Improved retention and recruitment
Intercounty improved their staff retention and recruitment, as staff are under less pressure. This made vacancies much easier to fill.
Leading Essex estate agent Intercounty had long been Fixflo Basic customers, but by upgrading to Fixflo Professional at the start of 2023 and implementing Help me Fix through Fixflo’s Contractor Marketplace, they managed to take their repairs and maintenance even further.
For Adam Latimer, Intercounty’s Managing Director, winter is traditionally a very busy time. A drop in temperature often results in a spike in boiler and heating issues as tenants learn that the systems they haven’t used in months are no longer working as well as they should. This spike was affecting staff retention and wellbeing.
“The job of a property manager has become much, much bigger than it used to be,” he said.
The idea of Help me Fix as a solution started through a conversation with a business partner about the difficulty in triaging problems reported by tenants. Triaging issues effectively places a lot of burden on the property manager and can depend on their level of expertise and industry knowledge.
“The problem we were trying to solve was the speed of addressing the issue and the service level. Waiting two or three days for someone to come out and look at your broken tap or your electrics is industry standard, but if we could find a solution to triage issues quicker than that, it would be a really great level of service.”
Then someone told him: there is a service that does that. It’s Help me Fix.
Onboarding & implementation
For Intercounty, onboarding with Fixflo was straightforward. “The team at Fixflo were extremely supportive, and they did a really, really good job,” said Adam. “Our onboarding agent was fantastic when we were launching and was always at the end of the phone whenever we needed him.”
As for onboarding with Help me Fix, Adam said it “was a dream; we really couldn’t have asked for any more.”
How we helped Intercounty
Faster response times and triage
Once a tenant reports an issue, an engineer can be available through Help me Fix for a video call to triage the problem in just five minutes. Better triage means a much higher chance of a first-time fix, as the contractor has a much better idea of what the problem is before they make a visit.
Lower callout charges and repair costs
Fewer callouts mean lower charges for landlords. As Intercounty is able to action repairs and maintenance more quickly, this stops problems from potentially getting worse before they can be fully dealt with.
As we enter the depths of winter this season, Adam is confident that the period will not be as daunting as it would have been before upgrading Fixflo and choosing Help me Fix: “We wanted to make the job better and much more manageable, and we’ve definitely achieved that with the solution.”
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Access Help me Fix remote video maintenance with Fixflo's Contractor Marketplace.
Stuart Armstrong
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