A kitchen fitting gang and a locked door
You are replacing kitchens and bathrooms in occupied homes for a housing client. The programme moves street by street. Your resident liaison officer sent letters three weeks ago and phoned when she could. On Monday the kitchen fitters arrive at the first house on their list. Nobody answers. The second house is fine. The third has a resident who says nobody told them it was today, and they have a hospital appointment.
The gang is moved to the next street, the materials are in the wrong place, and the programme for that street now has holes in it.
Why homes are not ready when the trades arrive
Appointments on occupied schemes are made by one person, by letter and phone, weeks in advance. Residents have their own lives. Changes are made on the doorstep and not recorded. The site team works from a list that is out of date the moment it is printed, and the client's housing officers hear about problems from residents before they hear from you.
- Appointments are made by letter weeks ahead, with no reminder.
- Rebooking requests reach the liaison officer by phone and are hard to keep up with.
- Resident needs and preferences are in the liaison officer's notebook.
- The site team's daily list does not reflect changes.
- The client cannot see which homes are booked, done or refused.
What no-access days cost
Every no-access visit is a gang's time lost, materials moved twice and a hole in the programme. Rebooked homes drift to the end of the scheme and cause a long tail. Residents who feel messed about complain to the client, and the client's view of your scheme is shaped by those complaints rather than the homes you completed well.
The resident programme we build
- Each home is set up with the works planned, the resident's contact details and preferences, and any needs the client shares with you, such as someone who needs extra notice.
- Appointments are offered from the programme, and residents can pick from available dates by text link, or the liaison officer books by phone.
- Confirmations and reminders go by text a few days before and the day before, with an easy way to rebook.
- Rebooking requests show up straight away for the liaison officer, with the next available slots in the programme.
- The site team's daily list on their phones reflects every change, and no-access visits are recorded on the doorstep with a photo of the card left.
- Each home has a liaison log: contacts, visits, issues raised and resolved, and a record of the handover to the resident.
- The client sees a live view of homes booked, in progress, completed and refused, and the no-access rate by street.
| Home | Appointment | Status |
|---|---|---|
| No. 12 | Monday, confirmed by text | Works started |
| No. 14 | Monday, rebooked by resident | Moved to next week |
| No. 16 | Monday, no reply to reminders | Liaison officer calling |
| No. 18 | Tuesday, resident needs extra notice | Confirmed |
A programme residents can keep up with
Residents know when the trades are coming and can change it without phone calls. The liaison officer spends time on residents who need help rather than on routine booking. Trades arrive to homes that are ready. The client sees progress and problems as they happen. And the long tail of rebooked homes at the end of the scheme gets shorter.
Your records also show, if a complaint does arrive, every contact and appointment with that household.
Do your occupied schemes look like this?
- Trades regularly find nobody home.
- Appointments are made by letter with no reminder.
- Rebooking depends on one person's phone.
- The site team's daily list is out of date.
- The client hears about problems from residents first.