CHALLENGE
The Guernsey Housing Association (GHA) has provided 900 rented, shared ownership and key worker homes in Guernsey since 2002, with a number of developments in the pipeline. With a growing number of residents, the not-for-profit’s team was increasingly dealing with day-to-day queries in person as its ageing website wasn’t equipped to effectively deal with enquiries. A need was identified to create a portal which was fit for purpose to deal with the requirements of more than 2,200 tenants across 35 developments, plus act as a ‘shop window’ for prospective applicants to the GHA’s partial ownership and rental schemes.
APPROACH
As guardians of the GHA’s communications, Orchard knew which information needed to be shared with tenants, and the issues which were perennially cropping up. Orchard worked closely with the GHA team to lead the build of the new website alongside creative digital agency Indulge Media. Intrinsic to the success of the next generation website was integrating interactive elements such as the ‘repair responsibility tool’. This function addresses the issue of where responsibility lies between tenants and the GHA for basic repairs and property maintenance.
Orchard’s dedicated GHA client team steered the whole process from start to finish, mapping out the new site, creating new copy and working with the website builder and GHA to ensure a clear and consistent tone of voice across the platform.
RESULTS
The tender process to find a new website provider began in February 2018, and the new website was completed and online by October. In its first two months of going live, the website received nearly 7,000 page views from more than 2,000 users. Since launching, the website has consistently maintained its profile within the target audience age range of 25-34 year olds browsing on mobile phones.
Feedback from the client shows that the website is hitting the mark with tenants. Steve Williams, chief executive of the GHA, said: “We are very pleased with our new website as it is far more user friendly and helps to cover the frequently asked questions that crop up from our existing customers and the general public. Both Orchard and Indulge assisted us greatly in the website creation process.
“We believe that many customer queries can now be answered at their convenience by visiting the website and that this reduces calls to our office helping our staff to concentrate more time on improving the general customer service we can offer”.