Communicate effectively and reactively using SMS in rental management services
The Société Immobilière Grand Hainaut and Habitat de la Vienne have invested in SMS communication for various exchanges with their tenants, using the ERP Prem’Habitat d’Aareon. A winning strategy that they use on a daily basis to notify, alert or follow-up.
in partnership with Aareon & ERP Prem’Habitat
95%
SMS MESSAGES ARE READ
4 min.
AS REACTIVITY
À PROPOS
Its customers include Société Immobilière Grand Hainaut (SIGH), a social landlord in the Hauts-de-France region, and Habitat de la Vienne, the leading social landlord in the Vienne département.
COMPANY SIZE
280 employees
CREATION DATE
1982
LOCATION
France
Download the Aareon success story
About Société Immobilière Grand Hainaut
Located in the Hauts-de-France region, Société Immobilière Grand Hainaut is an Entreprise Sociale pour l'Habitat (ESH) belonging to the national Habitat en Région group. ESHs are public limited companies with a mission of general interest, housing individuals and families eligible for social housing.
SIGH is managed by a Supervisory Board on which shareholders, local authorities, tenants and employees are represented. Proximity and customer relations are at the heart of its team's concerns and values.
About Habitat de la Vienne
Habitat de la Vienne is the leading social landlord in the Vienne département and the Poitou-Charentes region. It manages 12,000 housing units throughout the region. It strives to provide quality, affordable housing for low-income and disadvantaged households.
tenant communication is more than ever at the centre of social landlords’ challenges
SMS, the main means of communication with tenants
The Société Immobilière Grand Hainaut (SIGH) and Habitat de la Vienne, like many social landlords, deployed digital communication with their tenants, primarily by sending SMS messages.
All our communication is now sent primarily by SMS [...] The change in practice — from postal mail to SMS — had no negative influence, on our rate of unpaid bills for example.
- informing about an overdue account,
- sending insurancereminders,
- alerting about the intervention of a company,
- notifying about the dates of the handing over and cutting off of the collective heating system,
- notifying about the availability of deadlines and documents,
- sending insurance reminders,
- informing about the follow up of an applicant’s request for allocation or about a vacancy,
- setting up an appointment,
- sending vigilance messages and precautionary measures (in case of bad weather for example), etc.
with SMS, (future) tenants react in 5 to 10 minutes
SMS, a powerful and fast channel
SMS is a channel that was well adopted by teams and tenants is undeniably very powerful. Well adopted, because it has become a familiar communication channel for the whole population, whatever regardless their generation or social category.
Powerful, because a majority of tenants provide their mobile number and what is more all read their mobile messages! Remember that 95% of SMS messages are read within 4 minutes of receipt.
SMS is relevant because of its speed and efficiency.
It is the fastest, easiest way to contact tenants without disturbing them.
It is therefore a fact: SMS messages reach people very quickly and response times are extremely short. These are major advantages in a context where people are less captive to letters or emails. The result? Tenants (and future tenants in the case of responses to allocations) contact their contacts, by telephone or directly by visiting the local branch, within 5 to 10 minutes of the SMS being sent. Another advantage: no negative opinions were noted by the SIGH or Habitat de la Vienne. A very high acceptance of this type of communication made possible by the execution of relevant (therefore useful and very targeted) and punctual SMS messages!
This speed of access to information and this satisfaction rate make it possible to simplify and fluidify tenant exchanges... and, for the administrative or field teams, to gain in time, performance, productivity and agility!
sending SMS to optimise business processes and operational efficiency
Reduce the costs of tenant exchanges by 50
To make a successful transition to digital communication, Société Immobilière Grand Hainaut implemented an innovative “cascade” strategy. First, an SMS is sent. If the tenant didn’t give their mobile number, an email is sent. And at last, for tenants whose landlord has no digital contact details, a letter is sent by post.
Of course, the use of SMS requires working on the shortest possible message and new ways of communicating, but the gains are accordingly high. Since its implementation, the costs linked to tenant exchanges have been drastically reduced, as sending an SMS is still 50 times cheaper thansending a letter... while being just as effective!
Have an unpaid rate of less than 2%
Another essential application of SMS for rental management is pre-litigation. Habitat de la Vienne uses it and sends out reminders of unpaid rent by SMS. This preventive approach and anticipation of litigation procedures aims to facilitate the missions of the collection and litigation department.
If sending an SMS allows for an amicable settlement of an unpaid bill, it’s a win-win for us!
The result is that the majority of unpaid rents are settled after the SMS reminder is sent. A major advantage for Habitat de la Vienne, which has an unpaid rate of less than 2%, ower than the national average. In short SMS is proving to be a particularly relevant and appropriate tool for the quality of tenant exchanges!