When The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea TMO sought to bring its property repairs in-house and improve customer services, the organisation turned to Capita for the solutions needed to fully mobilise the workforce and effectively manage the processes at its new subsidiary, Repairs Direct.
It became clear, when looking at customer satisfaction and areas Repairs Direct could improve on, that one of the first things required was a reliable repairs management system to improve flexibility, reduce labour-intensive processes and improve integration.
The organisation purchased Capita's OPENContractor, which coordinates all aspects of repairs including people, stock and data handling. The information is then available via operatives' mobile working devices via Capita TotalMobile, linking directly to job scheduling for direct appointment setting.
"We already used the Capita Housing management system and were happy with how it worked. The benefit of choosing another Capita system is that it can integrate with existing housing information, so data on properties does not have to re-keyed," remarks Andy Marshall, managing director of Repairs Direct.
Better outcomes
Since the project went live, routine processes have become simpler, stock control has been improved and the TMO has realised benefits of greater automation. The new set-up means Andy and his team can focus on improving services.
"Our decision to move in-house has really paid off... Our customer satisfaction has moved up from 65 per cent and has now hit 95 per cent. This is just in the first six months — it's a great start", confirms Andy.