Trafford Housing Trust has reduced rent arrears and improved income recovery staff productivity by 25% following the introduction of business intelligence software from Mobysoft. The new system focuses on distinguishing between technical and genuine rent arrears and in doing so, saves one day per week for each income officer.
A technical arrear occurs when a customer’s account appears to be in default, but in reality is not; complexities such as full or partial housing benefit and monthly direct debits can make an account appear in arrears despite the tenant’s payments being fully up to date. In the past, this meant that THT’s income team had to manually trawl through tenant accounts to decipher technical or genuine arrears. Only when arrears were proved to be genuine could appropriate recovery action be taken.
The Mobysoft software automatically deals with the complexities of rent collection and provides the income recovery team with a trustworthy list of tenants in genuine arrears at the touch of a button.
Sharon White, social inclusion manager, Trafford Housing Trust, said, “We knew the old system was inefficient and that the team spent as much time trawling through accounts as they did chasing genuine arrears. Since we began working with Mobysoft, not only are the income recovery staff more efficient, but they are also happier as they can see the results – a decrease in rent arrears.”
After the first six months of the new system’s operation in November 2010, THT reported that the Mobysoft implementation had paid for itself from the first month, with no upfront capital costs and monthly savings in the collection of overdue rent eclipsing the monthly cost of the system.
White added, “Put simply, this is about maximising your resources – we want our rent team to use their time and skills as effectively as possible which means engaging with genuine arrears rather than wasting unnecessary time and effort.”
