The software from the Clydebank-based On-Site Soluitions is already in use nationally with Wimpey Homes and with the South Yorkshire-based Ben Bailey Homes. What it can report is not so much limited by the program as by the extent of data input, says its principal author and partner Michael McDermott. “The more data that goes in, the better the picture of your business you get out.” So when data inputting whether a complaint is acted on, include the prices of every remedial contract and the program will then analyse remedial costs for each plot, site and region by size and type.
This April RCS will be launching the latest module of its popular Open House suite. Housebuilders such as Prowting and Weston Homes are already using its Sales and Marketing and recent Maintenance modules, now RCS is adding Customer Satisfaction. Jointly they will offer a chance to link an individual customer’s satisfaction results to the customer’s maintenance record to the house’s unique specification. It should make a potent tool for analysing both failures and successes in any build spec.
Windows based program
The Windows-based program opens up with an obvious screen menu of icons identifying different options. Unfortunately, on initial use, each housebuilder will have to data input their paperwork, entering individually each site and each home, as well as each contractor. Once input the most clicked on icon will become Complaints.Complaints form
A click on complaints opens a split screen: the top half showing empty white boxes allows the user to search for a buyer by entering part of a name or plot number or address or code. The bottom half screen shows a complete buyer history, from house type to completion date to warranty expiry. Each complaint is numbered and dated, and can be prioritised. There are prompts for whether the work has been done or not, who did it, how much it cost and how it was received.Cash Reports
Recording details on costs and contractor and type of job allow the program to sort them so the information can be accessed to identify where problems are most common or costly by site and regions and even by contractor. Click on the Cost Reports icon and this menu appears.Logging of complaints
Computerised logging of complaints allows a user to access trend reports such as a “Top 10 Faults” by region, even site. Such digests are automatically updated after every fresh entry and so the print outs are up to date. The emphasis is on the user methodically to enter all new data.Cost for each site
This screen shows two sites, one top, one bottom where the cost data for repairs is sorted by category so that the user can compare, even benchmark the level of faults and costs per faults by works package.Enquiry of faults
Click on costs of complaints by site to see records like this, sorting faults by volume and costs against different categories which the user can define. Click on, say, floorboards, and it identifies a further layer of detail to each fault recorded - cost, contractor, plot number.Report form
For those who don’t like bar charts, data can be instantly converted to other report forms, such as this league table for an individual site which also breaks down categories into subcategories.Costs for all sites
The program totals up repairs for each site and converts them as a percentage of total build costs, so sites can be set against each other for benchmarking build quality in any operation with multiple outlets.Maintenance call
In RCS's maintenance module, each white box is a prompt for either the program or user to enter data. So, here there is a call number (10), date, time and ID of operator (same as when logged on) who took maintenance request are automatically assigned. The large white box allows any additional information to be added while parameters for defining the fault can be configured by the housebuilder.Plot summary details
The satisfaction module works with the problem-tracking aspect of the maintenance module to get to the reasons behind a customer’s response to satisfaction surveys. The housebuilder can record how the buyer rates the specification and where the package is linked to RCS’s sales and marketing module, automatically access specification details.The satisfaction module
The Satisfaction module is designed to assist benchmarking by allowing reports on customer satisfaction to be compared on a site-by-site or regional basis. Here we see satisfaction scores for 10 homes on one site, shown plot by plot as a number and colour, then the site average as a coloured bar chart. All data is stored in spreadsheets so it can be printed out in other formats for analysis.Source
Building Homes
