3 Themes For Digital Transformation In Social Housing
Digital Transformation in Social Housing
Digital transformation has the power to completely transform social housing, improve customer experience, streamline processes and change how the sector provides its services.
But when we say digital transformation, what do we mean?
There have been many leaps and bounds in the sector in the last few years like the introduction of self-service portals and some limited use of smart technology.
But often the term ‘digital transformation’ has been used when applied to surface level changes like introducing a chatbot. Don’t get me wrong, chatbots can be a good tool. It’s great to add other ways for tenants to interact with an organisation but is it truly transformational?
Not at a deep strategic level that will completely change and improve how your organisation operates.
What do we propose?
Let’s look at three key themes to keep in mind when looking at true digital transformation.
1. Do things differently
Digital transformation isn’t about taking what you already do and replicating it for a digital platform. That won’t change anything. In fact, it makes it even clunkier.
Instead, let’s improve on what we’re doing. Let’s make huge strides and transform from the inside out and right across the business.
Rip up the rule book and challenge how you’ve always done it. Start with what’s possible (or start with what’s impossible but desired) and think big! Think about the transformation you’re trying to achieve and work backwards.
2. It’s more than customer service
Putting tenants at the heart of what you do is important; it’s what all housing associations – and any business worth their salt - strive to do. But when looking at digital transformation, there’s more to it than self-serve portals and chatbots.
It’s also about improving efficiencies, becoming more responsive and tapping into powerful insights to make better business decisions.
The social housing sector is becoming more competitive. Those who don’t push for true digital transformation will see a decrease in performance compared with their peers and will be left behind.
3. Be proactive rather than reactive
Social housing has worked in a reactive rather than proactive environment, for example reporting a repair after a boiler has broken or alerting you to a tenant falling into arrears after a payment has been missed.
Working this way is inefficient, disorganised and expensive. Instead, use technology to be proactive and predict situations before they arise.
That not only saves money but also improves the customer experience.
The good news is predictive technology is already here. Take for example predicting rent arrears. Instead of waiting for your current system to flag when a tenant misses a payment, you could have a full list of who is likely to go into arrears up to 6 months before it happens.
Imagine the transformation to your organisation. You would know who to talk to and when about potential financial issues before a problem arises.
So rather than having your income team chasing after every tenant each time they default, which can be costly, time-consuming, and not exactly a positive experience for all involved, you can pinpoint exactly who needs your support BEFORE it becomes a problem.
That is true business transformation.
It’s all in the data.
This technology is available now. We can help you easily implement a proactive solution using predictive analytics.
Pivigo’s Occupi
Pivigo has developed an intelligent AI system to predict future rent arrears cases. We employ the latest artificial intelligence and predictive technology to transform how you manage rent arrears and income collection.
If you want to truly transform your organisation, starting with one of your key business drivers – rent collection – get in contact for a demo.
Contact us for a free demo to see how we can support your frontline teams to spot potential long-term arrears BEFORE they happen.