Written by Peter Luck, Managing Director, ROCC
There has always been a lot of talk about the importance of accurate repairs diagnostics in social housing. Recently, I was reading an excellent blog post by Tony Smith about an interview he conducted with Joe Carpenter, author of ‘Middle Ground: A Frontline Journey in Social Housing’.
Joe expressed concern that many landlords treat technology as a replacement for human connection rather than as something that supports it. He also warned that systems are often designed without input from those who will actually use them, and there should be more involvement from operatives, planners, supervisors and call-centre staff early on to aid the development process.
In his experience, he said that repairs are often misdiagnosed at the first stage because issues are logged with vague labels, resulting in the wrong tradespeople being sent to jobs. This not only wastes time and resources but also frustrates tenants. Another failing is that it’s normal for operatives to get drip-fed one job at a time, rather than having complete visibility over their daily or weekly workload.
All in all, I thought it was an excellent interview that shed light on the difficulties of delivering effective repairs and maintenance to social housing properties. It also really got me thinking about how we do things at ROCC.
We believe that the right software should facilitate precise repairs and maintenance diagnostics that not only minimise repeat visits and operational costs, but also significantly improve the overall experience for tenants.Â
That’s why our diagnostics tool can:
- Diagnose at the first point of contact
- Offer excellent usability
- Be highly adaptable
- Identify different property types
- Reduce human error
- Differentiate between different types of work
- Ensure the correct materials are allocated
- Facilitate accurate set-up
Finding software with a reliable repair diagnostics tool is absolutely essential for any social housing provider. Fortunately, ROCC’s market-leading software includes a best-in-class repair diagnostics feature.Â
Our standalone, intuitive graphical diagnostics toolset significantly reduces the time it takes to diagnose an issue, organise a solution and get it fixed.
From start to finish, it streamlines and simplifies the process, saving significant time and resources. Embedded seamlessly into your existing tenant-facing app, 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:
- 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 statistics.
It can also be fully customised to match your branding, so it will blend seamlessly with the rest of your site rather than looking like external software, thereby 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.
