Software business hired by council to help boost rent collections
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has appointed software firm Voicescape to help boost its rent collections amongst current and former housing tenants.
The business, which provides customer engagement and tenant sustainability solutions for UK social landlords, will enable the council’s housing team to maximise operational efficiencies in the management of former tenant arrears (FTA) and current tenant arrears (CTA).
Currently, the council manages more than 20,000 homes, with annual rental income totalling £83m for 2020-21.
Paul Elliott, business and commercial programme manager, Adult Care, Housing and Public Health at the council, said: “Since rolling out Voicescape’s solution to our FTA team we have seen an increase in collection rates and reduced the down time of staff chasing former tenant’s arrears.
“We are so pleased with the results we will be rolling out the system to the wider income collection team later this summer.”
The council will also be able to analyse and measure customer data, profile the financial risk that Universal Credit poses to the organisation, as well as use Voicescape’s technology to understand tenant behaviours.
Peter Hudson, sales director at Voicescape, said: “Communicating and staying connected with tenants has never been more important or challenging as it is at the present time.
“It’s essential for social housing providers to find innovative ways of reaching as many people as possible, in order to maintain high levels of rental collections.
“Even within the first few weeks, we are already seeing impressive results from our work with Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.
“We’re confident, as the service continues to roll out amongst all areas of rental collection, that the housing team and tenants alike will benefit from the operational efficiencies that our technology and software provides them.”
