Digital agency Prodo has been working with Housing Solutions to implement an automated chatbot to help with tenants’ queries.
Prodo and Housing Solutions have worked together for a number of years, launching various projects to drive digital transformation and give tenants more control over day-to-day tenancy tasks, from self-serve repairs appointments via the portal to the latest addition, the chatbot.
Richard Harvey, head of digital and information services, Housing Solutions, said, “For us, choosing a chatbot was the option that we felt would help ease our customers into using our digital services in a simple and user-friendly way.
“With more and more customers starting to use our customer portal, having a chatbot to methodically walk our customers through any queries while providing access to information quickly and efficiently made perfect sense.”
The chatbot has replaced Housing Solutions’ previous live-chat function. The chatbot can handle routine, day-to-day enquiries and therefore free up time from the contact centre to be better used elsewhere. Tenants can triage and solve enquiries online, with the bot designed to find a web-based solution wherever possible before handing over to a live agent or leaving a message if no one is available.
The chatbot’s conversation is human-like and friendly, with logical triggers in place and key automation paths built-in to make the process as quick and easy as possible for the end-user. It has been deployed across all areas of the website and on mobile, giving tenants the power to resolve common queries such as paying rent and reporting a repair themselves without the need to phone the contact centre.
Stephen Brennan, digital platform specialist, Prodo, said, “The bot has been carefully developed to work cooperatively with Housing Solutions’ in-house team by qualifying queries and handing off to live agents when required. The goal of the bot is to deliver relevant and timely information where possible and lower the demands on staff.”
