A new approach

With the goal of being an excellent landlord, FCHO owns and manages more than 11,000 homes. As part of a new customer access strategy that seeks to add value to each interaction, they took the chance to rethink self-service.

The aim is to provide great digital services for those who can use them and to free up staff to help those who can’t. To deliver on this ambition, FCHO chose NEC Housing Online. Housing Online offers clean and intuitive forms on any device and integrates directly with NEC Housing, making information immediately accessible to both staff and residents. This provides a more streamlined customer experience and enables FCHO to focus its attention on people who need extra support.

Major improvements

The first new Housing Online services, known to residents as ‘MyAccount’, went live in November 2018. Within 12 months the number of monthly users has more than doubled.
For FCHO though, it’s Repairs that matters most. This area accounts for the vast majority of customer contact, so the services were deliberately phased in to get it right.

The Repairs services went live in March 2019. By October 2019, the number of calls about existing repairs had reduced by 40% compared to the same period the previous year, freeing up staff to provide higher value support.

The right preparation

The guiding force behind the change wasn’t efficiency but rather what worked best for customers. So FCHO’s residents were involved from the start, including in focus groups looking at usability.

Even with a soft launch and a phased introduction, Housing Online is already making an impact on overall customer service. For the year 2018-2019, satisfaction across a whole range of areas, like new tenancies, service centre, estates and repairs, has improved compared to the previous year.

With FCHO now actively promoting the new services and taking Housing Online to the next level, the sky’s the limit.