22nd March 2024, Burnley, Lancashire:

Burnley based housing association, Calico Homes, has today confirmed that they will enhance their digital engagement by partnering with OptusApp to roll out a powerful new customer self-serve solution. The native mobile app, with biometric login, will allow tenants to report repairs and book repair appointments, view rent history and make rent payments, exchange private 2-way messages with their landlord, complete TSM surveys and access confidential documents.

“Across many sectors, self-serve is driving both customer convenience and business productivity” commented Laura Hodkinson, Group Director of Customer Transformation at Calico Homes. “So an intuitive and powerful digital channel is a basic need for Calico and our customers.”

“Many of our customers will value the ability to use an intuitive digital solution anywhere, anytime and on any device”, continued Hodkinson. “In turn that will allow Calico to free up Contact Centre capacity for our customers who need more personal interaction.”

Calico Homes selected OptusApp after research and discussions with a number of self-serve solution providers. OptusApp is unique in offering both a native smartphone app and also a web portal, both of which are interchangeable for customer log-in and feature usage. Its powerful API-driven solution is system agnostic and easily integrates with Calico’s existing systems including MIS Active (HMS) and Allpay. The initial schedule will be for the Calico branded app to be rolled-out to customers in September this year, with additional features being added through the following months.

Gerry Kelly, CEO at OptusApp observed that “There are no user manuals for popular apps such as the BBC weather app, Uber, or Amazon, as they are intuitively simple to use and give immediate and powerful results. That’s what OptusApp is all about – making it easy for consumers, and as a result they will adopt self-serve in ever larger numbers.”

The Government’s Charter for Social Housing Residents, and the introduction of mandatory Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) is nudging many landlords with legacy tenant portals to consider more powerful and flexible alternatives for self-serve. “Calico appreciate that tenant self-serve needs to be customer centric, rather than just a system add-on” commented Kelly. “OptusApp is blazing a trail in social housing channel-shift, and we’re delighted to be working with like-minded progressive people at Calico Homes.”

 

About Calico Homes:

Calico Homes own and manage over 5,000 homes in Lancashire. They aim to make a difference to the quality of life of individuals and the wider communities in which they work. They provide accommodation for families, individuals and older people, plus supported housing and services for homeless people.

Find out more at https://calicohomes.org.uk/

A Calico Group service – https://calico.org.uk/

About OptusApp:

OptusApp is the specialist self-serve solution provider for the social housing sector across the UK and Ireland. The OptusApp product is a feature-rich native mobile app, provided as a SaaS model for landlords of all sizes. OptusApp is system agnostic and integrates with landlord’s existing HMS and CRM systems.

For details contact: Gerry Kelly, gerry@optusapp.com or 0777 5816163