The Importance of Accurate Diagnostics to Improve Efficiency

The ability to provide timely and accurate repairs and maintenance is essential for any social housing provider. The success of delivering these services is about much more than the speed of response, with accurate diagnostics needed from the outset.

Software that allows you to establish and configure robust fault diagnostics trees can be a game-changer in this endeavour, with tools that empower both tenants and housing providers who need to accurately triage repair needs. This ensures that operatives are allocated a job with the right information, tools and skills to get the fix right the first time.

In this article, we assess the importance of accurate diagnostics processes in delivering repairs and maintenance, and how having the right software in place can lead to significant improvements in operational efficiency and tenant satisfaction.

What to look for in a diagnostics tool?

Software that facilitates precise repairs and maintenance diagnostics not only minimises repeat visits and operational costs, but also significantly improves the overall experience for tenants. Here, we look at some of the key requirements when selecting a software provider.

• Diagnose at the first point of contact:A good diagnostic tool will be detailed enough to help contact centre staff (of varying levels of skills) correctly identify the required repair at the first point of contact. However, while needing to be detailed, the tool should also be easy to use.
• Good usability: If required, the diagnostics tool should be able to guide the user through a list of scripted questions to help diagnose the correct problem. Often there is high staff turnover in contact centres, so not all employees will always have enough experience with repairs.
• Adaptable: Customers should be able to use it to raise their own repairs. It should also be easy to use for customers, otherwise they won’t feel comfortable using it. By raising their own repairs, the process can be made more efficient and there will be less pressure on organisation staff to do it, meaning they can focus on other tasks. However, an organisation may want to limit which sorts of repairs customers are allowed to raise themselves, so it needs to be flexible.
• Can identify different property types: For example, leasehold properties may only offer a reduced set of repairs available due to different repair responsibilities or tenure types. This prevents them from raising and carrying out repairs that they’re not responsible for.
• Reduced human error: A good diagnostic tool will also take a lot of user error out of the equation. For example, it should be able to determine the difference between a routine and emergency repair, correctly setting the job priority automatically. This will help ensure that the organisation meets its KPIs, as jobs are prioritised correctly. It should also be capable of linking finance requirements to jobs (e.g. the budget that the work is coming from) without the user having to think about it or know this information. This will help with reporting on job costs.
• Differentiate between different work: Should be able to tell the difference between regular work (which can be carried out by the in-house workforce) and specialist jobs that need to be done by a specialist contractor. Again, this prevents the wrong person from being sent out to the job initially. This should be part of the process which does not need a user to know who carries out which types of work.
• Correct materials allocated: Materials for jobs can be identified and ordered ahead of the appointment. For example, if the repair is diagnosed correctly and the user knows that X type of repair always needs Y parts ordered to the site, then they can arrange this. This saves the operative from going out and not having the parts to do the job when they get there, which means a follow-up visit is required.
• Accurate set-up: For each repair, it’s important to identify the correct work required (generally done using schedules of rates). Each SOR will have a monetary cost and time allocated to it, which is what’s used to make up part of the job costs and often drives the scheduling requirements. If these are not correct, you won’t enjoy all the benefits listed in the section below. Accurate set-up is also important so operatives have the right skills to do a particular type of work. This needs to be regularly reviewed.

Why is it important to get the right repair diagnosed?

Now you know what to look for in a market-leading diagnostics tool, let’s explore why getting the right repair diagnosed is so important.

• Increases rate of first-time fixes.
• Less need to go back and do repeat visits.
• Better customer satisfaction.
• The correct person to do the job turns up as the problem has been correctly identified. This makes the best use of available resources and is good for operative morale, as they can complete the work efficiently and are not wasting time driving around to attend jobs they can’t do.
• Fewer repeat visits mean more resources are available to do other work.
• Jobs are carried out within the correct priority and timescales.
• Reduces the risk of carrying out jobs that are not actually required to be done by the organisation
• Accurate reporting on repairs and job costing.

How can ROCC help?

As you can see, finding software that has a good repair diagnostics tool is absolutely essential for any social housing provider, and is the key to enjoying all the benefits above.

Fortunately, ROCC’s market-leading software includes a best-in-class repair diagnostics feature. Our standalone, intuitive graphical diagnostics toolset massively cuts down the time it takes to diagnose an issue, organise a solution and successfully get it fixed.

From start to finish, it streamlines and simplifies the whole process, saving huge amounts of time and resources. Embedded seamlessly into your existing tenant-facing CRM, website or housing management system, it uses a series of easy-to-understand images to help your tenants correctly diagnose their problems.

It’s also available to back-office and contact centre staff; this reduces the need to train them in certain aspects, as with this toolset, you need no prior knowledge to be able to quickly and efficiently diagnose almost any issue, log repairs correctly and with the right priority, allocate the right materials and assign the right tradesperson for the job. This means your Right First Time fix percentages will improve, as will your Fixed First Visit stats.

It can also be fully customised to match all your branding, so it will blend in completely with the rest of your site rather than looking like a piece of external software, upholding your customers’ trust in your brand.

For more information about our repair diagnostics tool and other game-changing software features, get in touch with a member of our customer service team today.