Blog / Solutions · SELF-SERVICE REPAIRS SOLUTION

TENANT SELF-SERVICE REPAIRS REPORTING

With the sector working to balance greater levels of demand against skills shortages and cost inflation, it is crucial that housing repairs reporting is accurate. This assists DLOs and their contractors to supply the appropriate time, skills, and materials to achieve a first-time fix.

The ability for tenants to raise their own tickets comes with the opportunity to work with clean data – before it reaches planners and dispatchers. Capture forms integrated within OptusApp can be designed so that data is consistent and complete, in a state that’s intuitive for both the tenant and the landlord. What are the elements that should be included?

• Accurate property identifiers (a home versus a public realm area)
• Urgency of report (catching safety issues as early as possible)
• Uniform categories (for intelligent scheduling)
• Support for all tenants (audio and video intake options on mobile and desktop)
• Assistance (prompts to help tenants identify faults)
• Validation (if a form is incomplete, signposting to 'last resort' reporting options)

The success of self-service relies on testing. This can be across small sample sets, including property types (flats or houses), locations, or even languages. They may be continually refined and updated with little training required for customer service teams.

24/7 SELF-SERVICE REPORTING

What can the move to 24/7 'always-on' repairs reporting provide a housing organisation? As introduced, new workflows reduce manual administration and cost. This cuts through the issues of staffing helplines late into the night (where some landlords pay premiums) and instead allows for agents to be re-deployed into the early morning window. They may also be retrained for inspection and compliance roles, to determine longer-term upkeep/improvement or preventative works.

This also removes pressure from planning teams. Data fed seamlessly into an HMS/CRM or ERP means they now begin the working day with head-start: A clear picture of tickets, priorities and an upgraded representation of grouped issues, such as failed assets (think examples such as community boilers and lifts). For operators who've chosen assisted scheduling in their mobile workforce management, this can lead to a prompt scale-up of field resources before the dispatch.

Tenant satisfaction scores are supported as reports are logged with digital receipts and no waiting on hold. They are responded to quickly with follow-up calls or emails. It can also alert housing and welfare officers to adjust their own schedules before the day has begun.

INTERACTIVE REPAIRS REPORTING AND DYNAMIC APPOINTMENT BOOKING

Organised data and modern intake options might assist your repairs scheduling, however this is only one half of the automation that is readily available to UK Housing. Batch or overnight processing of repairs orders provides little understanding (or opportunity) for optimised scheduling and dispatch.

Dynamic scheduling is an upgraded form of automation that goes beyond the expectations of modern self-service channels; serving real-time benefits to all parts of your field service operation.

What are some of the warning signs for field service operators in the repairs and maintenance sector?
It's time to integrate real-time field workforce management when operators find their technicians spend more time travelling than on site, fuel costs are too high (because of increasing mileage), too much time is spent planning jobs, there are too many jobs that you just can't fit in, or you rarely complete planned days and rely on costly overtime (find out more here).

Real-time scheduling solutions suit a wide range of Housing organisations and their suppliers. In a complex and challenging environment, scheduling teams frequently experience the effort to adapt to each order without any option to consider (or account for) knock-on effects.

The SaaS solution will identify and reoptimise resources in real time, to consider the most critical work orders amongst thousands of processes that are both already in progress and planned well in advance. All planning parameters are taken into account, including the exact mapping of technician qualifications and skills, and comprehensive digital access to necessary spare parts and equipment.

Embedded, optimised time-of-day travel routes are considered within entire daily tours, to lessen the effects of delays, CO2, and fuel costs. Key to optimised planning in this instance is a realistic repair time. Based on this information, the geocoded tenant location data and SLA, (plus countless other parameters) only the next possible appointment is offered.

Take an example workflow, using FLS VISITOUR dynamic scheduling:

• The tenant raises their clean data repair ticket via self-service. In the background, the dynamic scheduling algorithm has calculated the necessary operative skills, parts, and embedded travel routes against the existing plan to produce cost-optimised availability.
• The tenant is notified automatically and the choice of the two accurate appointment proposals is confirmed. The technician is directed to the correct building in the fastest time possible, having been given a route away from rush hour traffic. The technician notifies the dispatch manager of their arrival and the tenant is on the lookout, having followed the accurate ETA data.
• Using the single-source of truth ticket detail and asset history, a first-time fix is completed. The outcome is written into the CRM, with a photo of the completed work. This allows for the production of stock adjustments, charges, and receipts – including a report to the tenant, along with a satisfaction survey.
• The technician is provided their next route and an automatic ETA notification is sent to the next customer.