Housing associations in the UK face increasing consumer and economic regulations. In March 2023, the government also announced the Tenant Satisfaction Measures Standard, which requires all registered providers of social housing to collect and report annually on their performance on a core set of defined measures. This aims to provide tenants with greater transparency about their landlord’s performance.
With more focus on tenant satisfaction than ever before, keeping them happy is integral to ensuring your housing association thrives and survives. If you fail to respond to tenants on time and don’t meet their expectations, then you’ll likely feel the consequences.
In this article, we assess how field workforce management software can help to improve tenant satisfaction scores and service performance, while ultimately benefiting your housing association.
1. Centralising control to meet expectations
In most cases, the biggest impact on tenant satisfaction scores is poor communication and a lack of a follow-up when performing repairs and maintenance. With the introduction of field workforce management software, housing associations can centralise control and monitor field operations more effectively.
Decent software will help schedulers manage operational processes and respond to field workforce demands efficiently. This will help to improve communication and create a better link between the housing association and field-based staff, ensuring field operative skills and workloads are properly managed.
Not only will the tenant benefit from an improved service, but the software also allows them to complete tasks like booking follow-up appointments and checking the progress of their repairs.
By centralising control, housing associations will find it easier to learn from mistakes and experiences to ensure workflows are improved and tenant feedback is acted upon.
2. Digitalising repair logs
It’s not unusual for repair logs to be incomplete or go missing. This inefficiency can be eradicated by using software to digitise the process and improve the workflow between housing associations and the field workforce. This allows housing associations to schedule inspections and planned maintenance without human error.
Plus, real-time scheduling gives you visibility of your operatives’ availability and can determine the best route for maximum efficiency.
A housing association can then use any appointment data to satisfy record-keeping requirements and ensure future failures aren’t made. This should help to create a continuous cycle of improvement.
3. Limiting failed field service appointments
If a field operative is a no-show or there are incorrect skills or equipment to complete a first-time fix, then this will have a negative impact on tenant satisfaction. This unproductivity can be tackled by implementing field workforce management software to digitise instructions. For example, appointment data like asset details, maintenance work required, type of household, and how long the tenant has been waiting for the issue to be fixed can all be made available.
A real-time field workforce management system will consider as many parameters as possible to determine what’s required, benefitting the tenant, operative and housing association. It also allows the tenant to schedule and reschedule appointments at their convenience, so they can ensure the proposed appointment time is workable.
The data from the software will also enable housing associations to address any fall in tenant satisfaction and think about ways of improving ratings.
4. Building a better user experience
Ultimately, field workforce management software will improve the user experience for tenants and thereby boost overall satisfaction. Not only is this a result of a more joined-up process, but also through the positive experience they’ll have when using the digital system.
It’s important to understand what challenges tenants face and the improvements they want to see, keeping portals up-to-date to meet these demands and industry trends. The best way of improving tenant experience is to empathise and find solutions to current problems.
Field workforce management software will help you to respond to queries quickly and receive regular feedback, while ensuring operatives can complete the task at hand to the best of their ability.
How can ROCC help?
At ROCC, our housing maintenance software gives you everything you need to revolutionise your housing repairs and maintenance service.
Pete Luck, Business and Operations Director, ROCC, believes: “An entirely joined-up repairs system is a key driver to improving customer satisfaction.
“Having all the features from customer self-service – appointing and scheduling; optimisation; route planning and tracking; field service mobile; real-time interfacing to subcontractors; continuously managed performance visualisation – from a single supplier like ROCC, gives a level of control to the housing organisation that guarantees customers are kept happy.
“Ultimately improving customer satisfaction is at the core of what we do. Nothing makes a customer happier than ensuring their home is safe, well maintained and any issues they have are resolved promptly.”
Find out more about our housing maintenance software today and get in touch with a member of our experienced team.
