Powerful Property Matching in the Palm of Your Hand
"The app created by 101 is a very welcome addition to the service we offer our members...We’re very happy with the results."
Kim Gilden, Clarion Housing Group
Background
House Exchange is a joint venture between the Clarion Housing Group and 101 Websites, Apps & Email Marketing that allows social housing tenants nationwide to connect and mutually exchange properties. The service is based around a real-time multi-option database that is very simple to use and available 24/7 so users can search for their perfect property match any time of day or night. After registering for the service, members access the database via the intuitive and responsive House Exchange website. They specify the kind of property they are interested in and the database suggests potential matches. It also notifies the user of new matches as soon as they appear on the system.
The Brief
The House Exchange website provides a quick and effective means of matching tenants interested in a property exchange but relies on users logging onto the site or accessing their emails for match notifications. With this in mind, House Exchange asked 101 to create an app to complement their website's matching service that would enable members to stay updated and notified on matches wherever they are and whatever they’re doing.
The app needed to do everything their database could do, all easily and instantly accessible while the user was on the move. That included notifying users of property matches, allowing them to view properties and letting them know whenever another user had sent them a message.
Where property exchanges are concerned, receiving up-to-the-second information is crucial if your prospective new home isn’t going to be snapped up by somebody else, and that’s why the new app had to be fast, reliable and have great functionality.
Our Solutions
We designed an app that is a ‘front’ for the website. Not only does this approach keep costs down, but it also means that all information remains on the website, leaving the app uncluttered and free to act as a mirror, operating in real time and picking up changes as soon as they appear on the House Exchange database.
With the House Exchange app, users receive their notifications at the very same moment they arrive on the system. The app gives its users absolute freedom, including searching for properties and sending messages to each other.
Apps like this are a fantastic way to put the power into your user’s hand. They are invaluable for any service that relies upon sending out notifications and keeping users informed. They’re also extremely cost-effective. Developing an app like this one isn’t a drain on the budget and sending online notifications is free, unlike sending SMS, which can often be prohibitively expensive.
"Their solution to make the app a kind of shop window for our website was ingenious because our database still did all the work and we didn’t have to worry about any unnecessary plug-ins or add-ons."
Kim Gilden, Clarion Housing Group
