On 22 March 2023, Help me Fix, a video maintenance solution provider for Fixflo's Contractor Marketplace, ran a webinar with Haslams, a South England estate agency, to find out how they run a bespoke service and use technology to get ahead of their competition.
Haslams ensures that each proptech solution they choose aligns with others to form a complete tenancy journey. This avoids the siloing of data, making it a lot more difficult to process and ensure accuracy. Haslams has integrated Fixflo and Help me Fix together to provide complete control over their repairs and maintenance operations.
Before Fixflo and Help me Fix
In 2019, Haslams were experiencing high repairs and maintenance workloads and issues with the clarity of their contractor work orders. For example, a plumber would be told that there was a problem with a tap but not what the issue was or even where to find the tap in the property.
Many of Haslams’ tenants are from overseas. Illustrating this, in the last six months alone, 70% of Haslams’ tenants have been from countries other than the UK. This often presented a language barrier to the reporting of repairs and maintenance issues.
Adding to this, they experienced a lack of availability of contractors and contractors themselves a lack of parts.
Since Haslams started using Fixflo
Fixflo has massively reduced the number of calls made to Haslams’ office. If a customer phones the property management department to report an issue, they receive an automatic text advising them to report the issue through Fixflo instead.
Fixflo’s repair reporting portal solves the issue of contractors not having enough details to carry out a repair by using simple questions and icons to guide tenants through the information-gathering process.
Customisable prompts advise tenants when they can fix an issue themselves or if it is not the responsibility of the landlord. Fixflo also translates into over 40 different languages, ensuring that tenants can report issues in a manner that agents and contractors will always be able to understand.
Haslams started out using the lowest tier of Fixflo, Fixflo Basic. Moving to Fixflo Essentials allowed their head of property management to assign jobs to different members of their team while having a full overview of key stats, such as the number of jobs being reported and the volume of issues per type.
Beginning to use Help me Fix
Haslams also began to use Help me Fix, a video maintenance solution which puts tenants in touch with qualified contractors who can help them carry out simple repair jobs themselves over a video call. Help me Fix is available through Fixflo's Contractor Marketplace. This solved the problems they were experiencing with the availability of contractors and parts needed for repairs.
Adopting Help me Fix particularly improved Haslams' processes for out-of-hours emergency repairs. Previously, property managers would have to take a mobile phone home with them during the Christmas period and field calls to explain to tenants why they wouldn’t be able to send an engineer out when needed.
As a result of the repairs and maintenance solution, of the 80 calls Haslams received during the 2021 Christmas period, including the times the office was shut, only three required contractors to be dispatched. This saved their landlords around £7500 in unnecessary callout fees.
Integrating Fixflo with Help me Fix
In 2023, Haslams integrated the two systems together to provide a complete repairs and maintenance reporting solution, both in and out of hours. Now, if a repair is reported through Fixflo that could be serviced using Help me Fix, it is automatically instructed to them. Help me Fix then triages the repair, and a contractor helps the tenant carry out the fix. If further work is required, for example, if a leak can be temporarily repaired, but a contractor is needed for a full fix, Fixflo will then assign the job to a contractor to arrange a suitable visit date.
By improving their handling of both in- and out-of-hours repairs, Haslams has reduced the number of emergency phone calls they receive from tenants, as well as physical visits to their office from those concerned they haven’t heard anything back after reporting their issue. Through Help me Fix, tenants facing issues are reassured that they are able to connect face-to-face with someone who really knows what they are talking about.
The results today
Over the course of one year, Help me Fix helped save Haslams’ landlords £33,000.
Over just one month, Help me Fix managed to resolve almost 20% of issues passed to them permanently and 9% temporarily, preventing further damage until a contractor is available. 52% of issues were diagnosed, enabling a contractor to attend with the right parts and knowledge to solve the issue in one visit. This saved £4400 for landlords, 7 days of property manager work time, and 265 kg of CO2 emissions.
Find out more about how Help me Fix and Fixflo could work for you.
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