectively resolve/conclude them effectively.  

Reaction to my previous post prompted a quite a few residents to share their experiences of complaints with their landlords on Twitter, a few can be accessed here  and here.

Complaints and service fails will always happen, that’s life. As I reminded a supplier this last week, ‘nothing in life is ever 100%’, so don’t kid yourself or customers, that you are. When things go wrong, they invariably cost way more to rectify than they might have just to get the issue right in the first place. That’s why complaints should be embraced as a valuable means to improve, rather than buried as dirty embarrassments.

One of the biggest initial issues that residents have with complaints is how their Council or RSL will handle them and how to initiate one. If you are a Social Housing provider, is your defined policy easy to find on your website and can you initiate one from that page? We do tend to do most things from the internet these days, but do we also offer an Omnichannel approach, where residents can phone or walk in too, initiating one?

For example, YourHousing close to me in the North West of England offer good details on online Complaint/compliments (their capitalisation) here.  

A refreshingly open approach 😉

I particularly like the Orbit Housing Group open approach on complaints here, which is also quite candid on numbers being received. The data nerd in me however, would like an ‘Other’ section at the bottom of that table, mentioning the missing 18.07%. How many other RSLs would be comfortable sharing their stats on their website? I haven't seen many.

Lets think about those initial complaints coming in then. If a compliant (or complement) can be submitted via a webpage, where does it initially get recorded? Ideally it should become a CRM interaction, possibly at that stage the start/update of a ‘case’ and initiate a workflow task, for a member of staff to action. If that initial request just goes into an email box (or possible spam if colourful or emotional language used), it might take days to progress/respond to, or start dealing with these. Where good quality self-service is available, ability to submit complaints (or related incidents etc including images/video) against a logged in resident, is of great advantage.

Inside your RSL, once successfully recorded or converted from a CRM interaction, how easy does your systems and processes allow easy access to staff who should have access, to have audited view/update of the whole complaint timeline? What residents might call 'their case notes'. This can be easily supported digitally by most well configured modern integrated Housing Management Systems, or a hybrid of HMS and CRM platform such as Microsoft Dynamics365, Salesforce or Netcall. Some competent standalone complaint solutions are available, although the lack of integration and ability to navigate a 360degree view of the resident, can severely blunt its overall effectiveness. Housing finance staff might be struggling to progress arrears, while being totally unaware of a significant complaint in play elsewhere. Better integration, including to document management (EDRMS) recording video, images, WAV files etc, ties everything together. Repairs are generally the biggest issue area and links of a case to offending Works Orders or Capital Works, helps present a high level view.

Once received we would hope that communication will be key, in keeping the complainant informed at all times. A good internal process should set targets for different types of complaints and this should be visible/shared with residents, to know what to expect. This is one area that clearly often falls down, leads to excessive additional requests in from residents and growing stress and frustration. If systems are set up correctly, much of the communication process can be automated via SMS, email, managing the complaint progression via intelligent self-service etc.

Recognise that residents trying hard to find out what is happening to their complaint and seeing very little in responses back, can easily appear vexatious (and unfortunately be sometimes labeled as such).

The good example below is again from Orbit setting resident expectations 

Where next will the resident complaint go?

Above, a target of ten days, with updates every few days, puts residents in no doubt what the RSL is aiming to do. However what is to be done internally if staff are not keeping to targets? Most HMS/case management/CRM solutions enable automatic escalation of tasks and diversion, on occasions of annual leave/sickness etc. Often these are not correctly configured or enforced internally, email often being used instead. With the latter, tasks can easily be lost, too many staff cc:d in, often everyone assumes (wrongly) ‘everyone else is dealing with it’. So, switch these features on and let staff know all updates belong on the case, not via email. Case time & costs might well also be collated.

So, assuming the case progresses and the issue gets resolved satisfactorily, how does the RSL learn from the experience? Overall costs to rectify quite often are many times the original cost of getting the issue right in the first place, so its crucial that from each complaint, we analyse, learn and work to tweak wider processes, often with the whole journey in the room, to reduce recurrence.

Sample changes I have seen from working with clients over 20 years around complaints, have been:

  • Improvements to staff training and experience going forward / mentoring. Building even better relationships with residents improves outcomes for all
  • Enhancements to initial repairs diagnosis routines and scripting to capture additional information for more complex repairs, reducing costs, minimising follow-up visits
  • Better communication when repairs span multiple visits, involve pre-inspections, jobs on hold etc
  • Introduction of before & after photos for repairs, to better monitor operative trade quality, including photos for evidencing no-access carding
  • Improved presentation of service charges and info on leaseholder billing, introduction of automated module to calculate charges and enhancement of web portal to reduce manual queries and widen transparency
  • Introduction of targeted estate/scheme inspections/walkabouts based on complaint hotspots for ASB. EG abandoned vehicle/dumping hotspots
  • Enhancement of specialist and targeted Tenant participation groups, involving residents earlier, to nip specific issues ‘in the bid’ before they become more serious and costly to rectify. Trusting residents to be our remote sensors
  • Where complaints have initiated change that residents should notice, share it via quarterly newsletters, Facebook pages, twitter or WhatsApp groups. If the RSL has fixed stuff, tell residents, so they know about the changes that are being trialed


At any point in the process, a FOI (Freedom Of Information) request could be made by a complainant OR if the case cannot be amicably resolved, all the details of the case might need to be collated or exported. Where existing solutions may struggle to achieve this, it puts the RSL at a disadvantage. Possibly residents have better access to this information than the landlord, particularly some time after the original incident occurred. An absolute gift for companies that assist residents with Disrepair claims.

Good reporting from the case management system is key. This might include KPIs such as average time taken to resolve, numbers and categories of complaints received, cost to process and cost of exit fix. Outputs must allow cases to be easily monitored by stage, owner, on-time/approaching late/late and current status. Regular automated reminders to staff and management from the solution should be available, to keep cases moving, with easy management insight

I have intentionally covered a lot of ground here, giving some food for thought I would hope for many Social and Council Housing providers. Some clients I have worked with have been using most of these techniques and systems for some time. Others have virtually none, or manage relatively well with manual spreadsheets etc. But that is a rarity.

If your organisation encounters many cases going to local councillors, MPs or the Ombudsman, then clearly there’s a problem. Equally, if complaint cases creates many residents labelled as vexatious or ‘red flagged’ with warnings, it’s more likely that problems lie more with you than your residents. Look again at your internal processes and communication, just small tweaks might make a great deal of difference.    

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation with complaint solutions, 
please just get in touch, for a friendly chat over a brew & some Hobnobs 😋.

       Related Post: How accurate is the info in our CRM systems? 


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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Kasabian – Processed BeatsKasabian – Processed Beats.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.


File Under: #HomesForBritain,#HousingDAY,#InternetOfTenants,#Shout,#UKHousing, 07854655009, 1st Touch,1stTouch,360,365Agile,3squared,4Js, ACL,ALMO,AMS,AX,Aareon,Abritas,Academy,Accuserv,Accuserve,Active Housing,ActiveH,ActiveHousing,Acutence,Advanced,Affinity,Agile,Agile365,AirWatch,Alfresco,Alignment,Allpay,Amazon Web Services,Anite,Apex,App,ArchHouse,Archouse,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Associates,Aurora,Average IT Costs,AWI SX Integration Toolkit,AWS, BI,BO,BPR,BancTec,BigChange,Blockwise,BluTek,Bluebox,Blueprint,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning,Business Process Review,Business social networking, CACI,Capita One Housing,CBL,CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,CEDRM,CHICS,CHR,CIH,CMS,COA,CORE,CPL,CRM,CRM2013,CRS,CTI,CTX,Cadcorp,Capita,CapitaOne,Capita One,Capital Management,Cashflow,Castle,Castleton,Castleton Technology,Cedar Open Accounts,Cerrus,Change,Charges,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, Citrix,Civica,Civica CTX,Civica Cx,Civica Genero,Civica Saffron,Clearview,Clik,Cloud Dialogs,CloudDialogs,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Commontime,Community Reward Services,Company,Competitive Dialogue process,Component Accounting,Consilium,Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Consultants,Contact Manager,Context,Contractor Systems,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,Crystal Reports,Customer Relationship Management,Cx, DRS,Deeplake,Designer Software,Development Systems,Director,Document,Documotive,Docuware,Dynamic AI,DynamicAI,Dynamics 365,D365,Dynamics365, ECMK,EDM,EDRMS,ERP,ESRI,Elmhurst,Enghouse Interactive,England,English,EnterpriseBI,Estatecraft,Etive,Exhibition,Exponential-e, Facebook,Factorwise,Field Service management,Finance,Financial Systems,Financials,Footprint,Forms,Freezes,Fusion, Gas Tag,G-Cloud,GCloud,GDPR,GGP,GIS,GasTag,Genero,GeoSolveIT,Getting best from,GoTonySmith,Grasp,Grip,Group Apex, HFI (Housing Financials interface),HG,HRA,Hardware,Hitachi Systems,Hitex,HomeMaster,Hometeam,HouSys,House,Housemark,Housemark survey,Housing,Housing Contact,Housing Group,Housing Insight,Housing Management,Housing Management Consultant,Housing Partners,Housing Portfolio Management System,Hub Asset Management,Homeswapper,Housing jigsaw, Housing Support Pro,HousingIT,HousingSupportPro,HyperOptic, IMS,IT,IT Budget,IT Training,ITIL,Impact Response,In,In4,In4Systems Promaster,InfoBoss,InHouse,InMotion,InMotion2015,InMotion2016,InfoBoss,Infoflow,Information,Information Technology,Information@Work components,Informix,Innovation, Informetis,Inphase,Inside Housing,Insight,Internet Portal,Internetalia,Invu,Ireland,Irish,itLab, Keyfax,Keylogic,Keypera,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera,Keynamics, Landlord,Ledgers,Linkedin,Liquid,Locality,Localz, M3,MAVIS,MD,MDM,MI,MIS,MIS-AMS,MISCS,MRI,MS Dynamics,MRI,MS Dynamics CRM2011,Microsoft365,microsoft 365,MWL,Management,Management Server,Manifest,Measuring,Mebus,More IQ,MoreIQ,Microsoft Dynamics 365,Microsoft dynamics GP 2013,Miracle,MobileIron,Mobysoft,Monopoly board images and pictures,Montal,Mr Void,MriEngage,MrVoid,MoreIQ NDL,NINTEX,NINTEX workflow,NPS,NPS ASSIST,NPS Housing,NPS Job Manager Mobile,NROSH,Natural,Neighbourhoods and Communities,Nintexworkflow,Northgate,Northgate Codeman,Northgate Public Services,Notice, OA,OGC Buying Solutions,OJEU Limits,ORS,Ohms,OmFax,Omniledger,One,OneAdvanced,OneServe,Open source,OpenContractor,OpenHousing,Opti-time,Options,Optitime,Oracle,Orchard,Outsource and outsourcing,OutSystems, PIMMS,PIMSS Data,PM,PRINCE2,Paloma,Pamwin,PanConnect,People Value,Peoplevalue,PfH,Pick,PlanForm,Planned maintenance,Plenfific,Plus,Portfolio Management System,PowerObjects,Pro,Pro-Points,Prodo,Progress,Promaster,Propoints,Proval,Providers,Pyramid, QL,QuantSpark,Qube,QLX,Qlikview,QueryView,Queryview reporting,Quiss, RM865,ROCC,RPs,RSL,Rave,ReAct,Reality,RedkiteCRM,Red Olive,Registered,Registered Social,Rent Increase,RentSense,RentSenseLite,Repairfinder,Reporting,Reports,RobotAutomation,Rocket, Salesforce,Salesforce.Org,SAP,SASSHA,SDM,SHBVN,SM,SOTI,SP,SQL,SQL Open Housing,SQL Reporting,SQL Server,Saffron,Safron,Saturn,Scenario,Scotland,Scots,Scottish,Scout,Sequoa,Serengeti,Serros,Server,Service,Services,Servitor,Sharepoint,Sim,SimPro, Simdel,Simdell,Slash and Burn,Social Housing ICT,Social Housing Software Applications,Social Media,Software,Software solutions,Spotlight Service,Spotlightservice,Star rating,Stores and Stock,Strategic,SunAccounts,Sunguard,Surveys,Streetwise, Swordfish,Sx3,Symatrix Human,System alignment,Systems,Systemwise, T-Files,TEAMS,TED,TFiles,TP Tracker,TSG,Tagish Casework,Tagra,Task,TAIM,Technologies (India) PVT Limited,Telecetera,Template,Terminal Services,That,Three Star,Tilt,TiltAffinity,Today,Tony Smith,Tony Smith That Housing IT Guy,TonySmith that housing IT,TonySmithHou,TonySmithHousing, ,TonySmithHousingITguy,Total,Total Mobile,Totalmobile,Trace,Tribal,Twitter, U2,UC,UK,UK Housing,Ukhousing,UniClass Enterprise,Unidata,United 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Wednesday, 26 October 2022

No Complaints

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

Most folk who read this blog know I work with SocialHousing ICT systems, projects and procurement. I have never been to Sheffield Hallam or Stirling Uni to do one of their rightly recognised excellent degrees and Masters in housing, although met many professions who have and asked me if that’s where much of my knowledge came from.

That is flattering, although the 25+ years I have had the pleasure to work in the sector, has been my ‘apprenticeship’ in absorbing the ‘knowledge’ and terminology that underpins its systems and processes. I am constantly surprised when Council or Social Housing residents reach out to me on Twitter, in the pub or at the barbers (no joke, I helped one of the managers, who had struggled with her unsatisfactory RSL repairs for over 3 years).

With that knowledge I am always happy to try to help and I thought it was time I put a blog together about the tenants/leaseholder view of the complaints or reporting process. For balance, also because I procure it and implement it week-in, week-out, I will put together a blogpost from the opposite side of the fence too, next month. The second one will explore what’s available for RSLs to manage and better expedite complaints, and achieve better outcomes. So, please stay tuned for that!

So, lets start with some examples, some of which might be spookily familiar to readers in the sector.  I wont be naming & shaming, ITV seem to have already cornered that market with repair failures. These are a big originator of complaints. Big cities are the targets for firms of ambulance chasers, left with looking for new low hanging fruit, after the ending of PPI claims, now moving into Repair Disrepair claims. Many of these are pursued right near the end of the 3 or 6 year claim period, as there is greater chance of success then. Some outfits provide a convenient 24 hour chatbot/webchat to help get a claim/complaint started. These are on the rise, although most issues I help with, come straight from residents. I bet many RSL’s reading these still don’t have a chatbot. Do you?

The nice lady at the barbers was with a large local provider and there had been six attempts to rectify a leaking rear secure patio door and had damages to three carpets due to repairs not being properly completed.

In another example, a Council resident had submitted numerous formal complaints that had been mislaid, ignored and substantial personal data had been lost too.

In a third case, leaseholders are seeing charges made, unrelated or explained to repairs said to have been completed and apportioned, without appropriate consultation.

In a fourth case, resident has attempted on 5 occasions to report a repairs issue, no evidence of logging had taken place and on the 6th call, resident was labelled as ‘Vexatious’ and told not to contact the provider or housing officer again.

Repairs issues are behind a significant number of complaints and there is often confusion what is an acceptable repair, how recharges and priorities work, to set expectations. While the days of ‘Tenant Handbooks’ has gone, not all landlords in my experience, have this info easily accessible on websites or self-service.

The first question I generally ask, is if the resident has an audit trail/timeline of their interactions and if they received a CRM call or Request/contact interaction ID in reply. Many residents do not have that timeline and its really key for the complainant to have the facts clearly documented. If complaining/logging anything, residents always ask for that ID number & note the staff member who you spoke to. If completing a request via self-service (if its available), not the repair/request number shown on the webpage reply and any appointment made/requested.

It’s a sad fact that often residents have a much better set of facts, than their Social Housing landlord. That can seriously work in the complainants benefit.

My second piece of advice is when a problem arises, write a clear and concise letter, stating dates/times, ID’s, staff names if known, the nature of the issue, with calm language. Key is to give the landlord 14 days to respond, solve it in 14 days and what would be a reasonable fix from the resident viewpoint. Emails can be used, although a registered posted or personally handed in letter is preferred. Where the landlords staff such as housing officers, or asset surveyors etc are involved, consider inviting them in for a chat about your issues, over a brew & a biscuit. Building bridges for the price of a cup of tea & a macaroon can only do you good.

Keep lines of dialog active, respect each other, be kind but firm, but note all details of course!

Any continued churn/turnover of staff adds further frustration. This should not be any excuse for the complaint being coherently progressed. This is the landlords problem, it shouldn’t become that of the residents.

Thirdly, understand and use the declared landlord escalation path, documenting all interaction with it. Better councils and RSLs, will provide this process on the website, or it can generally be formally requested. Typically, this will move a complaint each stage up to a supervisor, manager, director etc. This must be exhausted before ombudsman may get involved. If the resident has a more complete timeline, there is a greater chance of success with the ombudsman. If this is Council Housing or ALMO stock, often getting a local ward councillor involved can help too.

A complaint going through a number of stages, is harrowing, frustrating and time consuming for residents. For the RSL or Council, this is an expensive business. Many repair issues for example, perhaps involve £100 - £350 of spend to get right, by the time multiple staff are involved in a complaint about it might cost several thousand pounds, of landlord effort to resolve.

Reducing/eliminating complaints is good for everyone, particularly residents.

Check back soon, for the second part of this subject

If we at Acutance Consulting can help your organisation, 
please just get in touch, for a friendly chat over a brew. 

I will bring plenty of Chocolate Digestives ☕😋

       Related Post: How well do your CRM & other systems prevent/reduce waste in your organisation? 


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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Beck – No ComplaintsBeck – No Complaints.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.


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Monday, 9 August 2021

Open the Door to Self-Service

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

I get involved in a lot of Social Housing digital plans and strategies, particularly around self-service. Often I meet newbies to the process, who seem to think 90-95% take up of tenant self-service is possible, and others who basically are a little afraid to put a figure on it. ‘Just an improvement’.

Would that be enough and would it really motivate staff to ‘convert’ tenants to self-servers, if there was no target at all?

Now I think it’s very important to have great self-service tech with practical usability that means residents will choose it as a preferable channel to interact.

We choose Amazon and EasyJet because it works and it’s efficient. In other ways we have channel shifted because we were driven to by sticks, not carrots. We stopped using cheques because the banks stopped filling stations processing them, moving to cheaper credit/debit cards. We stopped walking into bank branches and using internet banking, because all the branches turned into coffee joints and wine bars.

I feel we can have better carrots in the sector, than harder sticks. My experience of suppliers in the sector, such as Hallnet with their Active Housing brand, show that done well, those carrots can be extremely tasty. I was telling someone just last week a story of a visit I made a few years back to Torus Housing Group and an experience in their foyer, in St Helens.

It was a busy morning and I joined a queue of seven residents, trying to get to reception. During the lengthy wait, the tenant in front of me started to chat with the guy in front and asked him, “what he was here for today?”. He replied he was “reporting a repair” and the other chap told him, “you don’t have to come here to do that, why not do it online?”. In the following 3 minutes, I watched him help his neighbour sign up, log his repair and then he was out the door!

So that was a story of carrots so good, residents were sharing them among themselves! How good would that be?

I recently had a chat with a contact at Active Housing, who provide the leading one-stop fully integrated self-service solution Active Portal, about how practically, Housing Providers can better introduce the self-service tech, to the benefit of their residents. They shared that comms is very important, as is involving your tenant panel and internal key stakeholders in the project, to ensure it’s easy to use and hits the spot of what residents want from self-service. At every touch point with the organisation, self-service as a time saver needs to be introduced. Where staff interact, rather than taking away a request to progress, they should be working as evangelists, to introduce residents to self-service, where they have smartphones or similar means to take advantage of it.


If you are like me, everyone or any company I ever work with, I go to their website first. Active Housing provide an easy means of picking up this traffic and are able to provide a short tailored video, for organisations to introduce the benefits of self-service to their customers. Check out this one here from one provider and their new responsive webportal MyPhoenix - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i1n8U8eyQ8

Another really effective technique recommended by Active Housing, is to encourage clients to adopt an inbound call campaign. This is when a tenant calls (about anything at all) and the call handler signs them up for an account over the phone. ActiveHousing’s portal admin section has full support for this and the user still sets all their own login credentials to ensure security. It sounds old fashioned, but given they have to take the call anyway and organisations often have data issues which can prevent registration (eg incorrect Date of Birth’s), it's a proven but simple technique. 



Thinking back to my Torus experience, an important takeaway to share is that a degree of internal staff attitude and culture shift will be necessary. Reassure your Customer Services team that smaller might be better. Done well, this will cement behaviours for staff and reveal the benefits for a greater number of residents   



Checkout the best in self-service, with integration to multiple systems on the Hallnet Active Housing website here: https://www.activehousing.co.uk/

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Related Post: Effective Self-Service, a no brainer for all customers these days ?


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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Blues Cousins - Open the doorBlues Cousins - Open the door.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.


File Under: #HomesForBritain,#HousingDAY,#InternetOfTenants,#Shout,#UKHousing, 07854655009, 1st Touch,1stTouch,360,365Agile,3squared,4Js, ACL,ALMO,AMS,AX,Aareon,Abritas,Academy,Accuserv,Accuserve,Active Housing,ActiveH,ActiveHousing,Acutence,Advanced,Agile,Agile365,AirWatch,Alfresco,Alignment,Allpay,Amazon Web Services,Anite,Apex,App,ArchHouse,Archouse,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Associates,Aurora,Average IT Costs,AWI SX Integration Toolkit,AWS, BI,BO,BPR,BancTec,BigChange,Blockwise,BluTek,Bluebox,Blueprint,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning,Business Process Review,Business social networking, CACI,Capita One Housing,CBL,CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,CEDRM,CHICS,CHR,CIH,CMS,COA,CORE,CPL,CRM,CRM2013,CRS,CTI,CTX,Cadcorp,Capita,CapitaOne,Capita One,Capital Management,Cashflow,Castle,Castleton,Castleton Technology,Cedar Open Accounts,Cerrus,Change,Charges,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, Citrix,Civica,Civica CTX,Civica Cx,Civica Genero,Civica Saffron,Clearview,Clik,Cloud Dialogs,CloudDialogs,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Commontime,Community Reward Services,Company,Competitive Dialogue process,Component Accounting,Consilium,Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Consultants,Contact Manager,Context,Contractor Systems,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,Crystal Reports,Customer Relationship Management,Cx, DRS,Deeplake,Designer Software,Development Systems,Director,Document,Documotive,Docuware,Dynamic AI,DynamicAI,Dynamics 365,D365,Dynamics365, ECMK,EDM,EDRMS,ERP,ESRI,Elmhurst,Enghouse Interactive,England,English,EnterpriseBI,Estatecraft,Etive,Exhibition,Exponential-e, Facebook,Factorwise,Field Service management,Finance,Financial Systems,Financials,Fixflow,Footprint,Forms,Freezes,Fusion,Firmstep, Gas Tag,G-Cloud,Goss Interactive,GCloud,GDPR,GGP,GIS,GasTag,Genero,GeoSolveIT,Getting best from,GoTonySmith,Grasp,Grip,Group Apex,Granicus,GOSS HFI (Housing Financials interface),HG,HRA,Hardware,Hitachi Systems,Hitex,HomeMaster,Hometeam,HouSys,House,Housemark,Housemark survey,Housing,Housing Contact,Housing Group,Housing Insight,Housing Management,Housing Management Consultant,Housing Partners,Housing Portfolio Management System,Hub Asset Management,Homeswapper,Housing jigsaw, Housing Support Pro,HousingIT,HousingSupportPro,HyperOptic, IMS,IT,IT Budget,IT Training,ITIL,Impact Response,In,In4,IEG4,In4Systems Promaster,InfoBoss,InHouse,InMotion,InMotion2015,InMotion2016,InfoBoss,Infoflow,Information,Information Technology,Information@Work components,Informix,Innovation, Informetis,Inphase,Inside Housing,Insight,Internet Portal,Internetalia,Invu,Ireland,Irish,itLab,Illumar, Keyfax,Keylogic,Keypera,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera, Landlord,Ledgers,Linkedin,Liquid,Locality,Localz,Liberty,LowCode, M3,MAVIS,MD,MDM,MI,MIS,MIS-AMS,MISCS,MRI,MS Dynamics,MRI,MS Dynamics CRM2011,Microsoft365,microsoft 365,MWL,Management,Management Server,Manifest,Measuring,Mebus,Microsoft Dynamics 365,Microsoft dynamics GP 2013,Miracle,MobileIron,Mobysoft,Monopoly board images and pictures,Montal,Mr Void,MriEngage,MrVoid,MRI Socialhousing,MRISocialhousing, NDL,NINTEX,NINTEX workflow,NPS,NPS ASSIST,NPS Housing,NPS Job Manager Mobile,NROSH,Natural,Neighbourhoods and Communities,Nintexworkflow,Northgate,Northgate Codeman,Northgate Public Services,Notice,Netcall,Netcall Liberty,NEC Software Solutions OA,OGC Buying Solutions,OJEU Limits,ORS,Ohms,OmFax,Omniledger,One,OneAdvanced,OneServe,Open source,OpenContractor,OpenHousing,Opti-time,Options,Optitime,Oracle,Orchard,Outsource and outsourcing,OutSystems, PIMMS,PIMSS Data,PM,PRINCE2,Paloma,Pamwin,PanConnect,People Value,Peoplevalue,PfH,Pick,PlanForm,Planned maintenance,Plenfific,Plus,Portfolio Management System,PowerObjects,Pro,Pro-Points,Prodo,Progress,Promaster,Propoints,Proval,Providers,Pyramid, QL,QuantSpark,Qube,QLX,Qlikview,QueryView,Queryview reporting,Quiss, RM865,ROCC,RPs,RSL,Rave,ReAct,Reality,RedkiteCRM,Red Olive,Registered,Registered Social,Rent Increase,RentSense,RentSenseLite,Repairfinder,Reporting,Reports,RobotAutomation,Rocket, Salesforce,Salesforce.Org,SAP,SASSHA,SDM,SHBVN,SM,SOTI,SP,SQL,SQL Open Housing,SQL Reporting,SQL Server,Saffron,Safron,Saturn,Scenario,Scotland,Scots,Scottish,Scout,Sequoa,Serengeti,Serros,Server,Service,Services,Servitor,Sharepoint,Sim,SimPro, Simdel,Simdell,Slash and Burn,Social Housing ICT,Social Housing Software Applications,Social Media,Software,Software solutions,Spotlight Service,Spotlightservice,Star rating,Stores and Stock,Strategic,SunAccounts,Sunguard,Surveys,Streetwise, Swordfish,Sx3,Symatrix Human,System alignment,Systems,Systemwise, T-Files,TEAMS,TED,TFiles,TP Tracker,TSG,Tagish Casework,Tagra,Task,TAIM,Technologies (India) PVT Limited,Telecetera,Template,Terminal Services,That,Three Star,Today,Tony Smith,Tony Smith That Housing IT Guy,TonySmith that housing IT,TonySmithHou,TonySmithHousing, ,TonySmithHousingITguy,Total,Total Mobile,Totalmobile,Trace,Tribal,Twitter, U2,UC,UK,UK Housing,Ukhousing,UniClass Enterprise,Unidata,United Kingdom,Universal,Universalcredit,Universe,Unrest, Valueworks,Van Stock,Vantage,Vantage Sentinel,Version,Virtualisation,Visualmetrics,Voice,Voice and data,Voluntas, Wales,Welsh,Wheatley,Windows Server,Workflow and,Work Hub,Works Connect, XML,Xen App,XenApp,Xmbrace, ...
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