Meet the team: ŌCHT’s call centre
ŌCHT’s call centre team answers more than 25,000 calls a year.
The voices of Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust love river fishing, bead art and baking; quiz nights, cats and movies; albatrosses, volunteering at a community garden, and playing with the kids and grandkids.
They also know heaps about leaking taps, kerbside recycling, internet connections and how to use a heat pump - and nearly anything else people might need help with as they make their ŌCHT house their home.
Elise-Maree, Faye and Kim are usually the first people you’ll hear when you call ŌCHT. They’re our Housing Champions - ŌCHT’s call centre team - and they do all they can to connect people with the help and advice they need.
They do much more than answer the phone: they’re housing support advisors who provide advice, who connect callers with the people they need at ŌCHT and who help callers navigate to the supports a landlord can’t provide.
They answer more than 25,000 calls a year, mainly from people who need immediate tenancy advice, who want to talk to our specialist tenancy team, or who have property maintenance issues that need to get fixed.
They also connect people with our employment coach, our whanau support worker and our digital coaching service. If you have a question about any of these services, they can help.
You might also hear from them even if you don’t call ŌCHT. They call tenants in times of need, such as during the pandemic, and they do phone surveys to help improve our services.
“Sometimes we’re answering difficult calls, sometimes we’re having a neat chat with a regular caller,” Kim says.
“No two days are the same, and that’s what makes it so rewarding.”
Some callers ask for help with things you wouldn’t expect from a landlord.
“Sometimes we’re a bit of a directory service; sometimes people genuinely don’t know where to go, so they come to their landlord for help,” Elise-Maree says.
This means our Housing Champions also help people connect with health and social services, enforcement agencies and even to where they’ll get kerbside recycling and city council-related advice and services.
“One minute we can be explaining how to apply for a home, the next it might be where to get a bus timetable.
“You never know what you’ll be asked, but it’s all about doing the best we can to help people out.”
Our Housing Champions love getting your calls, and they work hard to make sure tenants, contractors and the public get connected. They all agree: it’s a job where you can make a real difference to people’s lives - and they love making it happen.