7 June, 2023
Walsall Housing Group (WHG)
Thanks to Keyfax, Walsall Housing Group (whg) achieves best ever customer service score in a Customer Experience Audit
Walsall, a West Midlands-based social housing provider, houses almost 40,000 people and has invested more than £350 million in its homes. It has 41 customer service advisors providing face-to-face customer service.
The Challenge
“Following the stock transfer of 19,000 homes from Walsall Council in 2003, we faced a huge challenge,” said Ann Parkes, Customer Excellence Manager at Walsall. “We had nothing in place for processing general enquiries and knew we wanted to make significant improvements to the level of service we had offered our customers in the past. New advisors require around 3-4 months of training before they are fully proficient. We wanted to cut that training time, whilst ensuring that the majority of enquires could be dealt with consistently at the first point of contact.”
The Solution
Walsall had invested in the very latest technology and systems to improve the efficiency of its services and its relationship with its customers. It began working with Omfax Systems in 2004, integrating the Keyfax software into its existing customer service solutions.
Keyfax allows advisors to access a vast CRM databank held by the landlord on its customers and properties, providing the information needed to resolve enquiries quickly and accurately, first time.
Peter Graddon, Director of Omfax Systems, said: “This allows advisors to personalise the call and speed up the entire process. It also enables them to gather more data, to provide a better and more efficient service.”
The Results
80% of enquiries handled by Walsall are now resolved or actioned at the first point of contact and training times for new advisors have been cut significantly.
Ann further commented: “Our processes and systems have been developed to a point where advisors now have a very clear picture of the customer and the property. This ensures enquiries are dealt with quickly and efficiently, improving customer satisfaction, as well as enabling us to deliver a better service. Thanks to our investment in Keyfax, we no longer need to ask the model or make of the item to be repaired, the technology draws the information from our database, providing an accurate diagnosis for the repair team – saving time and money.”
What Wallsall Housing Group said about Omfax
“With the help of Keyfax, which integrates seamlessly into our existing systems, we have been able to simplify our processes to deliver quick and comprehensive solutions to our customers’ enquiries.”
Ann Parkes, Customer Excellence Manager at Walsall
“Thanks to the improvements we have made to our customer services, we have achieved the best ever customer service score in our latest Customer Experience Audit, beating brands such as Vodafone, BUPA, First Direct and Standard Life.”
Helen Roberts, Walsall Customer Contact Centre Manager
