Teign Housing was founded in 2002 as a charity and registered social landlord. The organisation manages over 3,600 homes across Teignbridge, South Devon, ranging from Dartmoor National Park to Newton Abbot, Teignmouth and Dawlish.
Appello have been providing Teign with monitoring services for over 1200 personal emergency alarms since 2013 and deliver Out of Hours services to a further c3600 property.
We spoke to Amanda Nicholls, Head of Housing Services and Donna Sansom, Independent Living Manager at Teign Housing to find out how Appello’s monitoring services have benefited them, their thoughts on AppelloSBR and how these services have assisted them during the pandemic.
How does the Appello monitoring service support you to deliver great customer experience for Teign residents?
When we implemented Appello’s monitoring service we received regular performance meetings with the team, that continue to this day. These meetings provide us with an opportunity to re-visit our KPI’s and provide feedback directly from our customers.
These meetings mean that we can keep on top of our customers opinions of the service and can quickly implement resolutions with Appello if there are any issues to overcome. Therefore, keeping our customers happy with the service.
An additional major feature we noticed after implementing the monitoring service, was that our calls were answered within seconds. It removed the waiting period that individuals were having to go through and enabled a quick response to our customers.
As a long term Appello Customer, in your view, what has been behind the success of the contract?
A partnership approach, as mentioned earlier, the regular performance meetings have certainly helped to keep us connected with Appello and voice our feedback. In addition, Appello have been really helpful when it came to setting up the Assisted Living Response Team (ALRT) service, a rapid response service to help recover non-injured people who have fallen. Reducing the amount of calls for ambulances. We were so impressed with how well the team embraced it, that we are actually looking at extending the hours of this service.
How has AppelloSBR helped you in delivering your lifeline services? Has it improved the service you deliver?
AppelloSBR has made things a lot more efficient for us. It has saved us a lot of time as we can ‘self-serve’. This applies to each of our Independent and Wellbeing Advisers, as they don’t need to depend on a line supervisor.
This platform gives staff the ability to update personal records, meaning that data integrity is maintained. It has saved time and improved data accuracy as there is no delay in records being updated. We wouldn’t be without AppelloSBR now.
How has AppelloSBR helped with the onboarding process through TeignCare?
TeignCare is a ‘Help at Hand’ service, providing individuals with technology and personal people to help someone live at home safely. AppelloSBR has enabled us to have the ability to either update customers information when we are right there with them, or customers can do it themselves. It stops numerous emails going backwards and forwards from customer to staff and frees up employee’s time.
How has our monitoring services helped during COVID-19?
Prior to lockdown, Appello immediately shared their continuity plans with us, which was really helpful to know we were still in safe hands. This communication continued during COVID-19 as were kept well informed on what was happening and any occurrences.
We found that having Appello’s monitoring services in place and with the use of AppelloSBR, staff were able to work from home when necessary. It was a relief to know this was possible, and still be able to support our residents.
Would you recommend Appello’s monitoring services?
Yes, definitely. Appello’s call monitoring service is very efficient and has been an asset to our alarm service. Calls are responded to in a set time as to achieve their key performance indicators.
Appello thrive on feedback from their customers and always strive to make improvements if necessary.
