Localz Blog: housing

Housing repairs - keeping up with the Joneses (or Amazon, Uber, DPD…)

6 minutes read

In the last year I’ve increasingly heard housing associations and repairs contractors recognising that customer expectations have shifted, and that they need to change to keep up. 

Some providers have an explicitly stated goal to “provide an experience like DPD or Uber” when carrying out services. By extension, this requirement is making its way into repair and maintenance contracts.

The global pandemic has accelerated these changes, as tenants require increased reassurance and communication...

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Customer communication: The key to remobilising housing appointments

6 minutes read

As lockdown measures ease, housing providers are gradually reinstating repair and maintenance visits. But with a backlog of appointments to work through, landlords have their work cut out to comply with recommendations.

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Customer feedback – what’s the point?

5 minutes read

For many years, the measurement of customer satisfaction [CSAT] has played an important and high-profile role in the housing sector. Most RSLs publish annual CSAT targets – for both repairs and ‘overall satisfaction’ – and they publish attainment against those targets. There’s a regulatory imperative behind this, and of course, CSAT provides a useful barometer of ongoing performance and quality, but what else could be, or should be, derived from gathering feedback? And what can be done to...

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How field service companies can embrace the grown up gig economy

5 minutes read

There are around  4.7 million gig workers in the UK at the moment. Consumer demands for “instant” everything has led to the rise of services like Deliveroo, Uber and Amazon Prime. For me, if I can’t get my hands on it now, I don’t really want it and I’m not the only one who feels like this.

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Wates Living Space introduces innovative new tracking service

2 minutes read

Leading affordable housing maintenance provider, Wates Living Space, has introduced a new repairs and maintenance tracking system for residents, in a move to enhance customer service and operational efficiency.

The Find my Engineer system, developed by Localz, will enable residents to track their operatives estimated time of arrival in real-time, and follow their approach using a live map.

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How to increase first-time access rates in 2020

4 minutes read

Living in an on-demand economy has consequential effects on standard service appointments. Four hour service windows and little visibility for the end-customer means that when they step out to grab a quick bite to eat, you lose money on a failed appointment.

With failed appointments costing as much as $75, here are ways you can increase your first-time access rates through:

-proactive customer job confirmations-real-time technician tracking en route to a job-two-way communications between...

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