Published January 28th, 2020
A leading social housing provider in Cornwall has launched a new platform for tenants to manage a range of tasks, all from their mobile.
Ocean Housing’s new app enables residents to pay their rent or report a repair, amongst other features.
Mark Gardner, Ocean Housing’s chief executive, said: “Tenants are at the heart of everything we do at Ocean. Many of our tenants are busy working families, or juggle shifts, so having an app makes it even easier to get in touch at a time that is suitable for them.
“We’ve been working on the app for about a year, so it’s exciting to see it in use, and residents starting to enjoy the benefits.”
Key features can be accessed on the home screen of the app, whilst more specific functions, such as organising an estate inspection or finding a home to buy or rent with Ocean Housing, can be found on a side menu.
There is also a LiveChat button, which allows tenants to speak to a member of the Ocean Housing team during office hours, in a chatroom format. They can send images to help illustrate their query, and make it easier to ascertain what support they might need.
Research by Deloitte shows that four out of five adults in the UK have a smartphone, a trend which has seen significant growth in recent years, and it has now become the most popular device used to access online information. The Ocean Housing app joins more than two million apps available for UK smartphone users to download, showing a huge demand for mobile content.
67-year old Graham Hancock from St Austell is an Ocean Housing tenant who has started using the new app. He said: “I really like the simplicity of it. It’s so easy to use, and fulfils all the basic requirements of running your home and Ocean account.
“You don’t have to be computer savvy to use it either – everything is at the tap of a button. Instead of having to scroll through pages on my laptop, or calling up and being on the phone for ages, I save a lot of time using the app by quickly finding what I need within a few clicks.
“The LiveChat option is reassuring too. It’s nice to be able to connect to a real person still, and it’s very responsive.”
The Ocean Housing app is free to download from the Apple App Store, and can also be found on Google Play.
Watch a video showing how the app works here.
For more information, visit oceanhousing.com.
