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TSM takeaway 2: focus on repairs effectiveness

  • Writer: Phil McCavish
    Phil McCavish
  • May 19
  • 2 min read

Our Insights Report on the the latest Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) data published by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) to identified five recommendations to focus improvement activities.





Download the one page summary:


Recommendation 2 — focus on repairs effectiveness


The challenge

Hitting repairs timescales does not guarantee tenant satisfaction. Most operating models and supplier contracts are built around speed, but what happens during and after the repair matters far more to the tenant.


The evidence

•  TP02 (repairs) correlates with TP01 at r = 0.90 — a top-three driver.

•  RP02 (on-time) vs TP02: r = 0.23 — speed explains <6% of variance.

•  Quality, first-time fix and communication drive TP02 more than speed.


Why it matters

Repairs is the most frequent tenant interaction and a defining experience of being a tenant. Optimising for timescale alone leaves the real satisfaction drivers unmanaged. Reframing repairs around experience unlocks disproportionate uplift.


What good looks like

  • Easy to report, channel agnostic; provides accurate information to enable the repair service to understand the right intervention is and how to best deliver this.

  • Clear, timely and proactive communication at every stage of the repair to manage resident expectations.

  • A consistent service and experience that is agnostic of the supply chain solution that is used to deliver the repair.

  • Right-first-time and quality of work are measured and actively managed.

  • A focus on process effectiveness and performance management, leveraging lean techniques to deliver consistent and repeatable service outcomes.


Recommended actions

  1. Focus on the tenant and colleague experience journey to identify issues and improvement opportunities – be resident focussed.

  2. Develop lean capabilities to focus on managing process effectiveness and continuous improvement.

  3. Redesign the reporting to ensure that process consistency can be managed.

  4. Renegotiate supplier contracts to reward outcomes, not just speed and ensure that the same service is delivered irrespective of who is delivering a repair.


Enablers and watch-outs

  • Capture tenant feedback at point of completion.

  • Invest in operative behaviours, not just processes.

  • Balanced scorecard to avoid single-metric distortion.

  • Contract levers need redesign for outcome focus.

 
 
 

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