“We were over-reliant on paper application forms, with only 45% of applications being submitted online,” commented the Home-Options Co-ordinator. “Paper forms were expensive to print and expensive to post, and some partners received less than one third of the forms they had sent out to potential applicants. In addition, applicants were never sure which parts of the form to complete and staff were spending a lot of time chasing up applicants for missing or incomplete information.”

“Working with Locata we developed our new ‘smart’ form and after some robust testing, started using it in May 2013. The form uses mandatory fields and conditional questions to ensure that the required information is provided before the form can be submitted. The form also prevents ineligible applicants applying (such as people without a connection to the area), reducing the time taken to process unsuccessful applications.”

“The online application form is our default option and applicants are encouraged to use it wherever possible (we’ve now got the time to take applications over the phone for those who can’t, thanks to the time saved with the online form). Online applications have increased to 90% of all applications and the quality of the information received from applicants is much improved, saving significant staff time.”