Stadsbostäder manages properties on behalf of real estate companies, private property owners and housing cooperatives. The company consists of a holding company and a service company. The organisation aims to have a close, reliable and effective collaboration with its clients. The task in service and management is mostly done by Stadsbostäder’s own staff.

Siblings Peter and Katarina Söderlin are the second generation to run the management company Stadsbostäder. When they overtook the business, enquiries were managed with physical note-taking, and their availability was limited. Today, they’ve made an impressive digitalisation journey with the help of Telavox.

Necessary to digitise the entire business

Stig Söderlin, Peter and Katarina’s dad as well as predecessor, ran Stadsbostäder successfully. However, he wasn’t big on computers. Instead, he stored all documents in folders. Peter quickly realised that it wouldn’t be sustainable to work with all that amount of paper if they wanted to modernise. They had to digitise.

“We manage property for others – both the property owners and the tenants. Our main mission is to strike a balance so that both parties are satisfied. We went with Telavox to offer our clients a more efficient service”, Peter says.

High demand for availability and service

Today’s tenants demand availability, quick service and high standard. As a result, the demands from property owners are also higher. They want to keep an eye on reports, stats and results in real-time. This is apart from seeing issues, enquiries and the number of maintenance tasks.

The time-consuming system harmed the company

“Ten years ago, our clients call the service department to a single phone and then the tasks were assigned via notes to our property owners. It was hard to track tasks and our availability wasn’t optimal. This time-consuming system negatively affected other parts of our service. One of the first actions we took was to install a good PBX with an effortless queuing system“, Peter says.

When Telavox was introduced for the employees, they were a bit worried that they would be inundated with requests because of the increased availability.

“You need to have the whole organisation with you when purchasing new technology. That’s why I briefed the employees about this in time and made sure that everyone got educated in the system”, Peter says.

There was no cause for worry. The change has provided the company with happier customers, which also makes things easier for the employees. With the help of Telavox, Stadsbostäder has increased its availability. Today, the customers aren’t met by a busy tone when they need to report an issue – the cloud PBX distributes the calls.

“Thanks to Telavox, we’ve increased our availability with over a hundred per cent. It’s so much easier to sort the support enquiries. Before this, we had two phone numbers, now there’s just one, and the IVR takes you to the right place”, Katarina says.

Siblings Peter and Katarina Söderlin are the second generation to run the management company Stadsbostäder. With the help of Telavox, they’ve undergone an impressive digitalisation.

Before Telavox, Stadsbostäder had limited phone hours. Today, the staff is available from morning till evening.

Valuable stats through Telavox

“Through Telavox we get stats about the number of calls, how long the customers have to wait, and which calls we haven’t answered. All data is valuable in assessing how to optimise ad improve our service. We analyse the results and can see when there’s the most traffic. By doing so, we can see when we need to have staff differently. It also helps with giving us an adequate report basis for the property owners”, Peter says.

Customers prefer to communicate in different ways

Peter has noticed that not all customers want to call, but instead prefer other ways of communicating.

“We have installed the Telavox widget on our website. It shows our opening hours and provides different communication channels such as email and telephone. Our next step is to implement the live chat.”

The company’s “personality” shines through via the PBX

Katarina likes that you can showcase the company’s “personality” through the PBX.

“We picked a local company number. That signals to our customers that we’re geographically close to them and therefore can provide them with quick support. I’m also a bit allergic to impersonal voice messages. As a client, you want to know that it’s Stadsbostäder that you’re talking to. All of our employees have recorded their own message – there’s no standard message.”

Stadsbostäder has made an impressive digital journey in a short time – and they keep evolving. Both Peter and Katarina points out that despite the technical innovations, it’s just as important to utilise the priceless experience that their father Stig shared.

“The foundation of the change process is to combine experience with innovation. Dad didn’t own a computer, but even if he had a large stack of enquiries, he always left with an empty desk. He was very knowledgable and could handle the assignments correctly. I, on the other hand, need digital tools like Telavox”, Katarina says.