Housing association bpha has appointed Totalmobile to support the insourcing of its repairs and maintenance with the digitalisation of planning and scheduling.
The company said the project, due to go live by the end of 2022, will provide the organisation with full visibility of all works scheduled or in progress.
It will involve using the Connect job management software with remote assistance video technology to triage potential works before sending someone onsite. Totalmobile said this can reduce the need for many pre-inspections for surveyors and increase the number of jobs able to be completed correctly first time.
A customer relations portal will be made available, providing the repairs service contact centre with more control and visibility of the whole repair journey. It will be integrated with a contractor portal to provide a holistic view of the service.
A field service app on a mobile device will be used by surveyors and operatives completing repairs to access and report on jobs and help bpha meet its health and safety obligations.
Impact on customer experience
Mark Earle, head of inhouse maintenance for bpha – which provides homes in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc – said: “The main engagement most customers have with us is through our repairs service. We manage over 19,000 homes. Keeping them all safe, warm and in great repair has a huge impact on how customers rate their overall experience when dealing with bpha.
“Bringing our repairs and maintenance service in-house means that when our customers report a repair, it will be undertaken by a bpha colleague, who lives by our values, and puts customer satisfaction at the heart of everything they do.”
He added: “We will get complete visibility of the repairs process from top to bottom through easy-to-use dashboards, we will be able to understand exactly how much a job will cost in advance, schedule the works with the utmost of efficiency, and ensure our contractors and customers are well informed.”
