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      <link>https://www.curo-group.co.uk/news/news-stories/gain-new-online-skills-for-life/</link>
      <category>homepage</category>
      <category>news</category>
      <title>Gain new online skills for life</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Would you like to improve your online skills or know of another Curo resident that you think might benefit?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We've teamed up with We Are Digital, our expert training partner, they can show you how to connect with family and friends, filling in online forms, paying bills and help with getting back to work. They've helped lots of residents get online and explore.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Meet Shirley Ball, We Are Digital gave the help she needed to get online, so she can benefit from being connected to the internet, and not be left behind in this digital world.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe width="427" height="420" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LA88AomQXNI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All the training is free and will take place remotely, you'll receive six hours of help where you need it the most. We can help you with equipment and provide an internet connection to get you started.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To book your space or to find out more, call We Are Digital today on: 0114 551 2551&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Or you can register your interest with us and one of our colleagues will give you a call to talk through further, just drop an email to &lt;a href="mailto:lisa.walklin@curo-group.co.uk"&gt;lisa.walklin@curo-group.co.uk&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 25 Jan 2022 13:55:42 Z</pubDate>
      <a10:updated>2022-01-25T13:55:42Z</a10:updated>
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      <link>https://www.curo-group.co.uk/news/news-stories/curo-labs-prize-draw-winners-revealed/</link>
      <category>homepage</category>
      <category>news</category>
      <title>Curo Labs prize draw winners revealed</title>
      <description>&lt;p class="exec_text"&gt;Thanks to everyone who came to the &lt;a href="/news/news-stories/curo-labs-listening-and-taking-action/" title="Curo Labs - listening and taking action" data-id="5238"&gt;Curo Labs&lt;/a&gt; in January. Every Curo customer who came was entered into our prize draw to win a share of £200-worth of Love2Shop vouchers and one overall winner received a Google Home Hub. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;£50 in Love2Shop vouchers were won by:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Clive, Keynsham&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Liesel, Radstock&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Tony, Keynsham&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ivor, Bishop Sutton&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Top prize of an Google Home Hub went to Jennifer who lives in Bath. In addition Veronica of Twerton won an Amazon Echo Dot in our chatbots survey prize draw. Congratulations to all our lucky winners!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="/news/news-stories/curo-labs-listening-and-taking-action/" title="Curo Labs - listening and taking action" data-id="5238"&gt;You can read about the Curo Labs, what customers told us and what we'll be doing as a result in this blog post by Paul Harris.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 08 Feb 2019 14:07:06 Z</pubDate>
      <a10:updated>2019-02-08T14:07:06Z</a10:updated>
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      <link>https://www.curo-group.co.uk/news/news-stories/curo-labs-listening-and-taking-action/</link>
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      <category>blog</category>
      <title>Curo Labs - listening and taking action</title>
      <description>&lt;p class="exec_text"&gt;We ran our first ever &lt;a href="#" title="See what’s new at the Curo Labs" data-id="5223"&gt;Curo Labs&lt;/a&gt; in January 2019, inviting customers to drop in to our offices at The Maltings in Bath through a Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with an additional session on the Thursday evening.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Around 150 customers came along and gave us their thoughts on a number of improvements and projects we are currently working on. Aside from the insight this provided, we were also able to further develop relationships with these customers – most of whom stayed for around two hours – and deal with a number of additional issues, including the services we need to provide for deaf customers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="exec_text"&gt;What we heard, loud and clear, was:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;There is a lot of demand for the new self-service customer portal, MyCuro, which we launch in spring 2019.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Customers would prefer us to focus on providing flooring in a flat when they first move in - more than redecorations or a shower (where there isn’t one already).&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;There is a huge amount of support for the concept of a community van we could use to visit our customers. We also have a raft of ideas for what the van should include.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;We need to do more to help vulnerable customers access deals which make utilities and broadband less expensive.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Helping customers who are not comfortable with ‘digital’ technology start to use online channels is going to take a patient, tailored approach.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Our five-year property investment programme is a huge step forward, and customers are looking forward to this being published.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Our plans for great places – improving the look and feel of shared areas – are spot on: we just need to put in place a programme to deliver these improvements now.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;There are a number of myths and inaccuracies about Curo and social housing which we need to dispel.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Some customers are very happy using &lt;a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/07/control-life-alexa-role-public-service-chatbots-councils"&gt;‘chatbots’ or voice applications like Alexa (Amazon Echo).&lt;/a&gt; Some won’t touch them.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;There are services and support we need to look at which specifically helps disabled customers.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;We should do more to help customers understand &lt;a href="/residents/living-in-your-home/condensation-mould/" title="Condensation &amp;amp; damp" data-id="1251"&gt;how to avoid damp and mould.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe width="700" height="394" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Nwna9CRF9C4?rel=0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="exec_text"&gt;As a direct result of this feedback we will now:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Continue with the launch plan for the MyCuro portal, with an extra testing session for customers.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Agree our plans for a new ‘Void Standard’ for preparing our vacated homes for new tenants to move in (this should be happening in the next month).&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Develop a proposal for a Curo community van.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Create a full ‘financial and digital inclusion plan’ to support customers who want to access good value online services.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Publish and explain our five-year investment programme.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Better explain what we do and address some of the myths surrounding Curo.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Carry out a feasibility study for chatbots and voice applications like Amazon Echo.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Talk to Bath &amp;amp; North East Somerset Council about developing additional services for disabled customers.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Create new materials to help customers prevent damp and mould.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Everyone who came to the Curo Labs was entered into prize draws and we have handed out £200-worth of Love to Shop vouchers, an Echo Dot and a Google Home Hub. &lt;a href="/news/news-stories/curo-labs-prize-draw-winners-revealed/" title="Curo Labs prize draw winners revealed" data-id="5241"&gt;Congratulations to all our prize winners.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Feedback provided on the day was hugely positive – here are some of the comments we received:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;‘Excellent event – well done Curo’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;‘Lots of very interesting information – well worth the visit’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;‘Excellent interaction – so glad to be updated on Curo developments’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thanks to everyone who came along and gave their feedback. We’ll be doing this again, so keep an eye out for updates through our &lt;a href="/news/subscribe/" title="Subscribe" data-id="3357"&gt;regular customer emails.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 08 Feb 2019 09:13:19 Z</pubDate>
      <a10:updated>2019-02-08T09:13:19Z</a10:updated>
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