As part of our ongoing effort to improve, align and streamline services, this month sees a new milestone for Torus as we launch our brand-new single website:

Developed and tested with involved customers through Tenant Voice, the customer voice and feedback has played a vital role in the end result. The new website offers updated and consistent information, streamlined menus, simplified navigation, simple intelligent search facility and a new FAQ Chat Box, allowing visitors to the new website to better interact with Torus using a range of devices.

The new single website allows Torus to better engage with customers and stakeholders, through updated digital means. The new website replaces all previous Torus websites and is now the home of all landlord services for existing customers, Torus charitable arm, Torus Foundation, Torus Developments, Explore Torus, where you can find out all about the Torus Group’s aims and commitments and where potential customers can Find a Home.

The website also features improved accessibility. To make sure everyone can access the information they need about their tenancy, support available to them, homes they can rent or developments in the area, we have invested £12,000 into Reachdeck, a digital inclusion toolbar, formerly Browsealoud, which adds speech, reading, and translation tools to the page, making content more accessible for people with dyslexia, literacy challenges, English as a second language, and mild visual impairments.

Paul Warburton, Torus Group Housing Director, said:

“As an organisation, customer accessibility of our service is a key priority, we want our website to be informative, easy to use and accessible for customers of all abilities.

“We listened to our customers and our investment in Reachdeck demonstrates our pledge to the Together with Tenants Charter commitment regarding communications, and will hopefully help towards ensuring that more of our customers have clear and accessible information from Torus on the issues that matter to them.”

We have also added two new features - Intelligent search functionality and FAQ Virtual Assistant - to allow website visitors to find the right information as quickly and easily as possible:

• The Intelligent and adaptive search does more than just search for specific words but uses powerful natural language processing to understand what it is you are looking for, helping you find more relevant information quickly.
• An interactive virtual assistant that provides a more natural way of interacting with our website and services, taking advantage of machine learning to provide visitors and customers with an experience that is tailored to them.

At launch the virtual assistant will be able to answer questions based on the information available on the website, but over time we will be enabling more tailored services to customers to access our services in a more personalised way.

Torus customers are now able to easily access options to pay their rent, report repairs, get in touch, give feedback, raise issues, access support and keep up to date of work we are doing in our neighbourhoods. Other visitors to the site can apply for a home and access a vast range of information. This is what they had to say about the new site:

“I like the way you change the colour to help people read better, Reachdeck itself is going to open up endless opportunities for people with additional needs and there is audible format so excellent job guys I can’t thank you enough.”

Katrina, 41, St Helens

“Very accessible.”

John, 65, Liverpool

“I do think Torus provide very professional and the highest standards to their website."

Angela, 78, Warrington

“Easy to follow the signposts. I also enjoyed the pictogram icon and the illustrative and voice over of word definitions.”

“It is now it is a vast improvement in attaining real inclusion for all Torus tenants in the Torus heartland.”

“I like the adaptability of the website in general and the lay out of the information pages.”

“Once again it shows how Torus truly have an interest and genuine concern for the wellbeing and inclusivity of all Torus tenants in the heartland.”

James, 60, St Helens

“Content good and straight to the point.”

Rebecca, 36, St Helens

Christine Vaudrey, Torus Director of Strategy & Communications, added:

“We hope our customers and stakeholders find the new website fresh, modern and informative as we have worked hard to make sure it is designed in a way that allows our online visitors to easily access the services and information they need, day and night.

“The digital world is always evolving, and our new website has been designed to develop over time and is one part of Torus’s modernisation journey to deliver on our commitment to provide the best services we can.

“As our customers and stakeholders play a key role in this journey, we welcome feedback from on how it can be improved.”

Tenants were at the heart of decisions, if you are interested in getting involved with Torus and making a difference by having your say on improving services, please find out more about Tenant Voice and how you can have your say here.

If you wish to give feedback on the website, please email communications@torus.co.uk.

Important information about Internet Explorer and Torus websites

Please note that to provide the most secure and reliable service to our visitors the Torus Group websites will no longer support the Internet Explorer web browser.

If you are using Internet Explorer the Torus site will not look or work as it should, but more importantly you will not be able to access the accessibility toolbar.

We recommend upgrading to the latest Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Firefox.

Microsoft support for Internet Explorer 11 on many versions of Windows ended on June 15 2022. Click here for more information.