CiviCase usage at De Goede Woning

De Goede Woning is the first Dutch housing corporation to start using CiviCRM, and they are in the middle of their implementation process, expecting to go live in March 2011. One of their main loves in CiviCRM is the functionality of CiviCase, which they will use quite extensively for the following processes:

• manage the process of selling a house, including steps like talking to the bank, valuation of the house, technical survey etc.
• manage situations where customers are late paying rent and will be followed during a pay back agreement or in the worst cases, legal proceedings
• manage social contacts for all kinds of problems with customers in their environment (alcohol, abuse, noise, committed client that support neighborhood project etc)
• manage the process of renting out commercial property

Let me work out one example in a little more detail: some customers have a record of problematic situations, and De Goede Woning has a policy to visit these customers on a regular basis, say once every 3 months. Experience has taught them this pro-active approach is the best, and regular contact can help to solve many problematic situations without escalation. In CiviCRM, they use CiviCase to create a case for these customers, and then set up the timeline so that these visits are planned in advance for a certain period. The employee that does the visits can see the activities planned for him/her in advance. This is for them a huge improvement on their current situation, where the employees have to remember that they need to visit these customers, and check in their diaries when the last visit was. Fairly simple from a functional point of view, but a major contribution to their daily needs!

Erik