With the housing industry ever evolving, technology has become more prevalent in defect management and customer care. With these technological changes taking place, this brings up challenges that the industry has to discuss and address.

To proactively address industry challenges, clixifix® invited several of their housing customer care clients from around the North East to collaborate and take part in a focus group. The purpose of this was to gain first-hand, real-life feedback from housebuilders and principal contractors to understand the challenges they are facing.

clixifix® is a dynamic ConTech and PropTech business that delivers innovative and leading defect management software to housing associations all over the UK.

The customers that took part in the focus group were

Story Homes:
Becky Wilcox (Head of IT & Systems)
Meryl Livingstone (Customer Aftercare Manager)
Sarah Doyle (Aftercare Manager)

Esh Construction:
Demi Malcolm (Aftercare Coordinator)
Sarah Stephenson (Aftercare Coordinator)

Cussins:
Cherie Norton (Customer Care Coordinator)

Adderstone Living:
Jane Scott (Customer Care Coordinator)

Challenges that were discussed with attendees included subcontractor engagement, improvement in user access controls, facilitating extraction of data, development of visual defect management, reporting flexibility and general platform user interface.

The focus group was designed to help clixifix® build a better relationship with users through a greater understanding of the issues they were experiencing, solve practical challenges with the features and functionality of the platform as well as to validate assumptions made regarding users wants and desires.

clixifix® wants to deliver a community channel that allows the focus group members to be involved in their decision-making processes ensuring that all product development concepts and changes benefit the customer. The business’ vision is to build-in the feedback to refine and update enhancements to the software technology platform as it continues to evolve.

The main areas discussed in the focus group were:

UX/UI (user experience and user interface)
Future product development and the benefits
NHQB Complaints Module
What actions are most frequently completed in clixifix®?

Insights into the challenges

Cherie Norton, Customer Care Coordinator, Cussins spoke about the challenges of the industry, how clixifix® can resolve these challenges and the benefits of having a focus group to discuss this.

Cussins is a property developer with a long tradition of quality house building who create meticulously planned bespoke developments, ensuring the long-established brand continues to represent the pinnacle of house building excellence.

She said: “I can’t speak for the industry as a whole but the biggest issue that I face is subcontractor engagement. Subcontractors don’t have the knowledge and training that is required to benefit from the many advantages that clixifix®can provide. The clixifix® software is the easiest system I have ever come across in my time in the housing industry, so it is frustrating to hear that contractors are reluctant or scared to use clixifix®.

“The clixifix® focus group gave me an opportunity to voice my opinion and share with like-minded industry experts. Being able to speak directly with James the founder at clixifix® was very important. Events like this are very powerful – and it is testament to the innovative and collaborative spirit of clixifix® that sessions like these take place.”

 

Becky Wilcox, Head of IT & Systems, Story Homes described the focus group as an “interesting and enjoyable” event. She explained it provided a valuable opportunity to “see where clixifix® is heading with future changes. We’d be keen to be involved in more workshops like this.”

Key points

The North East UX/UI Focus Group gave the attendees an opportunity to discuss business challenges with their peers and their use of clixifix®. The key points include:

• Subcontractor engagement
• User access & experience
• Subject access requests
• Defect management
• Reporting
• Communication

The key points that were mentioned demonstrate an ongoing desire from their customers to collaborate with clixifix® with the aim to continually improve the software, while also an opportunity to share how much they value the system. Their desire to improve it is based on their awareness of the benefits it brings to their business and colleagues.

A word from clixifix®

James Farrell, CEO and co-founder of clixifix®, said:

“We were delighted with how our first focus group went. It generated an engaging discussion of industry challenges and how we can facilitate and support change. We received valuable constructive feedback that will allow us to move forward. It is clear that there will always be challenges in our industry and it is our job to make it as easy and efficient as possible, so that our customers gain the most from our platform.”

What’s next…

Due to the success of the first UX/UI focus group, clixifix’s® strategy is to deliver similar style events across the UK throughout 2023. The clixifix® team are keen to engage with all their customers and deliver an insightful session that gives customers the opportunity to supply valuable feedback that helps improve usability and functionality.