Paradigm Housing Group Enhances Customer Experience with Appointment Tracking and Feedback 

At the heart of Paradigm’s vision and values is a commitment to provide homes and services that customers can rely on, and that help them to live well. This means making sure that services are of an excellent standard and that homes are safe and energy efficient. Paradigm was looking for a way to provide a modern customer experience by improving communication around repair appointments. 

Previously, customers received a reminder the day before the appointment, and engineers needed to telephone the customer before they set off. After the appointment, there was no way to find out if the customer was satisfied with the experience.  

The Descartes Customer Engagement Platform^TM was chosen to power their “Paradigm On Track” service. “The tracking stood out as a way to provide the modern customer service that we were looking for. In addition, the transactional feedback would be incredibly valuable,” explains James Emblow, Head of Property Analytics at Paradigm Housing Group.  

"The transactional feedback data is worth its weight in gold. It solves the challenge of trying to be precise and recognise after each repair whether the customer is happy."

James Emblow, Head of Property Analytics, Paradigm Housing Group   

Paradigm residents benefit from real-time reminders and tracking, resulting in fewer carded appointments.   

The customer receives an SMS when the appointment is scheduled and an additional reminder the day before the visit. When the operative is on their way, the customer receives a further message with an arrival window and a link to the web-based portal.  

The portal includes an ETA countdown and a live map to track the engineer. This reduces stress for customers and allows them to plan their day. Customers can also use multiparty chat to give the engineer any specific entry instructions.  

Once the job is completed, the customer receives an SMS linking to the web portal, where they can provide feedback. On the rare occasion that a customer submits negative feedback, the team at Paradigm can contact the customer immediately to work through any problems. This makes real-time feedback an essential part of Paradigm’s preventative complaints process.  

James explains: “The transactional feedback data is worth its weight in gold. It solves the challenge of trying to be precise and recognise after each repair whether the customer is happy.”  

To make the most of feedback data provided, the company feeds this information into its business intelligence platform. Customer reviews are used to create word clouds and scores for individual operatives.

“Feedback has shined a light on really good performance, so we can identify operatives who are doing well and learn from what they’re doing. The granularity of the data makes this possible,” says Emblow.  

Since implementing the solution, Paradigm has achieved a 20-40% reduction in carded appointments for responsive repairs compared to the same months the previous year.   

By increasing first-time access, the housing provider has reduced operative downtime and made significant operational savings.  

Appointment-based feedback speeds up service recovery and complements existing business data. Paradigm can identify operatives who are doing well and learn from what they are doing.

Since adopting the feedback solution, Paradigm has achieved an impressive average rating of 4.6 stars out of 5 from customers.  

Paradigm is one of the leading housing providers in the Southeast of the UK, managing 16,000 homes across 30 local authorities.