Homes in Sedgemoor transformation journey

Universal Credit Overview

Homes in Sedgemoor (HiS), is an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) who are responsible for 4,200 homes in Sedgemoor. In recent years, they have implemented several processes to support more effective and efficient working such as identifying areas of resource waste. HiS had approximately 1,000 tenants on Universal Credit (UC) with over 750 tenants to migrate. They identified spikes in arrears before and after the UC claim and were mobilised to act as increasing debt and hardship would affect tenants. It would also pose a large financial risk to the council’s income and the stability of the organisation.

Transformation Journey

HiS took several steps to transform, including a radical mapping the customer journey for a Universal Credit transition resulting in a user friendly Welfare Reform Scorecard. However, they noticed income teams lost a lot of time trying to contact tenants who did not respond to messages or calls. HiS engaged Voicescape technology so income officers could save time by not making inefficient outbound calls. Voicescape technology gave managers much clearer visibility on customer contact which helped them make decisions on how best to support tenants to assist with arrears. HiS now use Voicescape technology to contact customers on their Universal Credit payment date, arrange a Universal Credit triage and to follow up on a failed direct debit. Their collection rates for December 2018 were at 101.2% with arrears evictions at Nil.

Features of Voicescape technology that HiS love:

• A visually appealing live dashboard. Voicescape technology collects customer data with each call which users can navigate with ease and find what they are looking for in seconds.
• Established deployment and training process. The Voicescape team delivered training to clients to enable them to set up and use the system whenever it is required
• Self-Serve System: Voicescape technology enables users to turn the system on and off, schedule usage and configure transfer routing. The number of calls made can flex depending on how many operators.
• High capacity for irregular or unforeseen demand.
• Measurable output. Voicescape technology provides measurable output and impact analysis for managers to track success.