
Southern Housing Group's Efforts to Deliver Outstanding Customer Service
Southern Housing Group is one of the largest housing associations in southern England, offering over 28,000 homes to over 72,000 residents. To improve customer service, the group created Southern Maintenance Services (SMS) to bring previously outsourced work in-house.

Savings of circa £200,000 within 8 months of bringing works in-house

100% capture of their customers’ satisfaction

A reduction in end-to-end repairs to 8.02 days (11-15 days is standard)
What customers remember from a ‘wow’ perspective is that they phoned up, we turned up when we said we would, we fixed the repair and, afterwards, a service call was made to check everything was OK."
Carl Dewey, Maintenance Service Director – Southern Housing Group
The Challenge
Southern Housing Group recognises repairs as a crucial service for customers, so they aimed to provide outstanding customer satisfaction for their maintenance services. To achieve this, they needed better control over service delivery, both structurally and on a day-to-day basis. To support their efforts, they explored using field service management software.
The Solution
Our mission is to increase client retention through service delivery excellence, so we were well-equipped to support Southern Housing Group’s strategic change. Together, we created a solution to organise their maintenance team efficiently and consistently. The software provides clear visibility of the entire service process to all involved, including mobile operatives and back-office staff. It also creates an audit trail of all completed work, enabling performance monitoring and analysis.
The Result
Once implemented, our software became an integral part of Southern Housing Group’s new way of working, leading to improvements in customer satisfaction and reduced travel time for mobile operatives. In one reporting period, 95% of 455 surveyed customers rated their service 8 or above, with 86% giving a 10/10 rating.
– £200,000 saved within 8 months
– 100% customer satisfaction capture
– End-to-end repairs reduced to 8.02 days