Background
Southway Housing Trust is a social housing provider based in South Manchester, managing over 6,000 properties across Greater Manchester, Tameside, and East Cheshire. They offer vital services for tenants and the surrounding community, focusing on housing, environment, and overall quality of life.
To support efficient rent collection, leaseholder charges, repairs, and former tenant recharges, Southway handles over 95,000 transactions annually. With a variety of payment preferences among residents, Southway relies on a robust, secure, and versatile payment system to meet the diverse needs of their community.
The challenge
Southway Housing Trust needed a solution that their tenants and the wider community were able to benefit from. Before partnering with allpay, their payment systems lacked visibility, often requiring labour-intensive manual processes that drained internal resources.
Southway also wanted to ensure compliance with regulatory standards, safeguard their customers’ data, and provide secure payment channels that instilled trust. With limited options for customers, Southway was missing the opportunity to provide a flexible, customer-centred payment experience that aligned with individual needs and preferences, with the overall ability to make the process of paying a bill or making payments as easy as possible.
The solution
To address these challenges, Southway partnered with allpay, adopting a range of payment services designed to deliver control, flexibility, and an enhanced customer experience. The payment channels offered by allpay allowed Southway to establish secure, monitored, and accessible options for residents, transforming how payments were managed and making it easy for customers to pay in their preferred way.
Whether through direct debit, online payments, text payments, or traditional methods like swipecards, Southway could now offer diverse, accessible payment choices that met varying resident needs. This partnership enabled Southway to reduce manual processes, streamline payment collection, and improve data visibility, which allowed their staff to focus on higher-value activities.
Additionally, allpay’s support empowered Southway to expand its service capabilities over time. In response to evolving customer expectations and industry trends, they introduced more self-service options, including an interactive voice response (IVR) system, internet payments, and text-based payments. The next steps include adding recurring card payments, a branded gateway, and direct debit online options, ensuring that Southway stays at the forefront of customer-centric financial services.
The result
The partnership with allpay has yielded transformative results for Southway Housing Trust. By modernising payment processes and enhancing the customer experience, Southway has seen a significant improvement in payment collection:
- Enhanced accessibility: Expanded self-service options with initiatives like recurring card payment as an alternative to Direct Debits, a branded Gateway seamlessly linked into their website, Pay-by-Link to enhance arrears collection and customer advocacy, and Direct Debit Online to allow tenants to self-serve, Southway is committed to maximising accessibility, trust, and ease for its residents.
- 8% increase in collections year on year: Providing over £5 million in additional collections since 2021.
“Partnering with allpay has helped remove barriers to pay for our tenants and customers,” said Helen Sharples, Assistant Director of Landlord & Community Services at Southway Housing Trust. “The diverse payment options have not only improved our collection efficiency but have also strengthened the trust and convenience we offer our tenants, aligning perfectly with our mission to deliver high-quality, accessible services to the community.”
By prioritising customer flexibility and financial control, Southway not only increased collections but also improved trust and satisfaction among residents. With their ongoing commitment to innovation and customer service, Southway Housing Trust and allpay are positioned to continue this upward trend, fulfilling both organisational goals and community needs in South Manchester.
