If you’re running a housing association, who are the best people to ask about improving services?
Expert insights and market trends are great, but nothing beats engaging with tenants themselves. 55% of tenants feel that their views and feedback are acted upon, but it still shows a glaring gap in getting more tenants to engage. If housing associations want to provide the best service possible, tenant engagement must be properly maintained.
Communication is key, and there’s a comprehensive suite of solutions out there that can give housing associations the edge. An efficient digital experience gives tenants a better way to engage, with a user-friendly journey helping to build trust. Tenants feel like their issues are being heard, and housing associations can provide a far better service.
When those solutions run on a reliable network, that trust can only go from strength to strength.
CCaaS: Front of house
27% of housing associations have highlighted omnichannel engagement as their top technological priority. Every tenant has their own preferred way to communicate, with 45% happy to email their landlord compared to the 35% who use messaging apps. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an email, an online portal or even carrier pigeon, tenants want to communicate.
If tenants can’t communicate or report their issues, then they’ll become dissatisfied over that apparent lack of empathy. How can housing associations build trust with tenants if they can’t communicate?
A contact centre as a service (CCaaS) solution is perfect for tenant engagement. They can support omnichannel capabilities and provide diversity in how tenants contact housing associations. There’s greater accessibility for more vulnerable tenants as communication now extends beyond the traditional phone.
Using a single platform helps to keep all that customer data in one place for easy access too.
AI-driven support is a common feature in market-leading CCaaS solutions and can be crucial in how inquiries are handled. Chatbots and virtual assistants can reduce waiting times and improve satisfaction through faster resolutions. While there will always be fears over whether AI will replace human agents, 97% of contact centre leaders agree that all customers want are fast answers.
Those fast answers are certainly possible through intelligent call routing. Technologies such as interactive voice response (IVR) allow tenants to connect faster to appropriately skilled agents, improving efficiency and reducing time to resolution. Again, AI plays a role here by analysing a customer’s profile and call history to determine which department can best meet their needs.
Cloud-based CCaaS provides the scalability and flexibility needed to meet rising tenant expectations. Transitioning away from on-premises hardware not only cuts down spending but also allows operations to be scaled with ease. A seamless adjustment to communication capacity is perfect for housing associations looking to expand the number of sites and properties they manage.
Maintaining an omnichannel model of communication is a great way to improve tenant engagement. By opening multiple channels, tenants are spoilt for choice when looking to raise maintenance requests or ask for critical information. But on the other side of the tenant engagement question, housing associations need those internal tools to collaborate and communicate with ease.
UCaaS: Window of opportunity
Poor quality data costs the social housing sector roughly £400 million per year; that’s money which can be spent on new housing or energy efficient homes. A siloed approach to internal communications depletes data quality and makes it hard for housing associations to address tenant needs effectively.
That’s certainly a spanner in the works when looking to improve engagement. Inefficient operations delay issue resolution, which can prove to be disastrous if it creates a significant threat to building, or even tenant, safety.
A unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solution can make internal communications more efficient. Property managers and on-site maintenance teams can communicate seamlessly when voice, video and messaging are combined.
With the Housing Ombudsman Service’s latest report highlighting a 148% increase in property condition complaints, housing associations can’t afford to continue poor communication practices.
Real-time communication and data sharing through UCaaS is far more streamlined when nobody is jumping from application to application. Again, collaboration can thrive when information can be shared easily. Worth noting that, after implementing a UCaaS solution, organisations have seen collaboration efforts improve by 91%.
That integrated communication infrastructure can also include video conferencing and virtual meetings. Property managers won’t need to travel to remote sites when they can easily reach out to field teams carrying out maintenance tasks. Those same virtual meetings can also be set up with tenants for a more direct way to reach out to housing associations over issues.
Communicating with remote sites, obviously, can only be achieved with a stable and reliable network. Without robust connectivity, UCaaS can’t reach its full capability in taking collaboration to a whole new level. But let’s turn our attention away from communication and focus on homes themselves.
IoT: That cosy, connected feeling
When it comes to smart homes and the Internet of Things (IoT), we can go on for days on what kind of impact IoT-enabled devices can have. There’s a reason why over 1600 social housing providers have already started to adopt IoT solutions to improve housing quality.
Outside of better living conditions, a sprawling network of devices sharing real-time data can be instrumental for improving tenant engagement. As already mentioned, we can go into incredible detail on IoT and housing associations, so allow us to streamline things. To summarise, IoT can improve tenant engagement through:
- Smart building management: Optimising lighting, hearing and air conditioning creates a comfortable environment for tenants while maximising energy efficiency
- Predictive maintenance: Smart sensors and AI-powered diagnostics can predict and prevent appliance failures, reducing the number of times tenants must report issues
- Security: Smart doors locks, surveillance cameras and smart doorbells create a more secure environment for tenants, which is handy since a home burglary in the UK happens every 173 seconds
- Billing: Installing smart meters to measure energy usage provide a fair and transparent way to manage billing, meaning tenants can easily reach out to landlords if any discrepancies occur
The potential behind smart housing and IoT is truly incredible (when powered by that reliable network, of course). Its ability to improve the livelihood of tenants and how housing associations engage with them is an opportunity not to be missed.
For our final foray into tenant engagement, let’s turn our attention towards that other hot topic nowadays – cybersecurity.
SASE: The roof above our heads
Between 2022 and 2023, around 25% of housing associations were subject to a cybersecurity attack. As these organisations now utilise a wider range of cloud applications to manage tenant relations, it’s integral that these solutions need to be secure to use and access. Frankly, building trust and transparency with tenants starts with communication.
With demands on the social housing sector growing, housing associations can’t rely on an outdated infrastructure to manage their cybersecurity processes. That oversight can only lead to more breaches and a total disintegration in tenant trust.
This is where secure access service edge (SASE) comes in.
Combining software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) and security service edge (SSE) means SASE offers both efficiency and security. Features like zero trust network access (ZTNA) allows tenants to benefit from a protected digital experience, making them more inclined to engage. Encrypted connections and identity-based controls provide confidence in using online portals for rent payments and maintenance requests.
These portals thrive on real-time data, helping housing associations respond faster to tenant needs. With organisations seeing a 79% improvement in business outcomes when embracing real-time analytics, those insights are vital.
2.5 million of England’s 4.1 million social homes are provided by housing associations. A sprawling network requires seamless remote access to make sure tenants remain in contact. Staff must also have the capability to maintain efficiency and maintain tenant engagement.
The cloud-based nature of SASE provides the flexibility and scalability for housing associations to expand their network. Traditional VPNs tend to be more vulnerable to sophisticated cyberattacks, struggling to meet modern network demands.
Integrating network and security creates an underlying infrastructure that includes measures such as secure web gateways (SWG) and next-generation firewalls. When supported by a reliable network, both tenants and field staff can rely on a network that provides security and connectivity.
The network: Stable foundations
We’ve said it once, and we’ll say it again; tenants are a vital component in how housing associations improve their operations. If they can’t communicate and report issues, then nobody is going to be happy. It’s why housing associations need to improve tenant engagement.
Gamma has the ability to provide the solutions needed to maintain contact with tenants, and the network needed for them to run seamlessly. Tenants can use a variety of communication channels to report issues through CCaaS, while agents can process information quickly through UCaaS. That connected IoT system is working hard to collect data to improve outcomes for tenants and landlords, with SASE watching over and keeping all that data protected.
Leveraging Gamma’s expertise in communication, collaboration, and security, housing associations can create a strong foundation for compliance, lasting tenant trust and seamless operations.