The Regenda Group uses self-service capabilities to drive £16.2m of online payments
The customer
The Regenda Group is a dynamic group of organisations that regenerate communities and provide people with the education and support they need to thrive. They service over 13,000 properties and not only operate in the housing and construction sector, but also in care and support, and in education, training and careers.
The group is growing, acquiring two new businesses since 2020 and amassing a turnover of £76 million. The group portfolio is made up of eight organisations ranging from charities, to housing providers with homes for sale, social or private rent, and shared ownership in both rural and city-centre locations.
To manage Regenda’s growth and remain true to their core value of customer centricity, they needed to make changes to their brand and online offerings across their group portfolio. They also needed to minimise the strain this level of growth was having on their current resources and saw that self-serve technologies could help them drive operational efficiencies and increase tenant satisfaction. A project was identified, and to bring this to life they decided to make use of VerseOne's powerful product suite, design flair, and integration expertise.
VerseOne has been a great support in building and maintaining our customer portal for a number of years. For us, it’s all about our customer, so we needed a solution to improve their journey as well as their day-to-day experiences with us. VerseOne has been an integral part of this project, helping us to map out and deliver what our customers needed.
Nina Peters, Director of Innovation and Brand, The Regenda Group
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£16.2m of online payments since May 2018
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12,900 repairs reported via their self-service portal
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60% tenants signed up to use the portal since 2018
The challenge
With a big task at hand, Regenda’s main challenge was to bring all of these components — multiple new websites and customer account portals — into a single, rationalised solution that could be managed easily by all of the relevant business teams.
To tackle this, they needed to make sure they had one central, easy to use system that enables them to create once and publish everywhere (e.g. to post a news release on multiple sites instantly), provides one source of truth for their customer and asset data, and integrates with their other back-office systems to create a seamless experience.
Because of the nature of their back-office systems, the project would need to enable integration via Manifest Software Solutions — who, like VerseOne, are official partners on the HACT UK Housing Data Standards project — to ensure a 360 degree view of Regenda’s entire data portfolio.
To maintain the high levels of customer service the group delivers under their current operating model, Regenda were looking to utilise self-service technologies. They needed to create a self-service portal that was easy to use, accessible 24/7 and ensured their customers received an excellent standard of service no matter how they came into contact with Regenda.
To ensure this 24/7 service would cover the full range of tenant key requirements such as reporting repairs and updating personal details, the portal would also need to integrate with back-office systems like Orchard HMS and Kirona DRS Contractor Scheduler.
The solution
To get things underway, the VerseOne team identified the key needs of Regenda's audiences, building up a detailed blueprint of the customer journey, aesthetic direction and functionality required for each of the project elements. Each website and portal was workshopped with stakeholders and customers to undertake content priority analyses, wireframing, navigation, and user journeys.
The end result has been new websites for Redwing, the property agency side of the business and their housing association Regenda Homes. Working with VerseOne’s project management office and teams of expert designers and front-end developers, Regenda slipstreamed the projects in-line with VerseOne’s tried and tested project delivery methodology to ensure on-time launches and superior user experiences.
The project also included customer account portals for both businesses, catering to social tenants, private tenants and leaseholders. The new portals enable customers to self-serve and complete tasks like: registration and automated ID validation, display and updating of personal details, detailed and searchable rent statements, online payments and Direct Debit set-up, ad hoc reporting and self-appointing repairs (both for properties and communal schemes), maintenance schedules, and more.
The results
Since the launch of their new websites and self-service tenant portals in 2018, Regenda has seen the success of their online presence go from strength to strength.
The ability to access services 24/7, on any device and at a time and place that suits them has been a massive draw for their customers, with 60% of tenants registering for and using the portal since its launch. The portals functionality enables tenants to pay for their rent online, saving both time for the tenant and resource for Regenda, reducing the strain on call centre staff and in-office teams. This has supported over 90,000 payments, bringing in £16.2m of rent for Regenda Homes.
By enabling tenants to report repairs issues online and at all times of the day and night, over 12,900 repairs have been reported through the tenant portal. This has further reduced the pressure on their call centre staff and allowed for better planning around maintenance and repairs which has had a positive impact on their already high customer service levels, and in turn has improved tenant satisfaction.
All these features, which have given autonomy and control to Regenda’s customers and helped provide extra support for the tenants who need it most, have reduced the administration costs from their call centres by over 35% per annum. This has helped drive operational efficiencies across the group, and enabled Regenda to redivert funds to areas of the business that help support local residents and to develop their portfolio for the benefit of the community.
Get in touch today to understand how your organisation could benefit from a self-service tenant portal that delivers an elevated customer experience.