Diagnosing a repair without the proper guidance is resource hungry. You could be sending the wrong operative to the wrong job and that could be costly and could also result in lower customer satisfaction.
A very simple example of a common issue that social housing organisations face is that of damp. Damp either in bathrooms or kitchens. Their customer either calls this issue in or they use a very basic customer portal to log the issue. They book an appointment for an operative to come around to fix the issue. The operative receives the job for damp and comes armed with the correct resources to fix the issue. However, on arrival the operative finds that actually the reason there is damp in the bathroom is because the customer is using the bathroom with the windows shut and they don’t open them after they’ve finished to dry the room out. You can see where this is going, the customer is annoyed that they could have been told about ventilation at the onset saving their time waiting for the operative. The job was a waste of costly resource time and KPI’s will be affected as the job wasn’t actually completed by the operative.
What can be done to help with diagnosing the “correct” repairs? This is where image based reporting comes in.
Image based reporting has many benefits:
- Images are a universally understood and therefore easier to use rather than explaining the issue on a call. Pictures also remove the language barrier for many customers where English is not their first language.
- The appearance can be made to look uniform and in line with your existing branding.
- Some customers can be intimidated by having to call and speak to someone. A self-service portal removes that barrier. People are reluctant to pick up the phone and speak to someone especially if English is not their first language.
Once the customer has logged on to the portal, ideally they should be presented with simple options on the various places on their property where the repair is required. This screen should be completely adaptable to the types of properties you have. If your customer lives in a flat then a different set of images should appear. These screens could also be branded in your colours with your logo. The system should have the option of changing the language, once the customer has logged on.
The diagnostic trees under these images should be as long or as short as you like and adaptable so you can change the diagnostic tree with repairs that often come up like the damp issue mentioned before. Just to be clear a diagnostic tree is all the paths that the customer could take to log the correct repair a bit like a call centre script. Under each of these images there is a diagnostic tree that your customer would follow until they get the correct fault.
So, the ideal customer self-service portal for reporting repairs should be:
- Image based as already explained
- So easy, simple & straightforward to use that NO TRAINING is required.
- 24/7 – Accessibility via computers & smartphone apps. Customers can log a repair from the comfort of their own homes or when they are out and about.
- The service should be available in a multitude of languages (your customer should easily be able to change the language once on the portal)
- Live chat integration is also useful so customers can ask further questions or discuss issues.
- There should be an area where customers can upload a photo of the ‘issue they have’ that the operative can review before they arrive.
- Allow customers to select a suitable appointment slot with the relevant trades right after diagnosis without them leaving the portal. Customers should be able to reschedule appointments later if their circumstances change.
- Match with your existing branding
It is equally important to get it right at your contact centres where possibly more complex repairs get logged.
The ideal repairs diagnostics system for Contact Centres should be:
- Image based, again like customer self-service portals
- So easy to use that no prior knowledge of repairs diagnostics is required.
- Contact centres should have more detailed diagnostic trees for more complex repairs reporting, with videos, prompts and questions to guide contact centre staff in the correct direction.
- Contact centre managers should easily be able to build diagnostic trees that are accurate to your properties – for instance areas prone to flooding, blocked drains
- Seamlessly integrate with any housing, repairs and maintenance, CRM and scheduling systems with open API’s so it all looks the same to your customer.
If you would like to learn more about what ROCC can provide, please get in touch through our website, Linkedin, or Twitter.
