Control: This is What it Means When Customers are at the Heart of Our Business

Repair and maintenance contracts generally provide transparency – it’s easy to see how much has been delivered and what the cost of that was. But is that the same as feeling in control?

To be in control you need the opportunity to continually reshape the service around changing needs, better data, service innovation or residents’ preferences. To have this type of control you need a partner that is really committed to the concept of putting customers and their residents at the heart of the service.

Resident-Centered Consultation

This process starts with consulting residents and not making assumptions about how they prefer R&M services to be delivered. Some might interpret consultation as informing residents about how services are to be delivered and reporting feedback received through customer services. That’s not really customer-centered. Customer-centered means residents having a voice and being able to help shape the service in a meaningful way.

The mobilisation phase of our contract with Slough Borough Council included journey-mapping workshops with residents to identify what they liked and didn’t like about the current service, and improvements they would like to see. This helped define the initial service standards enabling us to make direct improvements as a result of their contributions. The value in the exercise is powerful for both us and the residents and we will continue to repeat a similar workshop so we can take more learning to improve what we do.

The results (verified by feedback) are that residents are receiving services in the way they want through personalised resident preference such as email, SMS or phone call, we have also implemented a call back option for resident convenience.

Is it Easy to Respond to Changing Needs?

In a long-term contract, not everything can be predicted. When new ideas and opportunities arise it’s important to have the type of relationship with your R&M service that sees putting those ideas into practice as a priority. A partner that is prepared to listen, understand what needs to be done, and come up with solutions.

Being in control is when your repair and maintenance partner responds to an idea or challenge by saying ‘we’ll try to find a way to do that.’ That’s what an adaptable, customer-first approach means. And when you have that you’ll probably find that you’re spending less and delivering more, which is the experience reported by our local authority customers.