Town and Country Housing Group
Town and Country Housing Group provide more than 9,000 affordable homes in 22 local authority areas in Kent, Sussex, Surrey and South London. They have been partnered with MRI Software since June 2009 and are avid users of the service.
TCHG widely promotes HomeSwapper to their tenants in a variety of ways; leaving leaflets and posters in the reception area, through their customer services team and even using the logo in their email signatures. Housing/Income Managers are happy to hand out the provided HomeSwapper collateral when they see tenants who are wanting to swap their homes.
Fran Chainey, the Mutual Exchange Administrative Officer at TCHG says “I like how user friendly HomeSwapper is, the dashboard information when I log in is really useful, the graphs and figures are a great way to keep track of our progress with customers and allows us to send letters out to specific tenants if they are missing photos or vital information from their profiles”. When helping tenants find their ideal home Fran goes on to say, “I really enjoy using the multi-swap tool as this does all the work for you and breaks down what could be a very complicated situation to a simple step by step process for customers to use.”
I really enjoy using the multi-swap tool as this does all the work for you and breaks down what could be a very complicated situation to a simple step by step process for customers to use.
Fran Chainey, Mutual Exchange Administrative Officer
Town and Country Housing Group
Fran told us it was beneficial to her as a Landlord user to be able to log on as one of their tenants and help them find a swap. At TCHG this function is used regularly as it can really help their tenants who are in dire need of a mutual exchange.
Fran has seen a massive increase in the numbers of tenants registering to use HomeSwapper in the last 12 months. “I think it is because of how we have started actively promoting the service to customers and taking an active role in helping them to swap”.
Fran explains that “our best return in investment is helping our tenants who are being affected by the bedroom tax to downsize into a more suitable property”. This not only helps them financially but aid other tenants who are desperate to upsize.
When it comes to advertising void properties on HomeSwapper, this is something quite new for TCHG. “We have been advertising our hard to let properties on HomeSwapper since June 2015, it is something that we are really excited about using more as the demand increases”.
For Fran, every exchange is a great success story for TCHG however, “specific stories that stick in my mind are the customers who are desperate to swap to be closer to family and friends, and they are the stories that make me proud to work for TCHG and excited to come to work every day”.