The Uber of R&M? How a tech company wants to spark a repairs revolution

Plentific founders Emre Kazan and Cem Savas started the business after becoming frustrated with the lack of reliable professionals who they could trust to do repairs on properties they owned. They got tired of dealing with the hassle of back-and-forth phone calls, scheduling, getting quotes and finally getting the work done, finding there was too much complexity in managing multiple tradespeople and projects at the same time.

They quickly realised they were not alone, and that the problems were faced by a large part of the property sector, from individual homeowners through to multinational landlords.

The theory espoused by Mr Savas and Mr Kazan is that offering companies competing quotes for the same job means the quality of work is driven up. Tempering that is the fact that users of the service could be sacrificing long-term relationships with major contractors in favour of a more ad hoc approach.

One director at a major repairs contractor says they expect the “appeal will be limited” as systems such as Plentific sit uneasily with more strategic approaches to repairs.

“We are actually trying to move away from [an] individual repairs [system] and looking strategically at properties instead,” they said.

This approach is also favoured by many landlords that manage large blocks. But if the interest shown so far is any indication, some are happy with the pay-off.

Having set up Plentific, the founders initially targeted private sector landlords and developers. But seeing a gap in the market, they approached associations. Now, social landlords make up the majority of their customers: Hammersmith & Fulham Council, Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing, BCHA and Network Homes are all users, along with NHG. In total, Plentific covers around 100,000 properties across the public and private sectors.

“We work with housing associations because we see great opportunities to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve tenant services,” explains Mr Savas. “We’ve seen that housing teams in associations are often limited because they don’t have the tools they need to succeed.”

Plentific helps associations deliver “operational effectiveness”, he adds. “The difference it can make for tenants – and teams – is remarkable.”

Once an organisation has signed up for the service, housing officers are able to tender repairs jobs directly with tradespeople. The platform’s interface allows them to select what sort of professional they need, and post a job to Plentific’s network. A tradesperson responds, and arranges to come and complete the task.

Using Plentific’s app or website, the housing association can select the most qualified person for the specific task, the nearest person if the job has to be done quickly, for example, or the person who offers the best price – the latter being the usual way jobs are allocated, Plentific reports.

Mr Hohls says that Plentific’s contractors are more willing to come out at evenings and weekends, meaning tenants are less likely to have to take time off to get repairs carried out.

NHG is hoping Plentific can begin to improve its reputation where repairs are concerned.

Notting Hill Housing, prior to its merger with Genesis, trialled Plentific on its temporary housing portfolio 18 months ago, but earlier this year rolled it out to its leasehold homes and some general needs properties.

“We found that customers and staff were starting to really like it,” Mr Hohls adds. “There has been a small overall cost saving, too.”

Plentific promises to help automate repairs and maintenance services, deliver a superior service and improve productivity by limiting the administrative burden sometimes associated with repairs work.

But Ryan Ward, who leads the customer service team at NHG, says the main thing which Plentific has given his team is control.

“We’re able to be in constant contact with contractors, and by not having an external contractor we’re able to control what repairs we accept and don’t accept,” he says.

His team identifies the person best suited for the job, enabling them to select a tradesperson based on cost, location and suitability.

“[The contractors] give us the date and time that they intend to visit the property and then once the job is done, there is a 48-hour ‘cooling off’ period for tenants to report any further problems,” he says. “We have control throughout the process.”

He says tenants have been much happier with the results since his team moved to working with Plentific on 1 March this year: since then there hasn’t been a single complaint, Mr Ward says, with a note of surprise in his voice. He acknowledges that, particularly in a large housing association, managing repairs is a “big operation” but says Plentific is helping his team to manage it more effectively.

We see great opportunities to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve tenant services
Emre Kazan, Plentific founder

“The quality of the work is driven by the market factor,” he says. “Contractors want to work with us again.”

NHG’s move to use Plentific is part of a wider drive to put the housing association’s services more firmly in tenants’ hands. Andy Belton, chief operating officer at NHG, explains that the company’s WorkWise project aims to allow residents to self-serve on anything from paying their rent to scheduling appointments.

“We need to be modern enough for [residents] to access our services like this,” he says. “If people have a more complex problem and they still need to speak to a human being, then they can do that, but WorkWise helps them access services easily.”

The key to Plentific’s success is the 13,000 trade businesses it has on its books. Nick Labuschagne joined Plentific earlier this year after realising that the company had won business with NHG. He had previously worked for a large contractor which had a repairs and maintenance deal with the housing association, and when the contract came to an end, he was initially concerned that he would lose a vital source of income.

“I found out where the work was going to go and contacted Plentific,” he explains. “Now I operate through them but work for myself.”

His company, NL Electricals & Maintenance, carries out jobs for NHG across Colchester, quoting for work which suits his skill set. He says he prefers this way of working: he is able to organise his own time, and often chooses to take on jobs near to where he lives in order to keep his travelling time and fuel costs down.

It is a similar story for Abbins, a family-run plumbing and maintenance company, which held a direct contract with Notting Hill Housing before its merger with Genesis.

The company joined Plentific reluctantly, Angela Perkins, one of the owners, explains. They were concerned that because all jobs raised by the association would be individually tendered, it would leave them open to competition. But six months on, she says the business is growing faster than ever because they are able to focus on securing more work rather than dealing with invoicing and payment administration.

Plentific lives and dies on its ability to provide the best tradespeople, quickly. Moving towards a more digital-led solution has helped NHG to reduce its average repairs time from 10 days to 72 hours, Mr Belton says.

Staff find the process easier, costs are down and, perhaps most importantly, tenants are happier. With 64,000 homes, managing repairs is always going to be a major task, and anything which makes that easier is to be welcomed.