How to run a call centre for other landlords

The current drive for efficiency is seeping into every area of housing, so it makes sense for housing providers to team up on services such as call centres.

But instead of outsourcing in a joint procurement contract, you could expand your service and sell it to other associations.

Five years ago English Churches Housing Group took its daytime call centre to 24 hours a day and subsidised the move by selling an after-hours service to other registered social landlords.

Now, on top of the 11,500 ECHG properties it deals with during the day, it runs a variety of services for 16 other RSLs at nights and on bank holidays, taking the total number of properties it handles to 115,000.

The benefits to other associations are considerable, says operations manager Troy Henshall. “We can save them up to 50% of what they would spend setting up their own call centre. Our prices start at about £2 per property per year for a housing association that comes to us.”

Sell yourself

To drum up business, look for contracts advertised in housing or call centre magazines, Henshall advises.

Once you’ve got going, it doesn’t hurt to encourage word-of-mouth as well. “We have an open-door policy where we show people round if they’re interested. Most contracts have come through people who’ve been to see us previously,” Henshall says.

You may need to develop a different service for each client you take on. They might want a basic emergency repairs service, or they may also want you to take calls about antisocial behaviour, lettings or rent queries. Agree with each new client how many calls you’re likely to receive and how you should deal with them.

You’ll need a workforce scheduler to predict the likely number of calls and the staff you’ll need

Get the right staff

ECHG has about 50 full-time staff but needs more during busy periods. However, training staff takes time – one person will need two weeks to get to grips with all ECHG’s systems – so even short-term staff should be put on contracts of at least three months, Henshall recommends. Minimise training needs by limiting the number of clients your short-term staff work on.

You will need a workforce scheduler to predict the likely numbers of calls and how many staff you’ll need each week, based on the history of each association. Certain calls are seasonal – 5 November for antisocial behaviour or autumn for repairs, for example – but others are affected by surprise incidents such as flash flooding or emergencies. To manage this, you’ll need an analyst with call centre experience to do some calculations.

If you’re going to take responsibility for another housing provider’s emergency calls, make sure your emergency back-up is water-tight, especially at night.

Your senior management team must be available at all times: ECHG has a rota so that one of five people is on call for a week at a time. They must decide whether to make an urgent call to a nominated person from the client association in an emergency. “One benefit to the client of us being a housing association rather than another contractor is whenever there’s a problem we will have come across it before and can make a judgment based on our experience,” says Henshall.

Have your own emergency contractor for repairs in case the client’s team can’t make it. You should also consider emergency IT backup: ECHG uses an IBM “disaster recovery site”. This is a physical office space about 45 minutes away from the call centre, where all IT systems are backed up and there is everything they need for staff to carry on taking calls in case of an emergency such as a power cut or bomb scare. “It’s not inexpensive but it would be more expensive if we failed to provide a service to 115,000 tenants.”

Give it time

Once you’ve begun delivering a service, allow some time to settle in: a year is a sensible period to study fluctuations in demand and seasonal trends, Henshall advises. “At the start of a contract we’ll say we expect a minimum and maximum number of calls based on the service and the number of homes, and fix a price per property. If there’s a big variance between this and the reality, we’ll revisit it. But 98% of the time, our predictions are accurate.”