Aster Group strengthens customer service offering with senior appointments

• Andy Isted promoted to Transformation, Data and Technology Director
• Felicity Newman joins from Peabody as Operational Strategy Director
• Moves come as Group harnesses data and technology to inform a more proactive service delivery

Housing association Aster Group has announced changes to its operational strategy team as it invests in the services and products available to its evolving customer base.

Andy Isted has been promoted to the role of Transformation, Data and Technology Director. Formerly the Group’s Operational Strategy Director, Andy will now oversee the Group’s strategy to adapt and modernise its customer service offer through digital transformation and technology. Key to this will be effectively and increasingly using data and insights to be more proactive, invest in the right places and ultimately reshape service delivery for the 36,000 plus homes Aster owns and manages across the south of England and London.

His previous role has been filled by Felicity Newman, who joins from Peabody. She brings over a decade of experience in delivering business transformation across the housing, healthcare and technology sectors. Felicity’s role will see her support Andy in further embedding customer needs and interactions throughout Aster’s housing services and using learnings to shape the decision-making process and culture at the business.

Both Felicity and Andy will report into Chief Operating and Technology Officer Emma O’Shea. Emma said: “As we adapt to a fast-evolving social housing landscape, regulatory changes and an increasingly diverse customer base, it’s critical we show flexibility, agility and nimbleness in how we operate and continue to move to an even more dynamic service. The needs, complexities and expectations of our customers are also changing at an exponential rate. We need to harness technological solutions to make living in one of our homes, as easy as possible so our teams can focus on providing a proactive service in our communities, which is where we can add most value.

“Andy and Felicity bring with them a great deal of experience, and their roles are a sign of our dedication to improving the journey for our customers to make it as seamless and efficient as it can be.”

Andy Isted, Transformation, Data and Technology Director at Aster Group, said: “There’s a number of ways our customers can get in touch, and we fully anticipate that the demand for digital methods to do this to rise in the coming years.

“We can overlay this information on top of the insight from our stock condition survey, which has given us some great foundations to build intelligence and insight about all of our homes. But it doesn’t stop there – now it’s about harnessing those learnings, and other insights we gain from our daily interactions with customers so we can act quickly and help first time. From there we can integrate this knowledge into our other technology systems, pre-empt issues before they occur and create capacity for our teams to keep our homes up to the best standard and our customers safe and happy.”