How Technology Improves Responsive Repairs Delivery

Technology is probably the most significant driver in transforming how property services are delivered for social housing. This is particularly critical with responsive repairs for several reasons:

• The efficiency of responsive repairs is central to residents’ overall satisfaction with the service.
• Timely responses and streamlined processes help ensure that repairs are completed quickly and in a single visit.
• Improving the efficiency of responsive repairs cuts costs and releases resources to be invested elsewhere.

So where, specifically, can better technology based on cloud and mobile services help? Here’s a quick summary based on how we’ve deployed IT across multiple property services partnerships.

Reporting Faults

The first thing residents need is an easy and convenient way to report faults 24/7. People are accustomed to using self-service through online portals, mobile apps and online chat and often prefer these channels to waiting in a phone queue.

Technology can link fault reporting to dynamic scheduling and automated stock control systems to reduce the administrative overhead.

Customer Contact and Updates

Modern communication systems allow for proactive messaging to update customers on any changes to their appointment and send reminders via email or SMS to ensure there are no problems with access. This helps to maintain safety compliance and high first time fix rates.

Optimising Resources

Every social housing provider is under pressure because of rising costs and increased regulation. Deploying the right technology for responsive repairs can reduce duplication and support better coordination with other service areas such as voids and safety compliance.

Technology offers the opportunity for more accurate fault diagnosis, either through guided questioning by service agents or through the Internet of Things that can remotely read fault codes on boilers and other equipment.

Better diagnosis ensures that the appropriate time, skills and equipment are allocated to each repair so that more are completed during a single visit. Technology can also improve route planning to minimise operatives’ travel time and impact on the environment.

Asset Management Data

Technology can eliminate the gap between responsive repairs and asset management by allowing operatives to use mobile devices to instantly update centralised records following repairs, checks and replacements.

Tracking Customer Satisfaction

Offering residents a simple and convenient way to provide feedback on the responsive repair service makes a big difference to the quantity and quality of customer satisfaction data. A few questions that can easily be answered online will give you a richer understanding of how residents feel.

To find out more about how Osborne deploys technology to improve responsive repairs, contact Jo Fletcher ([email protected]) or visit our resource centre.