New phone system reduces waiting time for tenants | Latest news

Habinteg has recently installed a new phone system with the aim of increasing efficiency when handling tenants’ calls.

The old way wasn’t working

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, our customer service team, Habinteg Direct, have been working from home using mobile phones. This meant they were unable to transfer calls or keep tenants on hold while they chased an update from a contractor.

It also meant that tenants trying to get through to Habinteg were on hold for longer as the customer service team were busy on calls or making outgoing calls. 

With the new Avaya phone system:

• Customer service assistants can place tenants on hold while they speak with a contractor.
• Tenants can know what position they are in with a queuing system.
• Tenants can be directly transferred through to their scheme’s housing staff (when appropriate) to deal with their problem more efficiently.

Habinteg Senior Customer Services Support Officer Nuala Tate, said: “We recognise how important it is for tenants to get through to us easily when they need to. As it’s likely staff will be working from home for a while longer, we needed a system to communicate with tenants more swiftly and efficiently.

“We want to ensure we offer our tenants as efficient a service as possible as we know they don't want to spend a long time waiting on the phone when they call us.

“The Habinteg Direct team is still getting to grips with the new system, but as they become more confident with it, the service we provide to tenants will get better and better.”

Contact Habinteg Direct on 0300 365 3100 if you have an emergency repair and read about how to report other routine and urgent repairs.