The recent coronavirus pandemic has touched every part of our lives, most notability where we spend most of our time. Housing associations know this more than anyone as they continue to house thousands of people across the UK. Not only that, Covid-19 has caused many housing associations to accelerate any digital transformation plans they had as customers increasingly want to engaged with digitally with their housing providers.
In response, the housing sector is turning to technology to keep up with their customers’ digital expectations. We recently caught up with some housing associations to learn what their challenges have been over the last few months and how they’re gearing up for a new era of digital engagement. Read on to find out what’s in store for the future of the sector.
Gaining a better understanding of customers
As everyone continues to spend more time at home, whether that be for childcare, being furloughed or working from home a lot more, it’s more important than ever that housing associations understand their customer needs and how they want to be engaged with.
It’s not uncommon to find IT teams using 20+ disparate legacy systems holding customer data. Many organisations are looking to use their data more wisely with a SaaS based system. Why have 20 different case management systems when you can have one, right?
Dynamics 365 uses a common data model and can be integrated with various other data sources, enabling you to gain a 360 view of each customer in one profile. No need to search through disparate, legacy systems, everything you need to know in one place, automated.
This lays the foundations for housing associations to ultimately move all customer interactions online and make it accessible 24/7.
Embracing a shift in mindset
For larger housing associations, managing anywhere between 20,000 and 60,000 homes at once, working 100% remotely has proven a near impossible task during lockdown. Many organisations have come out the other side having proven that they can work from home more often. But a new digital culture requires a shift in mindset from employees across the businesses.
Dynamics 365 is designed to be used by techies and non-techies alike. Cross departmental collaboration has been even more vital over the last few months and Dynamics 365 can provide exactly that as anyone can make the most of the cloud-based platform with little training, updating it in real time and gaining insights on demand.
Read the blog to find out more about how Dynamics 365 can enable housing associations to improve the customer experience.
