Apps, portals and AI for automation have become essential for housing associations to deliver on tenant demands, streamline processes and improve productivity.

The necessity for digitisation is huge and knowing where to put resources to ensure success can be challenging.

In this blog, let's consider the positives and pitfalls housing associations face when delivering successful, accessible apps, web portals and automated Intelligent Customer Assistance.

Set Goals

Don’t start too big. Digitalisation is a journey. Having clear objectives and KPIs for every stage of the project set out at the beginning is essential to delivering apps, portals and automation successfully.

Create an engaging and functional design

Considering fonts and colour contrast is not enough. Too often, as we automate and build activities into a website, we end up losing the accessibility that makes it inclusive for everyone. Anything that plugs into the app or portal must also be accessible. For example, when placing your logo on your website, ensure it's not too small or has a color scheme that reduces visibility. This approach helps to keep your logo symbol unique and recognizable, which is essential for brand identity.

Take a form for example. As we implement automation and AI it is essential to ensure that all areas of the interaction, including the supply and completion of any forms, are presented in a digital friendly format. They must be easy to read and complete, and offer speech-to-text if necessary.

We have all experienced the frustration of being asked to ‘download’ a form or piece of information that cannot be read on the device we are using. A common one is a PDF that doesn’t scale to mobile or a form that doesn’t have text fill fields and needs to be printed and scanned back in. However, with the advancement of tools like PDF Summarizer, users can now effortlessly distill lengthy PDF documents into concise summaries, making them easily accessible and digestible on any device.

Know your audience

UX is everything and it is vital to understand your target audience. Housing associations deal with people from different generations and cultures, with different language preferences and levels of comfort in using technology.

A carefully designed user experience (UX) caters for visual and speech impediments and allows tenants to choose how they contact their landlords.

Manage data flows

To ensure success it is important that your self-service portal has a single source of truth for each data source. And there is a two-way feed of information from the portal back into the data source, to keep it up to date.

Self-service portals with Intelligent Customer Assistant (ICA) and apps rely on successful integration with in-house data sources. This includes the contact centre to match past conversations, CRM, service desk, calendars, and housing management systems to be able to effectively respond to an enquiry.

A massive benefit for housing associations using self-service portals is that in creating effective self-service environments the amount of duplication of data entry is reduced and data security improved.

Create seamless experiences through UX, CS and EX

A good self-service portal or app developed by a mobile app development company must be easy for tenants to use; however, that alone is not enough. For a self-service app to be good, it must also return operational efficiencies through improved administration processes, deliver better customer experiences (CX), and increase staff productivity through better employee experience (EX).

Align technology to outcomes

Aside from design, it is important to align the technology to the outcomes required. Apps and portals can both play a key part in your digitalisation journey.

A portal is designed to offer specific functionality and acts as a gateway to specific information. Being web-based it requires the internet for access and must be designed to be mobile-friendly. Mobile app development in Dubai can enhance this accessibility, offering tailored solutions that meet user needs more directly. Apps are often designed with specific buttons and functions to make it easier for users to find what they need, with quick links to FAQs, secure payment windows and to update personal information.

By having both a portal and an app, housing associations increase choice and accessibility to the services they provide. Ultimately, the question of which to use - or both - is dependent on understanding the outcomes required and the demographics of the intended audience.

Encourage adoption

Housing associations often put so much work into automating services through portals and apps only to find tenants are not using them.

To encourage adoption it is important to promote apps and portals on every communication you send your tenants. Once tenants are registered, make sure to make this their main pathway for receiving as well as initiating conversations. By all means, send an email or text, but in it provide a link to the app/portal where they can find the full information. This helps them value and become familiar and comfortable with the technology.

Encouraging adoption also means understanding where your intended audience gets information from. There is still a place for local radio, print media, and advertisements on buses and bus shelters if these are channels that your audience benefits from.

No one should be left behind

Housing providers need to accept that not everyone will want to use an app or portal. This means that while there should be regular encouragement towards using these services, there needs to be other forms of engagement, ranging from staffed phone lines to media engagement, posters, newsletters and whatever else a housing provider knows works for their local audiences.

Report, measure and refine

Continuous monitoring is essential. Analytics provide housing associations with essential information KPIs and real-time information. Data can be displayed on customisable dashboards with scheduled reporting. This data allows business leaders to identify trends, drill down into detail about how agents and ICA are performing and monitor the adoption of digital services to drive continuous improvements.

For more information about 8x8 solutions for housing associations, visit https://www.8x8.com/solutions/uk-housing-authorities.