Streamlining Call Handling and Driving Innovation

Plus Dane, a housing association that owns over 13,500 homes across Cheshire and Merseyside, supporting more than 30,000 customers, announced it has improved its customer experience with an 8x8 omnichannel contact centre, transforming the way it communicates with its customers.

Partnering with Britannic, they have streamlined call handling by 10% and decreased average waiting times by 60 seconds. After incorporating WhatsApp into the contact centre, 60% of tenants stated that it was their preferred method of contacting Plus Dane.

Ian Kelly, Director of Digital and Innovation, Plus Dane Housing, commented, “Delivering an exceptional customer experience is paramount to us. We wanted to provide our customers with a choice of how to contact us and access insights and analysis to help us plan and make strategic decisions.”

A Consultative Technology Partner

Plus Dane, ran a competitive tender process and selected Britannic as its technology partner because it had the most industry experience and knowledge. Britannic responded to the brief on a deeper level than the other suppliers, producing a tailored demo aligned with the organisation's vision and goals, and delivering on costs, which is critical for a not-for-profit organisation.

Britannic recommended the 8x8 IP telephony and contact centre solution hosted in the cloud. Providing an omnichannel experience and AI-driven insights for reporting and training.

Driving Innovation with AI and Automation

The organisation implemented email automation, which has increased efficiencies and customer service by prioritising and triaging emails using keywords such as ‘suicide’, ‘complaints’, ‘damp’, and ‘mould’. This escalates the emails to urgent status, which can be handled immediately.

Natalie Rose, Director of Customer Experience, comments, “This has been very useful when analysing our targets regarding email response times and seeing how long customers have had to wait before their email has been dealt with.”

Quality Management

Several teams are set up with quality management requirements, with a scorecard and evaluation card tailored for each team, where calls can be listened to and scores assigned.

“I now have visibility of all calls and can identify key themes to be used for training. This has also been extremely useful for us to be able to provide feedback to our colleagues about the calls and it has made it easier for team leaders to analyse where we could have done better and what we could do to improve the processes. It also gives us the opportunity to make it slicker for colleagues to handle calls faster and more efficiently,” comments Natalie Rose.

Plus Dane Housing is digital by design and not by default. Working with Britannic, they can be assured that their technology requirements and solutions align with the organisation’s objectives. Empowering colleagues and customers by providing tailored, trusted, and easy-to-use solutions that transform processes by making them more efficient and effective and delivering tangible benefits.

Striving Forward Together

Jonathan Sharp, CEO, Britannic, comments, “We are delighted to be working with Plus Dane Housing, and their digital transformation journey has only just begun. We look forward to continuing to improve and streamline their services with disruptive technology so they can lead the way in innovation in social housing.”