Posted 16.04.14
1st Touch, a leading developer of mobile systems for the social housing and local authority sectors, has launched a tenant self-service app.
The app, which can be fully integrated in real-time with all leading housing management systems, enables a social housing organisation's tenants to submit requests online for a wide range of services. These can range from repairs and maintenance or estate management concerns through to arranging visits from housing officers or conducting rent account queries.
The system greatly reduces the pressure on the social housing organisation's call centre staff, whilst significantly enhancing positive client engagement with tenants.
When residents are using the app to report a repair for example, the app will raise a request and ask the resident to choose an appointment from 3 or 4 available time slots. Once selected, the app will then auto-schedule the repair and send it to the maintenance operative's mobile device, advising when they are due to attend.
Should a tenant need to report an issue like graffiti, the app will raise the request with the appropriate operative or contractor and inform the tenant when the graffiti is due to be removed. It will also inform them when the job has been completed.
All the requests and actions generated through the app are automatically fed through to the social housing provider's back-office housing management system.
The app, which integrates seamlessly with all existing 1st Touch systems, also represents significant value for money. 1st Touch research estimates that typically on average, each call to a social housing organisation's call centre costs somewhere between £5 and £6 and that each personal visit costs around £14. As many of the issues handled by these call centres can be dealt with online, the potential savings from the self-service tenant app are huge.
