Caspar Herzberg |
This article was originally published in the Autumn 2018 issue of The Record.
Headquartered in Hemel Hempstead, Housing Association Thrive Homes has a portfolio of around 5,000 homes supported by over 70 remote and office-based staff, as well as 25 field-based operatives who work across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire.
The company had already gained nationwide recognition for its dedication to customer service but felt a need to keep pace with the changing preferences of the modern customer. It expressed a need to deliver more digital services to provide an omnichannel experience for customers, as well as offering employees the ability to work remotely whilst ensuring that data was secure.
GCI stepped in to help. The converged ICT services provider has won a substantial contract to support Thrive Homes’ agile working environment and subsequent transformation of the customer experience.
John Stenton, IT manager at Thrive Homes, said: “Finding a partner who understood the important role digital communication plays in enabling Thrive to provide secure, affordable housing in an efficient, modern way was critical. GCI demonstrated this ability throughout the tender process by providing a solution that would allow us to offer new channels of communication to our customers, empower our employees to work remotely and improve service delivery.”
GCI will implement Skype for Business and GCI’s Cloud Contact Centre, which will enable seamless communication and collaboration between teams, open new channels of communication for customers, improve the quality of existing channels, and ensure the highest levels of service across every channel through real-time, automated and historic reporting. GCI will also provide its tailored Skype for Business e-learning and analytics tools – UCversity and UC Analytics – to deliver flexible learning for Thrive’s staff via videos, online training courses and more, as well as providing comprehensive reporting on call quality, employee productivity and ROI.
Simon Wilkinson, Public Sector lead at GCI, added: “Thrive is a people-centric organisation whose key focus is providing much-needed, good-quality, affordable homes across the northern Home Counties. We look forward to partnering with Thrive to implement these Gartner-recognised technologies, which will see more personalised, digital services delivered to its employees and customers.”