Thirteen has been harnessing the power of Voicescape to intelligently automate its rent arrears management and support process since 2018. The housing association , which owns and manages 35,000 properties in the North East, Humberside and Yorkshire, has been gradually increasing its use of automation over the last 12 months. Now, they’re fully automating customer interventions.
Read on to learn more about how Voicescape has worked for Thirteen… or if you're pushed for time, watch the video below!
The challenge
In 2021, Thirteen Group was faced with the dual challenge of:
1. Improving debt performance
Over the previous three years and since the introduction of an alternative neighbourhood operating model, Thirteen had consistently achieved the best results – but it wanted to reduce its overall debt position by a further £1m.
2. Streamlining processes and freeing up time for colleagues
The housing services coordinators at Thirteen support customers with a range of services. This includes letting new homes, maximising income, tackling anti-social behaviour and making sure neighbourhoods are quality places to live.
The organisation required a system that would automate lower risk tasks, freeing up time for its coordinators to further support customers, resolve problems and reduce arrears.
“This led us to the question of: we need automation, what’s available?”
Chris Marshall, Head of Housing Services at Thirteen Group
The solution
Thirteen had the ambition to use behavioural science, and wanted a system that would learn and automatically determine the optimal engagement method as well as the time to deliver it. The housing services team worked closely with our social housing sector experts to develop a solution that would do just that: Voicescape Caseload Manager.
After an initial partial launch of Caseload Manager deploying its manual capability in November 2021, Thirteen began to explore the wider possibilities of the automation element of the technology. Its team made the decision to phase out its existing income collection analytics solution and solely focus on Voicescape, moving over 300 users in November 2021. This decision was made based on overwhelmingly positive colleague feedback that not only validated the technology within the user base, but proved its potential for improving its rent arrears position and buying time for coordinators to focus on customer priorities.
"We’ve all seen the challenges of debt recovery through the pandemic and what we’re seeing now is the cost of living really starting to have an impact.. As an organisation, our ambition is to use behavioural science to intervene at the right time, and with the right message, as well as increase our use of automation to free up our colleagues’ time to be able to spend with customers.”
Chris Marshall, Head of Housing Services at Thirteen Group
How it works
Voicescape Caseload Manager harnesses the combined powers of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science and Behavioural Insights. Once implemented, the solution reviews resident behaviours and potential risks for each arrears case before automating every stage of the rent arrears management process. It delivers the right message, at the right time, and with the right method of contact.
This frees up housing services coordinators or income officers from wasteful tasks to focus on other important and meaningful areas of their work, such as supporting those in need of personal, one-on-one intervention.
The results
Since Thirteen implemented Voicescape Caseload Manager (both with and without automation), the organisation has seen its debt performance improve substantially. In fact, it helped Thirteen to achieve the lowest year-end debt position they’d ever seen – at 2.98%. The outstanding rent arrears debt they have collected using Caseload Manager has put them in a better financial position, which the organisation can now reinvest in improving their homes, buying and building new homes and investing in services for customers.
“Voicescape Caseload Manager has helped us improve performance to a point where we’re a quarter of a million pounds better off than we were this time last year. In the first eight weeks of use, the technology helped to reduce debt by £800,000.
“The system just gives you an opportunity to do things in a different way – either because you have more money to invest in services or you have more time to support customers and colleagues.”Chris Marshall, Head of Housing Services at Thirteen Group
Thirteen’s housing services coordinators are also extremely pleased with the technology.
“I use this time [that Voicescape CM saves] to really drill into the details around some of the higher balances and high-risk cases. I also have more time for quality manual interventions, such as completing discretionary housing payments for tenants, making referrals, and providing support to people who really need it. It also frees me up to deal with other priority tasks outside of debt recovery, such as allocations and anti-social behaviour. In a housing role, any time is precious time.”
Callum O'Reilly, Housing Services Coordinator at Thirteen Group
What’s more, its managers can keep track of team performance in real time, identify the status of any potential issue before it becomes a problem, and detect trends – without having to toggle between multiple systems.
“As Voicescape Caseload Manager brings data and insights into a single, easily readable dashboard with rich visualisation, our housing services coordinators are able to quickly process large amounts of information and make fast and accurate decisions.”
Chris Marshall, Head of Housing Services at Thirteen Group
Ready to revolutionise your arrears management operations?
The cost-of-living crisis is resulting in a dramatic decline in real income, and those who have never previously been in debt are slipping into arrears. As such, it’s essential to take advantage of modern tools to make personalised, automated interventions that are more likely to achieve the optimal outcome.
Want to learn more about Voicescape Caseload Manager?
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Want to see how Voicescape technology could help your housing association? Get in touch