How Technology Transforms The Resident Experience
Margaret lives in a house that she rents from her local council. One day she notices that she has no hot water. Using her mobile phone she accesses the council website, finds the housing section and clicks on a button to report a fault.
She then answers a few simple questions on screen to confirm her address and what the problem is. She doesn’t know whether it’s a person or a computer asking the questions, and frankly, she doesn’t care. She just likes the fact that it’s easy.
A short while later she receives a text message saying that somebody will call at 2.00pm to fix the problem. She’s asked to press 1 to confirm or 2 to rearrange the appointment. She’s happy to confirm. What she won’t have seen is the highly automated workflow system the council’s property services partner uses. This quickly allocated the repair to a suitable operative and identified the heater element that would probably have to be fitted.
When the operative arrives at her house this is automatically logged by their mobile device. The operative confirms the details of the fault and quickly makes the repair. A couple of clicks on the mobile screen confirms that the repair is completed and the resident is happy. All relevant data about the repair such as the work carried out and the time taken is automatically logged.
The operative then moves on to their next job. This is just around the corner thanks to the efficient route planning application that minimises travel time.
Digitally Enabled Property Services
The whole of this scenario of efficiency and enhanced customer service is deliverable today. In fact, most of it is being delivered by Osborne Property Services teams across multiple partnerships using technology-enabled by Microsoft Dynamics 365.
The platform simplifies the process of implementing applications to manage workflows, quality control and data collection. It also provides more and easier options for residents to interact with the repairs service. Osborne has also integrated these services with the most common in-house IT systems such as Northgage, Orchard Housing, Capita and Aareon QL.
The way that digital services are deployed varies for each contract because each local authority or housing association has its own priorities. The flexibility of the platform and the tools we’ve developed makes it possible to configure the technology to meet the needs of each partnership.
There’s no doubt that digital technologies will play an increasingly important role in delivering repair and maintenance services to social housing residents. So it’s helpful to know that solutions already exist that can be easily expanded and adapted to meet individual needs.
For more information about using technology to improve the resident experience, contact Jo Fletcher ([email protected]).
