Life On The Telephone

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

I had a few thoughts on the whole omni-channel thing this week. Most organisations in social housing and councils that I work with, are trying (or struggling) hard in some cases to crack digital shift. That’s only sensible in a world where we are ever more digitally served and connected.

Tech is getting better particularly when it supports telephony. We have all had the cinema booking experience trying to get into the film at Stockport, with the confirmation back, “Did you say ‘Stratford’ ?”. We do battle with it don’t we?

I do believe we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater however, and ‘tackling omnichannel’ not be a mere tick box. There will always be folk who for all kinds of reasons want to pick up a phone & chat, or walk into an office to see someone who manages their home, patch or area in person. Indeed, today I was in two supermarkets today and in one used self-service tills and in another queued to choose a conventional checkout and had a short chat which brightened up both our afternoons.

For a resident to do something in person they most likely will not have a local office anymore in their village/estate area and maybe will need to travel 25 or more mins on public transport, to make that happen. It might be more important to them and of course it might be better for all than days or weeks of email ping-pong. Certainly if we promote different channels, telephone, email, WhatsApp, Twitter/X, Facebook etc, at least check them on a regular basis. Outside office ours too, as we all have issues 24/7, just not only when your offices are staffed!

Having omnichannel’s that are just a black hole and never answered are worse than not having one. Don’t advertise anything that’s hardly monitored.

Its not just residents and customers either. We are all either provider or customer in real life transactions and experiences and I see that with suppliers and clients I work with. We all communicate differently and like system interfaces, means needs to be taloired with what works best with how the other party would like to interact.

For example, one mutual supplier to a client I work with is very telephone orientated. My contact there who is extremely responsive most often asks to, “can we all jump on a call and talk it through”? The attitude is that primarily we change and improve culture, one conversation at a time. This works, although most likely what is discussed would also be exchanged in an email too, just to make sure everyone was on the same page.

In contrast, another supplier contact this week replied to a weeks old SMS query message to a work number, with a “sorry, no one uses the phone anymore”. I dodged a bullet there, I could’ve have wasted more time and left a voicemail there 😉

It was just one of those moments where for a change I was in the position of some of those residents at the end of our solutions and technology. The tech however good will always be somewhat second-rate to a well trained human, who might be relied on to provide more of an experience, than a transaction. You might be familiar with the phrase “people buy from people” that is often used to describe the importance of building relationships in sales. In other words, people are more likely to do business with someone they know, like, and trust.

I think even in 2024 this still holds water. Not losing the human touch, improves our relationships with customers, and the best tech supports that, rather than totally replaces it.

Acutance Consulting would be happy to help you untangle your interfaces, 

please just get in touch, for a chat over a brew & a chocolate ginger ☕😋

       Related Post: What can erode the quality of communication with our customers?

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Flag Of Convenience - Life On The Telephone.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.

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Jet Set Junta

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

It's been a little while since I have properly emersed myself in components, Asset Management and stock condition surveys, although I have been involved with many projects over a couple of decades. 

Obtaining decent component information is a challenge, while an even bigger one is keeping it up to date afterwards. Its not easy but rewarding from the viewpoint of being able to make insightful budget and planning decisions, going 2, 5 or up to 30 years ahead.  

Unless you are managing less than a few (3) hundred homes, an Excel spreadsheet will not cut it. There’s many a module out there of decent quality and some good standalones too. Anyone who has been out into the market to choose one will also know that each has its blind-spots. One I saw a demo of recently (obviously I wont name the guilty party), was only capable of reporting past expenditure, rather than planning potential future budgets based on providing (English) Decent Homes, SHQS or the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS). Clearly a software supplier with no socialhousing solution, they then asked “why a landlord wouldn’t just do the replacements?”.

It seemed inconceivable that there would not always be budget to just do the work, quite the reverse of what generally needs to be worked with. Decent graphical modelling tools are a boon to productivity in a planning process like this, rather than manually moving assets around a Life Cycle Costing report piecemeal.

The quality of surveyors vary and also their understanding of socialhousing. Often this can be corrected by issuing surveyors with the actual data we want them to collect, before they start a traditional 20% survey. Surprisingly this is rarely the case. The most extreme example I ever saw was a socialhousing asset condition survey completed by an outfit who previously specialised in surveying North Sea oil rigs. I kid you not. We could see how many hanging baskets our units had, but not the state or existence of kitchens or bathrooms.

Often too, surveyors get hung up on life of components and a predetermined idea of condition coding. If we were surveying passenger aircraft, there are certainly many parts for sure, that will need to be serviced after every 5,000 logged flying hours. Unlike an Airbus A320, after 30 years kitchens and bathrooms just don’t drop out of the skies desperately requiring replacement. Clearly in student accommodation or bigger households, these might not last 30 years. Where an elderly resident on the other hand have some from the 1960s that they have looked after and actively refuse upgrades. These would now be getting on for 50 years old.

Surveyors love the idea of doing a survey this year to determine a remaining life and counting it down annually, towards a ‘poor’ or ‘failed’. One popular surveyor used to charge to take data away each year for ‘aging’. While we could at this point make parallels with fine wine, I would make it with real ale. Our asset data like proper beer which is a living breathing thing and is better when nurtured and carefully looked after.

At the end of the day, socialhousing condition of components can only be based on a sampled view at a point in time. While predictions could be assumed, within decent home calculations, many criteria are defined based on components being old (i.e. exceeded expected life) and poor (i.e. usable condition), in order to define a failure.     

If we are unable to disconnect ‘Condition’ and age exceeding expected life, we will apparently have more failures than actually defined in the legislation. Our (incorrectly) budgets (incorrectly) may then need to be higher. In fact the biggest obstacle to being more accurate in planning budgets is ensuring all internal improvements are properly recorded. IE timely recording in your system of major void work and planned maintenance improvements. Relevant examples may be whole boiler, heating, kitchen, bathroom replacements, rather than minor upgrades. The former will also reset the clock for component accounting for these items. Another area there which often is spreadsheet or standalone application based. Probably one for a future blog since I have helped suppliers to design in this area as a critical friend too.  

For sure, keeping a tight asset component database is of benefit to landlords and residents, opening the door to providing better informed service. Newer boilers, lifts and other M&E equipment where selected, often now have IOT capabilities. Yet another aspect where the asset management solution can earn its keep in flagging up issues before residents realise them, or protecting the asset from much more expensive damage.

Investment in targeted surveys, good data management for assets and some more blue sky thinking, will all bring together potential for better decision making and improving efficiency.  

Acutance Consulting love solving asset data issues, 

please just get in touch, for a chat over a jammy dodger & a coffee ☕😋

       Related Post: The case for closer systems between #ukhousing development & assets..

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

The Monochrome Set - Jet Set Junta.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.

File Under: #HomesForBritain,#HousingDAY,#InternetOfTenants,#Shout,#UKHousing, 07854655009, 1st Touch,1stTouch,360,365Agile,3squared,4Js, ACL,ALMO,AMS,AX,Aareon,Abritas,Academy,Accuserv,Accuserve,Active Housing,ActiveH,ActiveHousing,Acutence,Advanced,Affinity,Agile,Agile365,AirWatch,Alfresco,Alignment,Allpay,Amazon Web Services,Anite,Apex,App,ArchHouse,Archouse,Asprey e-state pro,Asset Management,Associates,Aurora,Average IT Costs,AWI SX Integration Toolkit,AWS, BI,BO,BPR,BancTec,BigChange,Blockwise,BluTek,Bluebox,Blueprint,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning,Business Process Review,Business social networking, CACI,Capita One Housing,CBL,CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,CEDRM,CHICS,CHR,CIH,CMS,COA,CORE,CPL,CRM,CRM2013,CRS,CTI,CTX,Cadcorp,Capita,CapitaOne,Capita One,Capital Management,Cashflow,Castle,Castleton,Castleton Technology,Cedar Open Accounts,Cerrus,Change,Charges,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, Citrix,Civica,Civica CTX,Civica Cx,Civica Genero,Civica Saffron,Clearview,Clik,Cx Assets, Cloud Dialogs,CloudDialogs,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Commontime,Community Reward Services,Company,Competitive Dialogue process,Component Accounting,Consilium,Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Consultants,Contact Manager,Context,Contractor Systems,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,Crystal Reports,Customer Relationship Management,Cx, DRS,Deeplake,Designer Software,Development Systems,Director,Document,Documotive,Docuware,Dynamic AI,DynamicAI,Dynamics 365,D365,Dynamics365,Dynaway ECMK,EDM,EDRMS,ERP,ESRI,Elmhurst,Enghouse Interactive,England,English,EnterpriseBI,Estatecraft,Esuasive,Etive,Exhibition,Exponential-e, Facebook,Factorwise,Field Service management,Finance,Financial Systems,Financials,Footprint,Forms,Freezes,Fusion,Fuzzlab Gas Tag,G-Cloud,GCloud,GDPR,GGP,GIS,GasTag,Genero,GeoSolveIT,Getting best from,GoTonySmith,Grasp,Grip,Group Apex, HFI (Housing Financials interface),HG,HRA,Hardware,Hitachi Systems,Hitex,HomeMaster,Hometeam,HouSys,House,Housemark,Housemark survey,Housing,Housing Contact,Housing Group,Housing Insight,Housing Management,Housing Management Consultant,Housing Partners,Housing Portfolio Management System,Hub Asset Management,Homeswapper,Housing jigsaw, Housing Support Pro,HousingIT,HousingSupportPro,HyperOptic, IMS,IT,IT Budget,IT Training,ITIL,Impact Response,In,In4,In4Systems Promaster,InfoBoss,InHouse,InMotion,InMotion2015,InMotion2016,InfoBoss,Infoflow,Information,Information Technology,Information@Work components,Informix,Innovation, Informetis,Inphase,Inside Housing,Insight,Internet Portal,Internetalia,Invu,Ireland,Irish,itLab, Keyfax,Keylogic,Keypera,Keystone,Kirona,Kypera,Keynamics, Landlord,Ledgers,Linkedin,Liquid,Locality,Localz, M3,MAVIS,MD,MDM,MI,MIS,MIS-AMS,MISCS,MRI,MS Dynamics,MRI,MS Dynamics CRM2011,Microsoft365,microsoft 365,MWL,Management,Management Server,Manifest,Measuring,Mebus,More IQ,MoreIQ,Microsoft Dynamics 365,Microsoft dynamics GP 2013,Miracle,MobileIron,Mobysoft,Monopoly board images and pictures,Montal,Mr Void,MriEngage,MrVoid,MoreIQ NDL,NINTEX,NINTEX workflow,NPS,NPS ASSIST,NPS Housing,NPS Job Manager Mobile,NROSH,Natural,Neighbourhoods and Communities,Nintexworkflow,Northgate,Northgate Codeman,Northgate Public Services,Notice, OA,OGC Buying Solutions,OJEU Limits,ORS,Ohms,OmFax,Omniledger,One,OneAdvanced,OneServe,Open source,OpenContractor,OpenHousing,Opti-time,Options,Optitime,Oracle,Orchard,Outsource and outsourcing,OutSystems, PIMMS,PIMSS Data,PM,PRINCE2,Paloma,Pamwin,PanConnect,People Value,Peoplevalue,PfH,Pick,PlanForm,Planned maintenance,Plenfific,Plus,Portfolio Management System,PowerObjects,Pro,Pro-Points,Prodo,Progress,Promaster,Propoints,Proval,Providers,Pyramid, QL,QLX, QLF, QL Yuneo,QuantSpark,Qube,QLX,Qlikview,QueryView,Queryview reporting,Quiss, RM865,ROCC,RPs,RSL,Rave,ReAct,Reality,RedkiteCRM,Red Olive,Registered,Registered Social,Rent Increase,RentSense,RentSenseLite,Repairfinder,Reporting,Reports,RobotAutomation,Rocket,Rubixx, Salesforce,Salesforce.Org,SAP,SASSHA,SDM,SHBVN,SM,SOTI,SP,SQL,SQL Open Housing,SQL Reporting,SQL Server,Saffron,Safron,Saturn,Scenario,Scotland,Scots,Scottish,Scout,Sequoa,Serengeti,Serros,Server,Service,Services,Servitor,Sharepoint,Sim,SimPro, Simdel,Simdell,Slash and Burn,Social Housing ICT,Social Housing Software Applications,Social Media,Software,Software solutions,Spotlight Service,Spotlightservice,Star rating,Stores and Stock,Strategic,SunAccounts,Sunguard,Surveys,Streetwise, Swordfish,Sx3,Symatrix Human,System alignment,Systems,Systemwise, T-Files,TEAMS,TED,TFiles,TP Tracker,TSG,Tagish Casework,Tagra,Task,TAIM,Technologies (India) PVT Limited,Telecetera,Template,Terminal Services,That,Three Star,Tilt,TiltAffinity,Today,Tony Smith,Tony Smith That Housing IT Guy,TonySmith that housing IT,TonySmithHou,TonySmithHousing, ,TonySmithHousingITguy,Total,Total Mobile,Totalmobile,Trace,Tribal,Twitter, U2,UC,UK,UK Housing,Ukhousing,UniClass Enterprise,Unidata,United Kingdom,Universal,Universalcredit,Universe,Unrest, Valueworks,Van Stock,Vantage,Vantage Sentinel,Version,Virtualisation,Visualmetrics,Voice,Voice and data,Voluntas, Wales,Welsh,Wheatley,Windows Server,Workflow and,Work Hub,Works Connect, XML,Xen App,XenApp,Xmbrace, Yuneo,TS Acutance Consulting, ...
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