Shelter
Reimagining Service Triage Across Shelter’s National Support Services
Key outcomes:
Mapped and analysed Shelter’s national support ecosystem across digital and human service channels
Defined a scalable triage approach focused on urgency, complexity and user need
Produced an extensive roadmap covering service delivery, technology and operational change
Identified opportunities to reduce advisor workload and improve coordination between services
Created phased recommendations across CRM workflows, integrations and digital support pathways
Established a practical foundation for future transformation planning
Business Context
Shelter provides housing advice and support services to vulnerable people across the UK through helplines, webchat, digital advice content, social media and local support hubs.
Demand for these services was extremely high.
Users often approached Shelter in moments of stress and uncertainty, believing their situation required immediate intervention. In practice, the urgency and complexity of each case varied significantly. Some users required emergency escalation or specialist legal support, while others could potentially be supported through guidance, self-service content or lower-intensity digital channels.
At the same time, Shelter’s support services had evolved across multiple systems, operational processes and independent channels.
Information gathered in one service was not always transferred effectively to another. Advisors were spending significant time gathering repeated information, while demand across channels continued to increase.
The challenge was not simply improving digital journeys. It was understanding how to scale support delivery sustainably while ensuring vulnerable users could access the right level of support at the right time.
To support this, Shelter commissioned The Curve and Hive IT to deliver a large-scale discovery focused on triage, service coordination and future transformation planning.
The Problem
Shelter’s support ecosystem had become increasingly difficult to coordinate.
Users experiencing immediate housing crises often entered the same support pathways as users seeking reassurance or lower-priority advice. Advisors spent significant time repeating information gathering processes, while users moving between channels frequently lost context or continuity.
Many operational processes also relied on disconnected systems, manual workflows and inconsistent approaches between teams.
Existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM workflows were central to Shelter’s support operations, but disconnected channels, manual processes and inconsistent workflows limited the organisation’s ability to coordinate services and prioritise users effectively.
The discovery identified several recurring challenges:
Limited integration between support channels and operational systems
Inconsistent definitions of urgency and complexity
High operational pressure on frontline teams
Repeated information gathering across user journeys
Difficulties routing users consistently between services
Limited visibility across the wider support operation
The challenge was not reducing support.
The challenge was ensuring specialist advisor capacity could be prioritised effectively while maintaining accessible support across every channel.
The Challenge
This was not a standalone technology project.
The discovery required Shelter, Hive IT and The Curve to understand how users navigated support services, how advisors managed demand and how operational processes, Dynamics CRM workflows and disconnected systems affected Shelter’s ability to scale support effectively.
The project needed to balance:
User accessibility and operational efficiency
Human support and digital self-service
Immediate service pressures and long-term transformation planning
Existing technical limitations and future scalability
Any future triage approach also needed to avoid disadvantaging users with lower digital confidence, accessibility requirements or urgent support needs.
Rather than proposing large-scale platform replacement, Shelter needed a realistic roadmap capable of validating ideas incrementally, making better use of existing systems and reducing implementation risk.
The Solution
The Curve worked alongside Hive IT and Shelter to deliver a large-scale digital transformation discovery focused on improving how vulnerable users access support services across Shelter’s multi-channel ecosystem.
Combining service analysis, technical consultancy, Dynamics CRM and integration strategy, and operational transformation planning, the project defined a scalable triage approach capable of prioritising high-risk cases, reducing advisor workload and improving coordination between digital and human support channels.
Using extensive research across users, advisors and stakeholders, The Curve translated operational complexity into a phased roadmap spanning technology, workflows and future service delivery models.
Our Approach
The Curve worked alongside Hive IT and Shelter to deliver a large-scale discovery programme combining service analysis, operational review, technical consultancy and transformation planning.
Understanding Demand and Service Complexity
The first phase focused on understanding how users interacted with Shelter’s services, how advisors managed demand and where operational friction existed across the wider support operation.
The project included:
Stakeholder interviews
Advisor shadowing
Analysis of live support interactions
Workflow and systems mapping
CRM and platform reviews
Workshops focused on triage and service coordination
The discovery highlighted a consistent operational tension.
Demand for support was overwhelming, but not every case required the same level of intervention.
Many users defaulted to phone support regardless of urgency, often seeking reassurance or guidance that could potentially be delivered more effectively through other channels. Advisors spent significant time gathering repeated information, while users moving between services frequently lost context or continuity.
The discovery also identified that there was no consistent organisational definition of what constituted an urgent or complex case.
This made it difficult to prioritise limited specialist capacity consistently across the wider service ecosystem.
Designing a More Coordinated Support Model
Using the findings from the discovery phase, The Curve helped define a future-state approach for triaging and coordinating support services more effectively.
The recommendations focused on:
Assessing urgency and complexity more consistently
Routing users toward the most appropriate support pathway
Reducing unnecessary pressure on frontline advisors Improving continuity between services
Supporting more effective digital self-service journeys
Making better use of existing systems and platforms
Rather than recommending wholesale platform replacement, the approach focused on operational simplification, incremental change and practical integration opportunities.
This included improving Microsoft Dynamics CRM workflows, defining phased integration opportunities and identifying future reporting and analytics capabilities.
The project also identified opportunities to reduce advisor workload by improving information flow between services and reducing repeated information gathering during interactions.
Producing a Transformation Roadmap
The final output was an extensive roadmap covering short, medium and long-term recommendations across technology, operations and service delivery.
This included quick wins using existing systems, proof-of-concept initiatives, CRM and workflow improvements, integration opportunities and longer-term transformation planning.
The roadmap was designed to help Shelter validate ideas incrementally and reduce implementation risk before committing to larger-scale programmes of change.
The Results
National support ecosystem mapped and analysed: The discovery created a clearer understanding of how users, advisors, systems and service channels interacted across Shelter’s wider support operation.
Scalable triage approach defined: The project established a structured approach for assessing urgency, prioritising vulnerable users and routing service users toward the most appropriate support pathway.
Operational pressure points identified: The discovery highlighted opportunities to reduce advisor workload, improve coordination between services and simplify fragmented operational workflows.
Phased transformation roadmap delivered: Shelter received an extensive roadmap covering quick wins, proof-of-concept initiatives and longer-term recommendations across technology, service delivery and operational processes.
Reduced transformation risk through phased planning: Recommendations were structured around iterative validation and existing technology capabilities, helping Shelter explore transformation opportunities without immediate large-scale implementation risk.
he discovery gave Shelter a clearer understanding of how demand, urgency and operational complexity interacted across its national support ecosystem. Through service analysis, operational research and technical consultancy, The Curve helped define a more coordinated approach to triage, prioritisation and support delivery across digital and human service channels. The final roadmap combined immediate operational improvements with longer-term transformation planning, helping Shelter explore how support services could evolve sustainably while protecting scarce frontline capacity and improving how vulnerable users access help.
The discovery gave us a much clearer understanding of how people move through our support services and where operational pressures were affecting both advisors and service users. The recommendations helped us think more strategically about triage, prioritisation and how different systems and channels need to work together.