Ymere
Dutch housing association Ymere embraces POM’s powerful toolkit
The system evaluates each tenant’s payment behavior over the past six months. Based on that, it automatically places the tenant in the appropriate flow—no manual action required.
Edmond Smies
Project Officer Rent Collections
Ymere, one of the largest housing corporations in the Netherlands, has been a POM client since the very beginning. Edmond Smies, project officer for rent collections, clearly remembers the first time Ymere sent out emails and text messages with payment links to tenants with overdue rent. What started as a small experiment has grown into a long-term partnership. Today, POM helps Ymere design collection strategies, build intelligent flows, execute data enrichment campaigns, and even handle utility meter submissions.
Ymere rents out around 80,000 social housing units, commercial spaces, and parking spots across Amsterdam, Almere, Haarlem, Haarlemmermeer, and Weesp. Tenants can choose between three payment methods: direct debit, manual bank transfer, or payment via an iDEAL link provided by POM. “That last option has been available for about a year and a half as a replacement for the old payment slip,” says Edmond. “Roughly 8,000 tenants now use it.”
The power of POM’s payment link
The collaboration with POM began ten years ago with this iDEAL payment link. “At the time, POM was still a startup,” Edmond recalls. “Sending payment links by email or SMS was barely used in the housing sector, and we were eager to try it out. One big advantage of working with POM is that it’s completely white-labeled—tenants only see Ymere’s name and contact details in the communications. That builds trust.”
Smart flows based on tenant behavior
Four years later, the partnership evolved. POM supported the rent collection team in building flows based on tenant classification. “Before, we had one standard flow for all late payers,” says Edmond. “But there’s a big difference between tenants who are occasionally late and those who consistently miss deadlines. The original messaging was quite strict, which didn’t feel fair. Together with POM, we developed four flows that reflect the tenant’s payment behavior. Each is progressively firmer. The system analyzes payment data from the last six months to determine the appropriate flow. No human intervention is needed. This not only saves us work—it also significantly reduced complaint calls about message tone.”
Collection process redesign
With the new flows and Ymere’s recent ERP system upgrade, the entire collections process had to be rethought. “Previously, we could initiate the process anytime. Now, it has to be scheduled,” Edmond explains. “Together with POM, we defined optimal dispatch times for each flow. This avoids a flood of inquiries all at once.”
Data enrichment campaign
Recently, Ymere asked POM to help collect more up-to-date contact details. “We want to be able to reach tenants quickly,” Edmond says. “Not just for arrears, but also in case of emergencies. So we’re using email, SMS, and post to send tenants a message with a link or QR code to update their contact information.”
Edmond is impressed with POM’s progress. “They started with payment links. We’ve watched them grow into a full-service provider offering smart tools that we’re happy to use.”
Online meter readings
It’s not just the collections department using POM. The service charge team is piloting POM to send annual statements. One recent initiative involved gathering water meter readings for buildings with shared meters. “Every apartment has a sub-meter, but we can’t read them remotely,” says Muqadas Khan, senior team member at Housing Evaluation. “Previously, tenants submitted readings through all kinds of channels—we entered them manually into Excel and then into our system. It was time-consuming and error-prone.”
The pilot offered three options: scan a QR code, enter a URL to access a personalized webpage, or fill in a return form by mail. “A large group chose the digital route, and that data was imported automatically,” Muqadas explains. “We manually entered the return forms into the same system. Now, all the data is processed in one clear, digital overview. No more Excel hassle!”