A unified platform for better resident experiences

Unite Students is the UK’s leading student accommodation provider, with around 70,000 rooms across 160+ properties. The organisation also offers 24/7 security and maintenance and hosts an app with Slalom-added functionality for quick communication and an automated Turn Around Room process, giving residents a seamless and safe living experience.

That’s a lot of data and operations to keep track of all at once, so Unite Students welcomed Slalom’s Salesforce consulting expertise. Together, they sought to improve workforce efficiency, support the company as it continued scaling, and deliver even better results for students.

“We wanted to have systems that integrated seamlessly, something that could collaborate with full visibility with residents during their living experience,” says Renato Ferreira, a senior transformation manager at Unite Students. “Then it was about standardising and creating best practices. It’s crucial that we have clear processes and standards for new team members and properties.”

To help Unite Students accomplish these goals, Slalom delivered a phased approach across a two-month discovery and seven-month rollout. The initial phase introduced Salesforce Service Cloud and Salesforce Field Service, as well as integration and data migration, while the next part of the rollout added Salesforce Experience Cloud.

A significant focus area for Unite Students was moving its various systems, which featured multiple resident touchpoints, into one single view. The organisation wanted to handle all well-being, conduct, and maintenance matters in one space, with clear ownership and consistent team collaboration. Slalom introduced Salesforce Service Cloud to create a more cohesive resident experience.

“It’s a good alignment of culture and values between Unite Students and Slalom,” says Martin Gardner, a director at Slalom. “All the people we interacted with really prioritised the well-being of residents. We could have pragmatic discussions about the functionalities and features of what we were delivering.”

“They realised that Salesforce isn’t just a one-and-done implementation,” adds Nathan Brunt, a senior delivery principal at Slalom. “They can actually grow with the system.”

The Service Cloud implementation gives Unite Students a comprehensive view of each student. With enhanced case management, the team can manage and resolve resident issues more effectively and achieve key SLA targets. Residents also remain informed on their cases through the Unite Students app, which features ongoing touchpoints and transparent communication.

Through one unified platform, Unite Students can view the history of previous interactions, allowing the team to handle sensitive issues more effectively. For instance, the team might approach conversations differently with a student who recently expressed a mental health concern or use certain language to speak about a missed payment with a student in financial debt.

When the project kicked off, Unite Students brought Slalom’s team to multiple properties to get an up-close look at the operations. That hands-on approach benefited both sides as they built out solutions.

“They had a system, but it wasn’t fully connected, and not everyone could access what they were looking for,” says Gardner. “This project was about streamlining that process, in turn making a nicer place for people to live, where they can interact and get things fixed when they need it.”

For example, a property might have purchased a new item for a room, such as a microwave, without realising a nearby property had a surplus. Slalom implemented better asset tracking by providing integration design direction to link Salesforce to existing and new systems within Unite Students.

Migration activities helped ensure existing data supports the new Salesforce instance. The data migration included bringing in asset and location data.

With the data in one place, Unite Students can streamline asset condition checks. Previously, a maintenance team member would be anchored to a reception desk to input information. Now, workers can handle checks on the go and log student communications more effectively, reducing manual tasks and duplicate jobs. They can also run reports comparing properties nationwide to get data-driven looks into which assets require maintenance or replacement.

Since the university year typically begins in September and ends in June, Unite Students has many people moving in or out at those times. Other residents often stay in the rooms during the summer, so the turnaround time to get those rooms ready is incredibly quick.

The Salesforce Field Service implementation addressed that challenge by building an automated checkout inspection. When a student checks out of a room, the Unite Students team is able to manage it through the unified dashboard, focusing efforts on the most urgent needs while saving time and money.

“We’ve built that into dashboards, and our team easily knows which rooms to prioritise. That’s been a game changer for us,” Ferreira says.

Cases are also being handled more quickly. Two common issues are residents accidentally being locked out of their rooms or filing a noise complaint. Previously, a guest would have needed to walk to the reception area to request assistance, or call the Contact Centre, which could be in another city, only for them to reach out to the property team on the resident’s behalf. Now, residents can alert the team through the Unite Students app, pinging team members and letting them know their exact location within seconds.

Beyond offering more immediate student support, Salesforce Experience Cloud has given Unite Students greater visibility when managing third-party suppliers for both planned and reactive maintenance.

After its collaboration with Slalom, Unite Students is primed to scale across more properties, all while building better relationships with both internal teams and students.