Service

For good
reason

There are many communication channels that enable us to maintain contact with our customers – and there are big differences between them when it comes to the time and expense they involve. The example of our customer Curo, one of the biggest social housing providers in south-west England, demonstrates how Aareon UK’s 360 Customer Portal marks another step towards a digital ecosystem for housing companies and their tenants, and improves many aspects of communication and service.

Direct, face-to-face communication – closely followed by contact by post – is particularly personal, but it is time-consuming. Communication by phone is considerably faster and thus less cost-intensive. But the digital channel is the fastest and by far the cheapest form of communication, and it offers one big advantage: it is available 24/7 and can unleash potential on completely different levels.

The digital channel offers both companies and their customers the greatest number of advantages.

Background
For the housing company Curo, with headquarters in Bath (UK), the decision to launch Aareon UK’s 360 Customer Portal in March 2019 wasn’t based solely on costs. The British company had any number of convincing arguments. As director of ICT, Tom Battersby has overall responsibility for Curo’s information and communications technology and he explains the precise motivation for the decision:

“We surveyed our customers and discovered that 90 percent of those with Internet access wanted to communicate with us digitally. In order to enhance customer satisfaction, we of course wanted to comply with this wish – after all, digital communication is the future.”

And there are other reasons, as Battersby points out: According to him, the staff time during which the call center employees answer inquiries about repairs and payment transactions amounts to about 16,000 hours per year. Now, tenants can use the Aareon 360 Customer Portal to easily find the answers to these questions themselves. As Battersby adds:

“The portal creates transparency. The tenants can get a much better overview of their personal data and access it directly – any time they want and from the comfort of their own homes, without having to queue up or wait for a call centre operator to pick up. What is more, the tenants have the same level of information as we do, making communication between us so much easier.”

Tom Battersby, director of ICT at Curo.
Photo: Barbara Evripidou/First Avenue Photography, United Kingdom

The tenants can also use the portal to make appointments for repairs themselves, cutting out the middle man and ensuring the tradespeople actually find someone at home when they call. Paper, printing and postage costs can also be cut because communication via the portal means less communication by post – especially when, as will be the case in future, safety certificates for equipment like gas water heaters can be stored digitally in a legally compliant manner. As Battersby highlights, that will negate the need for up to 20,000 printouts and generate huge efficiency gains.

“The time and money we save on admin by using the customer portal can be put to good use elsewhere. For instance, we can invest more in our buildings and improve other services for our tenants.”

But there was another decisive aspect for Curo: collaboration. Curo has been using the Aareon QL ERP system since 2011, and the 1st Touch Self-Service App since 2016. The difference between the portal and the Self-Service App is that the portal can be accessed via browser only, but offers the tenants more details. It also grants them greater control over changes to their customer accounts, like updating personal data. Both of these have one advantage, according to Battersby:

“Everything can be combined easily; all our data is stored with a single provider and everything has the same look and feel.”

It is important for Curo that there are no functional gaps, adds Battersby. That makes the system future-proof, he says, and ensures the company can achieve its digital strategy. Curo obtained quotations from other software providers in order to compare prices.

The success
Within three months of the launch, 2,300 tenants had registered to use the portal, and about 50 new ones are joining up every week. “The whole project is a process, because the 360 Customer Portal requires our customers to change the way they do things. It takes them time to get used to it,” says Battersby. Curo is not the only housing company in the UK that has successfully rolled out the software. “Six customers have already gone live with the portal. We are currently in the implementation process with another eight. And we have another seven in the pipeline ready to start”, says Tim Birkett, Professional Services Manager – Digital Products at Aareon UK.

All arguments at a glance

The following arguments persuaded Curo to launch the Aareon 360 Customer Portal:

Now Curo is benefiting from the numerous advantages offered by the Aareon 360 Customer Portal:

Just one software provider – everything from a single source

It can save time, money and other resources (such as paper)

Many years of collaboration
with Aareon

It has enhanced satisfaction levels of customers and employees alike

Ease of integration of the various systems (ERP, app, portal, etc.)

The portal supports Curo’s
digital strategy

Favourable price-performance ratio

All arguments at a glance

The following arguments persuaded Curo to launch the Aareon 360 Customer Portal:

Just one software provider – everything from a single source

Many years of collaboration
with Aareon

Ease of integration of the various systems (ERP, app, portal, etc.)

Favourable price-performance ratio

Now Curo is benefiting from the numerous advantages offered by the Aareon 360 Customer Portal:

It can save time, money and other resources (such as paper)

It has enhanced satisfaction levels of customers and employees alike

The portal supports Curo’s digital strategy

Curo

one of south-west England's
largest landlords.

13,500

residential units

with a total of 25,000 tenants are managed by the Curo Group.


The company has existed in its current form since

2012


Curo's portfolio
consists of

> 90%

public housing