Tenant engagement is changing, and leading landlords are changing with it. Whether it’s tackling damp and mould, managing terminations, or improving support for vulnerable tenants, the common thread is clear: traditional contact methods alone aren’t enough. That’s why organisations, like Thirteen Group, are embracing digital automation, behavioural insight and a more empathetic approach to reach people in smarter, more responsive ways. At Voicescape, our Engage platform is helping housing providers drive consistent, scalable communication, freeing up frontline time, improving outcomes, and building trust, one message at a time.
To showcase this, we hosted a talk at Housing 2025 conference. Here, we led a talk with guest speaker Caroline Harraway from Thirteen Housing Group, about how they’re using our Engage solution across their team. She discussed how innovation is saving Thirteen’s colleagues more time, improving tenant satisfaction and ensuring compliance with new housing legislation. She also showcased the many applications of Voicescape Engage, with case study examples from their own business.
In this blog, we’ll share these real-world uses and provide measurable outcomes on how Engage can help shape the next phase of your tenant insight process.
Contents:
Background on our solution – Voicescape Engage
Voicescape Engage is a fully supported self-serve campaign solution that allows housing providers to reach tenants at scale, without placing extra strain on frontline teams. It automates two-way communication, making it easy to identify which residents need support, gather feedback, and deliver consistent, timely messages across the customer journey, from damp and mould follow-ups to tenancy terminations and community engagement.
Background on our customer – Thirteen Housing Group
Thirteen Housing Group are a housing association that serves 100,000 residents across the North East, Yorkshire and Humber region.
- They are building 2,100 homes over the next five years.
- They cater to some of the most deprived areas in the country.
- Some of their residents in arrears live in areas with high levels of anti-social behaviour (ASB) and crime.
- 60% of their stock is over 50+ years old.
Recently, Thirteen have shifted their approach and developed a new strategy – one that matches their vision to help tenants be as happy as they can be, and help staff be courageous and proactive in the work they do. Thirteen are always looking at innovative ways to use technology to support their tenants, which was why Voicescape was the perfect choice for them.
Now, Thirteen are leading the way in transforming tenant engagement through the power of automation and meaningful, data-driven engagement – and they have the growth to show for it.
Voicescape Engage in action
Here are some examples of innovative use cases where Thirteen Housing Group used Voicescape Engage:
For tenant engagement to support board involvement
The challenge:
- Union-Village was a big new-build scheme in the North East.
- Thirteen Housing’s board raised concerns about the amount of funding being spent and not enough knowledge about the demand for those properties.
- They were interested in redeveloping a regeneration area, but the board wasn’t sure if the demand was there.
- The information they held was quite old, so they couldn’t rely on it to prove the demand for these properties to get the board to agree and become fully involved in the new build project.
The solution:
- Thirteen Housing deployed Engage to contact customers who previously showed interest.
- They sent out messages to see if they were still interested in new villages and what type of properties in particular.
- 652 calls were made to tenants, and 459 responded – approximately 70%.
- When Union Village properties became available, Thirteen notified them.
- They were able to bring back evidence of tenant engagement and interest in the properties to their board, which allowed more confident conversations and involvement going forward.
- Voicescape Engage saved Thirteen’s team 54 hours of work, based on an average of five minutes per call.
Thirteen Group saved around two weeks’ worth of one colleague’s time, which was then available to put towards other issues with tenants who needed it… |
For terminations
The challenge:
- After conversations with tenants, Thirteen discovered that their end-of-tenancy messaging was not consistently positive.
- Some tenants would receive supportive information, and others would simply get “your keys are due on [date]”. Thirteen wanted all residents to leave feeling as happy and supported as they did for the rest of their tenancy.
- The end of tenancy is a busy period for residents, especially with the many appointments that come with moving house.
- Previously, Thirteen didn’t confirm key collection appointments, which sometimes led to tenants forgetting them and resulting in failed appointments.
The solution:
- By implementing Engage to contact tenants, Thirteen Housing were able to ensure consistent communications throughout their termination process. Thirteen promised to do this as part of their standards to tenants, and Voicescape Engage assisted with this mission.
- Voicescape Engage contacted tenants automatically at four key points of the termination process: on the day that they are close to being due out, and it also facilitates text message reminders to hand their keys back.
- Voicescape Engage sent messages to residents with information about property expectations, when they are due to leave their property, as well as the landlord’s contact details if they have any problems during the process.
- 428 calls were made through Voicescape Engage – 87% were delivered, and the remaining 13% were due to incorrect contact numbers on the system, which could be later updated.
- 374 voice messages were left, and 252 text messages were sent – 93 residents responded to those, and 25% decided they didn’t need any support.
These results show that residents are comfortable reaching out when they’re satisfied, and they have the opportunity to talk if they’re having issues... |
For campaigns on tenant support
The challenge:
- Thirteen’s debt policy requires them to contact residents with enough tenancy support at key points, such as the notice stage, court stage and eviction stage.
- Previously, they were wasting time trying to fulfil the process manually to make sure they met the requirements of their escalation policy.
- They wanted to be more efficient with their time and efforts, so they used Voicescape Engage.
The solution:
- With this smart approach, Thirteen were able to deliver messages to residents at those key stages for accurate input into their housing management system. These messages asked residents if they wanted any support, giving them the choice to contact Thirteen to help mediate these stages.
- 286 calls were made to residents offering them tenancy support.
- 76 came back and asked for support – that’s potentially 76 tenants who were saved from court proceedings.
All tenants now consistently receive three opportunities for further support in each of the stages (notice stage, court stage, and eviction stage) as they escalate through Thirteen’s debt process... |
For damp and mould
The challenge:
- There has been a significant increase in the number of cases of damp and mould in the sector. Thirteen were also experiencing a rise in no-access cases, although the reasons weren’t clear – was it that residents didn’t need support, or were Thirteen contacting them at a time that didn’t suit them?
- Recent conversations surrounding Awaab’s Law have made it clear that housing providers need to regularly contact residents and provide evidence of those contact attempts, such as sending letters in the post or messages/calls, etc.
- The new legislation makes it clear that there also needs to be regular check-ins with tenants during and after repairs. Thirteen believed it was important to keep the standards high and make sure tenants felt supported during this process.
The solution:
- Thirteen now automatically calls tenants who engage at different points of the damp and mould process.
- Voicescape Engage has made over 2,000 calls about damp and mould.
- 780 residents required a callback, and 255 responded to say they didn’t need further assistance.
- 43% of those who responded wanted to speak to the landlord about what they needed support with.
Thirteen have a clear digital record of when and how they’ve contacted tenants to meet new legislation standards and to keep them safe... |
For community standards – ASB
The challenge:
- Thirteen customer voice satisfaction scores showed a real need to improve their ASB support services.
- They did a deep dive into their services, as well as their residents, and reported their findings back to teams to inform training and development.
The solution:
- Thirteen sent out messages to residents who are suffering from ASB, giving feedback and insights through voice and text messages.
- Tenants were able to get in contact with Thirteen through additional channels, such as the website and contact centre – their contact team is essential.
- Thirteen saw their tenant satisfaction increase by 40%, meeting their 80-90% targets.
- They sent out 330 calls with Voicescape Engage and had 25 responses (10% of calls) reporting ASB.
Thirteen were able to reach out and support the tenants who needed it at critical moments of intervention... |
Feedback from Thirteen Housing Group
“I’m really proud to be working with Voicescape” – Caroline Harraway, Housing Services Manager at Thirteen Housing Group
We’re pleased that Thirteen Housing is proud to work with Voicescape to develop a system that embraces technology around sustaining tenancies. They were looking for a platform that works in response to what residents need and monitors where they are in regard to their tenancy, and they found this with our engagement solution.
The messaging Thirteen wanted to send to residents allows their system to be intuitive and create meaningful engagement with those who need assistance. Voicescape Engage carefully nudges tenants with reminders or opportunities for further support. When someone does want that human intervention, Voicescape Engage allows them to drop into a manual contact pathway again.
Discover how Voicescape Engage can change your business
Interested in using Voicescape’s Engage solution in your own social housing operation? In every aspect of our work, we are helping organisations like yours to connect with their communities – getting you to the right people with the right message at the right time.
Whether you need support for multiple tenants in arrears or for booking gas and electrical safety appointments, we offer some great solutions to get great outcomes.
Why not start a conversation with us and discuss your engagement objectives today?