Halton Housing has extended the functionality of its tenant self-service app following its successful launch last year.
With the new version of the app, based on Aareon’s 1st Touch mobile software, tenants can manage and pay rent by direct debit and request a rent refund, report repairs and schedule appointments, access Halton Housing’s digital toolkit for universal credit, finance advice and moving house, and report local problems such as fly-tipping and graffiti.
Two-thirds of Halton Housing tenants now access services digitally, with 99.5 per cent of rent balance enquiries, 39 per cent of repair requests and 67 per cent of anti-social behaviour reports made online, with the result that incoming customer phone calls have fallen by over 70 per cent since the introduction of the app.
Carole Galsworthy, director of ICT, Halton Housing, said, “Our free app is the ‘perfect portable companion’ for tenants because it has given them a quick and easy way to do more online at a time that is convenient to them and is available at any time.
“The initial success of the self-service app gave us the confidence to develop and evolve the breadth of services we now offer online. By listening to our tenants’ needs, we have added this extra functionality, thereby adding even more benefits. The 1st Touch system has allowed us to do this easily and professionally and we are already looking to add further services in the future.”
