Sunderland-based construction and homes tech firm tackles customer care issues with national partners

The construction industry constantly throws up challenges and obstacles for home builders, housing associations and commercial contractors. As a defect and repair resolution software company, clixifix® is positioned to improve communication, defect reporting and customer care, to ensure end users receive the best information about how defects and repairs are progressing.

To be able to understand specific challenges from people within the industry, clixifix® are conducting a number of industry-led focus groups to firstly inform their customers of developments and constant improvements, while also soaking up constructive feedback and applying technical developments based on the insight they receive from these forums.

After the success of their first focus group in Sunderland, clixifix® ventured south to Leeds to connect with regional and national customers that are based between Yorkshire and London. The focus group is designed to generate a frank and open dialogue about challenges and improvements.

clixifix® is a dynamic ConTech and PropTech business that delivers innovative and leading defect management software to housing associations all over the UK. Challenges that were discussed with attendees included inspection list integration, defect implementation and sub-categorisation, data manipulation, weekly bespoke reporting, subcontractor communication, digitising defects and reporting capabilities.

These series of focus groups will allow clixifix® to build up a bank of knowledge and understanding on how to develop and react to the ever-changing industry. The vision for clixifix® is to consistently conduct focus groups with their customers to understand the challenges of the industry, build the knowledge to react and combat technological issues and grow stronger relationships with customers across the country.

Paul Moran, New Homes sales executive at Duchy Homes says, “Having the ability to engage with clixifix® was extremely important. It was also refreshing to understand how the complaints process and inspection list are being streamlined and how it can be adapted to support all parties.”

Claire Trevett, senior development project manager at Cube Homes says, “One of the most valuable parts of the focus group was actually understanding the processes that other companies use and what challenges they are facing. It was also helpful to discuss our challenge of generating PDFs of our top 10 defects and subcategories, thus being able to distribute this information.”

A focal point was the process whereby tenants brought issues and complaints to the attention of the landlord or housing association. An example of a task/complaint would be a new homeowner has noticed a leaky tap and requires a subcontractor to address the problem.

The clixifix® platform allows customers to communicate professionally through standardised issues assessment and response letters. It was clear that the priority for users is to have active complaints prominently displayed, being able to streamline them and ensure that they are not being missed.

Having the ability to manage multiple complaints at the same time is hugely important for users, having a to-do-list showing upcoming tasks could be introduced to focus on different subjects starting with complaints. Having the ability to constantly notify the users of upcoming tasks and putting a process in place if a member of the team has missed the deadline of a task is paramount.

clixifix® are constantly developing the interface and functionality of the Technicians App, the app includes sending jobs to contractors, 2-way messaging, real time location and in-app completion. All areas of the app are constantly being reviewed to meet the demands of the users.

James Farrell, CEO and co-founder of clixifix®, said: “We were delighted with the interaction and engagement we received from our customers. This being our second focus group we decided to move further south and create a discussion about technology and construction in Leeds.

“We felt that the focus group was extremely insightful for both the clixifix® team and our customers. To have the opportunity to gain first-hand feedback is invaluable, we will be able to use this feedback to develop our product and support our customers.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

• Add me on LinkedIn and Twitter to keep up to date
• And follow Bdaily on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• Submit press releases to editor@bdaily.co.uk for consideration.

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →