VIVID was the winner of the Customer Services award at the Housing Technology 2025 Awards. The housing provider explains how it has put its customers in control of their own tenancies with help from TechLabs London and Microsoft.
Staying ahead of technological advances is crucial for delivering great customer service. At VIVID, we recognised the need to modernise our services to meet the growing expectations of our 74,000 customers across the South of England.
Our customers expressed a clear need for more accessible and efficient ways to interact with us. Traditional methods, such as emails, were slow and ineffective, leading to longer resolution times and decreased customer satisfaction. We needed a solution that would not only streamline our processes but also enhance our overall customer experience.
Comprehensive digital transformation
In partnership with TechLabs London and Microsoft, we embarked on a comprehensive digital transformation programme. Our primary goals were to improve customer satisfaction, achieve organisational efficiencies and transform our customer service culture. We implemented TechLabs London’s iProperty Cloud and Microsoft’s Digital Contact Centre Platform (DCCP) to digitally enable our services and provide a seamless, multi-channel customer experience.
We successfully launched a new responsive online account, modernising how customers interact with us and our services. Customers can access our services 24/7; they can raise cases, review their rent and service charge accounts, make payments, set up direct debits, update their personal details and access information to help them to manage their tenancies anytime, anywhere. It boasts a seamless, fast and user-friendly interface, meeting modern accessibility standards with a mobile-first design in line with WCAG 2.2 guidelines. This redesign has significantly improved the site’s speed, allowing customers to quickly and efficiently access information and services.
Fiona Harris, VIVID’s chief information and data officer, said, “We wanted to ensure we were ahead of the curve regarding digital services and meeting the needs of modern customers. Our digital transformation has been key in improving customer experience and modernising our systems and ways of working.
“By using the latest technology, we’ve streamlined processes, improved efficiency and provided more responsive services. This transformation isn’t just about technology; it’s about creating a seamless and engaging experience for our customers, ensuring they have access to the services they need, when they need them.”
Virtual assistance & new channels
We introduced new chat channels on our website and via WhatsApp. Customers message our Copilot virtual assistant, which will try to resolve queries using its bank of knowledge articles or, if unable to, forward the query to one of our customer advisors. They can also raise cases out of hours which update directly on their online account and on iProperty Cloud. This functionality enables our teams to access all the information they need to resolve problems faster.
Internally, our teams transitioned to the iProperty Cloud housing management platform. This allows all customer contacts to be recorded in one place and for our teams to view all past customer contact and history. AI-enabled summaries of customers’ queries help our advisors to quickly understand previous interactions, saving time and enabling faster resolutions.
Quantitative results
The impact of our digital transformation has been profound. Customer engagement and satisfaction have significantly improved, with our most recent customer satisfaction score reaching 8.86/10 against our own target of 8.5. The new online account has seen a 39 per cent increase in logins and a 38 per cent increase in registrations, both exceeding our initial targets.
The introduction of chat channels has led to an increase in first-contact resolutions by our customer experience team. Contact volumes have decreased compared with the same period last year, improving waiting times and customers’ overall experience. The average speed to answer has improved by an average of 10 minutes, thanks to enhanced routing and skills-mapping.
Our Copilot chatbot usage has increased by 70 per cent since its launch, surpassing our original ‘stretch’ target of 40 per cent, and 2,800 customers have set up new direct debits, automating the payment process and giving them more control over their finances. Messaging customers through the online account has also been very effective for income recovery, offering a less intimidating and more customer-friendly solution.
Looking ahead, we plan to add more features to the online account, allowing customers to better manage their repairs, grounds and estates, and planned maintenance from their phone or computer.
Alex Nagle, VIVID’s customer service director, said, “We’re committed to providing a great customer experience – it’s one of our core values. We’ve empowered our customers to take control of their tenancies and homes by introducing new digital channels. These enhancements allow our customers to effortlessly manage their accounts, request services and communicate with us.
“This has not only made things more convenient for our customers but also improved our ability to respond to their needs quickly and efficiently. We’ve seen great results in improving customer satisfaction scores, showing the positive impact of these initiatives. We’re excited about the future and look forward to further improving customer satisfaction and engagement.”
VIVID was the winner of the Customer Services award at the Housing Technology 2025 Awards.
