Sovereign Housing Association owns and manages over 60,000 homes in the UK, making them one of the top 10 largest housing associations in the UK. They work with over 140,000 customers and always aim to provide the best possible customer care. This is why they decided to implement remote assistance as part of their customer support service. They now use XMReality to diagnose, mitigate and solve issues remotely and have realized drastic business improvements. Let us tell you how!
It’s part of Sovereign’s corporate plan and promises to its customers to deliver digital services that the customers want to use at a time that suits them. They had identified an opportunity to improve the performance of their Property Service team, which struggled with a growing backlog of jobs for their frontline members. So, they decided to try a 'digital first' approach and started to investigate remote assistance solutions to help customers triage issues remotely. An essential selection criterion was for the solution to empower their workforce, making it a win-win for everyone.
“During the UK’s economic challenges and cost of living crisis, we at Sovereign feel that being a leading landlord of choice, we need to diagnose, mitigate and, where possible, resolve customer issues without the need of extensive traveling, saving time for those that really need it,” explains Matt Thomas, Customer Experience Programme Manager.
After a period of vendor research and comparisons, the choice landed on XMReality’s Remote Visual Assistance solution. A decision driven by the wide range of capabilities offered by the product, which opened up possibilities beyond the initial scope defined by Sovereign. The first step was to perform a joint POC, Proof of Concept, to test the solution and see how colleagues and customers received it.
For two months, Sovereign Housing tried out XMReality in their Property and Gas Service business unit and for inspections. Their in-house qualified gas engineers used video support to remotely triage gas boiler issues and inspect damp and mold cases.
Using video diagnostics as the first step in their ticket-handling process did speed up the process of applying a fix. Making sure that heating and hot water were provided to their tenants. On average, the waiting time for the tenant was cut in half when they used video calls.
During this initial POC phase, the team experienced 26% successful remote fixes and 10% successful part identification prior to sending out a gas engineer to the site. They also realized substantial cost benefits by fixing a fourth of all incoming tickets remotely - proving a significant ROI on a potential investment. Not least important for Sovereign were the clear environmental benefits, with reduced carbon emissions thanks to fewer truck rolls.
With clear proof of a great ROI, motivating continued use of XMReality and even a scale-up was a no-brainer for Sovereign, especially as the solution had received a positive reception internally and externally.
Want to know more about the results Sovereign Housing achieved? Check out this webinar with them.
As mentioned, Sovereign’s goal was to implement a video support solution that tenants wanted to use, which also empowered their employees. To ensure this was the case with XMReality, they sent out surveys to customers and employees at the end of the POC.
Customer satisfaction scores came back great: 90% rated their experience of the video call with the maximum score. Another clear benefit experienced by the customers was the ease of use of the video solution.
Internally at Sovereign, eight people had been using XMReality during the POC, and all of them reported positive experiences of using XMReality with comments such as:
Apart from the technology itself, Sovereign was delighted with the onboarding and training that XMReality provided as part of the POC.
“Through previous experience, the project team at XMReality gave clear guidance on how best to utilise the software, supporting Sovereign in the identification of potential benefits and driving the adoption of new services to both customers and employees. The experience with XMReality was truly positive and one that could build into a long-standing strategic relationship. Thanks to Filip and Kiran for the continued support and efforts in enabling us to better serve our customers.” said Matt when asked what the critical factors were behind their successful implementation.
Want to know more about how Sovereign Housing managed to create such a successful implementation of XMReality? View our on-demand webinar where Matt and Zack from Sovereign share all details and their best advice for other housing companies looking to implement remote assistance.