AmicusHorizon has lowered arrears and raised over £1.7m of additional income for tenants by integrating its existing CRM system with a financial inclusion app supplied by 1st Touch.
AmicusHorizon wanted a mobile app that would not only support financial inclusion processes in the field, but could also help secure more income for its tenants. 1st Touch was chosen to supply the mobile software and by integrating it with AmicusHorizon’s existing CRM solution, financial inclusion officers now have all the relevant information they need to help the tenants that they are visiting.
Jeanette Alfano, director of technology, AmicusHorizon, said, “What tenants wanted was for us to know who they were when they called us. 1st Touch is our mobile solution and it allows us to take our knowledge of our tenants to their door. The combination of welfare reform, our CRM development and 1st Touch mobile allows us to provide a really strong offering for our tenants.
“It enables us to identify which of our tenants might struggle, and being able to discuss this in their home makes a big difference to them. Through the steps we’ve taken, we’ve managed things successfully for our tenants before they have become a problem.”
Financial inclusion cases created in the CRM system are written into Microsoft Outlook as appointments. 1st Touch then polls Outlook for the appointment and then brings it into 1st Touch with all the specific case and relevant background information required. Once with the residents, the financial inclusion officers can then identify possible areas of help. This might include reviewing training opportunities for those keen to return to work or identifying unclaimed benefits.
With the app in place, each financial inclusion officer is now completing two more visits per day and the quality of visits is higher, resulting in greater tenant satisfaction. AmicusHorizon has also reported a reduction in arrears and extra income raised for tenants.
Robert Stewart, business systems manager, AmicusHorizon, said, “With the financial inclusion app in place, the most interesting figure of all is that we have managed to secure £1.7m of additional income for our tenants to help them through the challenges of welfare reform. The app has also helped us to reduce our arrears to just over three per cent.”
AmicusHorizon is now aiming to create ‘one view of a property’ dashboards, combining repairs history along with inspections and property history in one place.
