We have been working with residents to redesign our repairs service so it best meets your needs.
Earlier in the autumn we told you about our intention to change how we deliver our repairs service to you.
We set out our plans to reprocure our main (tier 1) contracts. Having a larger number of tier 1 partners covering our London regions will allow us to drive healthy competition between them, moving repairs between contractors and across regions where necessary.
We also told you how we plan to introduce a small in-house team of multi-skilled operatives directly employed by us, potentially based in areas where we have the most homes.
You will have received a survey asking what needs to be different about our repairs service and we heard back from more than 1,800 of you.
Since then, we’ve held six in-person and online events to further explain our plans and learn more from our residents, building on your survey responses. We recorded the online session which is below if you are interested in what was discussed.
What you told us
Many of you who answered the survey or attended an in-person event had queries about ongoing repairs, which were followed up afterwards by repairs colleagues. Many raised overall concerns about their experience with us, sharing all too common worries about limited communication, changes of local officers and service charges. We know we need to do better in these areas, which is why we put our Better Together corporate strategy in place last year. We’re making steady progress on some of the areas you mentioned but know we have more to do.
We asked you to prioritise various measures around repairs performance. More than half of you selected repairs being fixed first time in their top three priorities, with many also selecting the contractor turning up on time and communicating well as important too.
Branding, value for money and having the first appointment within 10 working days were all judged as less important.
Residents said they want us to share information about historic repairs or aspects individual to your homes with our contractors and feel strongly that we should be doing more to collect and share this data.
Finally, there was evident frustration at being told by the contractor that someone will return to complete a job, but never having another visit.
How we are using what we’ve learned
We’ve fed all that residents and our operational colleagues told us into the specification that will be included in our tender documentation. Contractors who want to bid for the opportunity to work with us will need to demonstrate how they will deliver the service we are requesting.
One suggested idea was to ask interested contractors to submit a short video demonstrating the quality of service they can offer to our customers. Residents who evaluate this question will benefit from it being much more accessible than written submissions. We will then be able to use these videos once we have awarded contracts, so you can all see who is going to be working in your region.
Some of the other points we’ve included in the tender specification after our resident sessions are:
- Contractors and subcontractors will fully embed their systems with My Account so appointments can be booked in real time, repairs updates are visible to residents and the operative can commercially code works while on site
- There will be a renewed focus on customer sign-off. This will ensure where there are necessary follow-on works, these will be booked in during the appointment, before the tradesperson leaves
- Where additional work is necessary, this will be automatically agreed up to a reasonable limit. Above this limit, quick communication with us will ensure works that can be completed, where they are necessary, offering value for money, there and then
- In line with our domestic heating contracts, contractors will send a photograph of the operative who is attending the night before so you know who will arrive at your home
- Complaint responses will be shared within 48-hours to align with a response within our internal service-level agreements
The tender process is now open, and contractors have until the middle of February to respond. Once we’ve received the responses, we will be scoring the submissions to find the best possible contractors for our residents. We’ll be inviting some of you who expressed an interest to help with that process.
