Met klantclassificaties van POM benadert Accolade huurders persoonlijk
With POM’s tenant classifications, Accolade approaches tenants in a more personal way.
“What’s more, we’re now less likely to overlook tenants with smaller arrears. That’s important, because at that stage you might still be able to prevent bigger problems.”
Sandra Groenewold, Franciska Oosterloo & Renske Brandjes
Rental consultants & Functional manager
Every housing association faces it: tenants who don’t pay their rent. But not all rent arrears are the same. There’s a big difference between someone who consistently pays late and someone who’s just a one-time defaulter. And you don’t want to address both in the same way. That’s why housing association Accolade, together with POM, has implemented tenant classifications. This allows them to approach each tenant in a way that fits their specific situation.
Accolade manages around 16,000 rental homes in the regions of Drachten, Franeker, Heerenveen, Joure, and Sneek. To prevent evictions, the housing corporation has long embraced a social approach to collections. Rental consultants Sandra Groenewold and Franciska Oosterloo go to great lengths to connect with tenants facing payment difficulties—calling, emailing, sending letters, and even visiting them at home. Their newest tool: tenant classification.
Targeted Messaging with Tenant Classifications
Tenant classifications allow Accolade to tailor communications to fit each tenant’s unique situation. Within their ERP system, Tobias 365, tenants can be categorized as one-time defaulters, frequent defaulters, non-payers, new tenants, deceased, and so on. Corporations using POM’s software can attach these classifications when submitting outstanding receivables.
This enables POM to automatically send personalized payment reminders that match each tenant’s profile—whether in tone, channel, number of messages, or even the type of support offered. As Sandra puts it:
“Previously, everyone received the same reminder letter at the same time each month. Now we have multiple flows—ranging from friendly (green) to firm (red)—which allows for a much more personal and fair approach.”
Efficient and Respectful Collections
Franciska adds:
“It’s helpful to address tenants more specifically. Someone who’s late once gets a different message than someone heading to a bailiff. That matches our personal approach and saves us time.”
The time savings come in part from internal alerts triggered within the POM system. When a tenant reaches a critical phase in a flow, consultants receive an email suggesting the next action—whether it’s a phone call, home visit, or bailiff referral.
“We no longer need to track this ourselves,” Sandra says. “That gives us peace of mind and helps us act sooner on smaller arrears—before they snowball into bigger issues.”
A Strong Start with Full Support
The classification system went live a few months ago. Functional administrator Renske Brandjes, responsible for Tobias and connected apps, led the implementation.
“This was an important project, and we wanted to get it right from the start. Early on, we were hesitant to abandon our old arrears lists. But thanks to support from POM consultant Jeffrey Pijnenburg, we moved forward with confidence.”
Franciska recalls:
“We had our doubts—would we pull this off? But Jeffrey guided us step by step. He understood our ERP system and knew exactly who to contact at Aareon when needed. That gave us the trust we needed.”
Looking Ahead
Accolade is already exploring the next step.
“POM regularly suggests ideas for improvement, which is great,” says Renske. “We recently joined a webinar on automating the first rent invoice using flows. We implemented it immediately!”