They have with 55,000 properties spread across the UK, and with the advent of Universal Credit senior managers were quick to recognise that arrears management needed to be made smarter in order to help people who are in genuine need of support sooner, and to tackle those who ‘won’t pay’ using a more consistent and less resource intensive approach.
At the point when we started using Voicescape, we had 34 full time staff making outbound calls to tenants who were in arrears.” said Home Group’s head of Customer Service, Chris Roberts.
“Time was being wasted as it was possible for someone to spend a whole day making calls and getting through to no-one, or only a handful of tenants. It just wasn’t a value for money way of working, we needed to do something different.
“We piloted Voicescape Collections in July 2014 and the results were almost immediate”.
“Since working with Voicescape, our income and arrears position has improved, arrears cases have dropped significantly, and we are on top of tenant debt sooner. By doing this, it’s a win-win for us as a company, but also for our tenants. Ultimately, we want to help our tenants to address arrears issues early so that problems don’t escalate. The earlier we can talk to our tenants about their accounts, the more support we can give them to back into the black.
“Not only are we now collecting more income than before, Voicescape Collections has also given us cashable efficiencies – so we no longer have 34 staff chasing debt, we only need 27.”
Measurable benefits:
- Increase in payments
- Reduction in volume of arrears
- 7 FTE reduction
- Significant cashable efficiencies realised
- 3 awards won
“Since working with Voicescape, our income and arrears position has improved, arrears cases have dropped significantly, and we are on top of tenant debt sooner.”
Chris Roberts | Head of Customer Service
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