You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Can providers keep a near-full repairs service running during lockdown?
Yes, they can – with planning and communication, says David Lingeman
Even with vaccines for COVID-19 seemingly on the way, the UK still faces a long winter of lockdowns and restrictions. Housing associations are once again putting in place contingency plans to continue the vital repairs and maintenance work they do for residents every day. But many are having to do this without the experience of running near-full services during the first lockdown, a challenge compounded by the backlogs that arose during that time.
The property services team at A2Dominion made a decision almost as soon as the first lockdown was announced to do everything possible to support our customers and keep a near-full repairs and maintenance service running. This was a relatively simple choice to help with the well-being of our customers, many of whom are either key workers or stuck at home.
“The logistics of ensuring the safety of our customers and employees required some thought”
Ultimately, we judged that the risk to our customers from suffering potentially serious repairs or maintenance issues was higher than from visiting operatives following strict procedures. However, the logistics of ensuring the safety of our customers and employees required some thought.
Keeping services that require access to homes running throughout this pandemic clearly threw up many challenges, but we learned some important lessons that we believe are vital to success while working under the strictest measures.
READ MORE
1. Planning and communication are essential
Most of the work needed to keep people safe during a repair visit is done well before the appointment itself. It was an immediate priority to make readily available clear information on the best way residents can keep themselves and our contractors out of harm’s way. We passed this on in every way available: our customer website, regular emails and letters, and our customer contact centre agents, who received additional training.
Most people quickly understood the overarching rules such as keeping two metres apart, although it never does any harm to reiterate them. What still trips people up are the small things, such as the very British habit of making any visitor to your house a cup of tea. So it’s important to include these little details in any communications, just to remind well-meaning customers of the safest way to proceed.
“We have been working behind the scenes constantly to manage our relationships with the third-party contractors responsible for carrying out the repairs”
2. Relationship-building pays off
Good communication isn’t just important with residents. Away from the appointments themselves, we have been working behind the scenes constantly to manage our relationships with the third-party contractors responsible for carrying out the repairs.
We are in a strong position thanks to Pyramid Plus, our dedicated joint venture repairs service, and the long-standing relationships we have with most of our other contractors.
One of the vital conversations we had in March and April was to persuade our contractors not to furlough staff when they had the option. It’s perfectly understandable that they would want to, but by quickly developing strong procedures, we convinced them that we could continue to operate safely. In addition, we have always made sure there is someone available to meet contractors’ senior management to resolve issues and maintain our relationships.
Gestures like this can go a long way to building trust and effecting change in those stakeholder relationships. Ultimately, our contractors understand the importance of what they do for our customers, so carried on working for us throughout the whole initial lockdown period. We are now working closely together to continue throughout the winter, and we are very grateful to them for their dedication.
“The areas where we can effect change, such as effective communication and forging strong relationships with third parties and other stakeholders, still make a huge difference to property services operations”
So as we settle into another period of lockdowns, ever-changing instructions from on-high and general uncertainty, we as providers of housing services can only control what’s in our gift and adapt to external changes as best we can. But the areas where we can effect change, such as effective communication and forging strong relationships with third parties and other stakeholders, still make a huge difference to property services operations.
Making sure these are in place as the cold winter months really start to bite will be the key to getting through to spring and, hopefully, something more like normality – with customers’ homes and their health intact.
David Lingeman, director of property services, A2Dominion
Sign up for our care and support bulletin
Already have an account? Click here to manage your newsletters
