Kier Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s housing maintenance provider, is trialling a new ‘first-time fix’ service at 6,000 properties in the city.
As part of the trial, seven people from the council’s contact centre are now working in Kier’s offices with the aim of answering tenant queries from a single point of contact. The city’s 19,300 council houses trigger around 100,000 housing maintenance enquiries a year, over 300 reports a day.
Jane Spellacy, operations director, Kier Stoke, said, “We looked at how we can work together to integrate our service and improve response rates to tenants, and we are excited by the enhanced support we can now deliver.
“Our electricians, plumbers and carpenters, as well as residents, all helped to design the new contact centre system and their views have been part of making the pilot happen. We have already conducted a mini-trial with 300 properties, and the feedback we received was very good.”
Cllr Brian Ward, member for housing, planning and transportation, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said, “The work is initially being piloted in the central part of the city because this area has a number of large housing estates, so that we can reach a good cross section of tenants. It is also more central to dispatch stores meaning we can get replacement parts out faster for residents.”
