Astraline Rescuing Residents!

 

 Staff at Astraline, “Johnnie” Johnson Housing Trust’s out of hours call centre braved the severe weather over the Christmas period - during one of its most challenging periods to date over its 10 year service history - to ensure the residents of its 80+ social housing clients were able to access the help they needed.

 

Last year during 21 December to 1 January, the call centre received 16,345 calls. This year, a staggering 35,446 calls were presented with over 6000 more repairs logged for the same period! These ranged from heating faults to burst or frozen pipes. One contract in Belfast had no water supply and the call centre even covered calls during the day for many clients who were themselves unable to open. The call centre pulled out all the stops by using home-based call operators to help with demand as well as calling upon all trained staff to help out.  

 

Paul Finch, Head of Astraline Services said “Our staff were remarkable; we operated at over 100% above our normal staffing levels for over a month as a result of the conditions, and on some days experienced increases in call volume of over 400% when the weather was at its worst! We remained open throughout the period, despite the severe weather. Without the commitment of our staff and the technological systems we have developed, we would not have been able to cope as well as we did.”