Repairs app rolled out to Sheffield and Gosport

Following the successful launch of its smartphone application earlier in the year in Harlow, Kier, a leading construction, services and property group, has rolled out the Kier Repairs app to tenants and leaseholders in Sheffield and Gosport. The free to download app enables tenants and leaseholders, eligible for Kier’s repairs and maintenance services on their home, to report repairs directly using their smartphone. Kier is still the first, and currently only, contractor to have launched a repairs app for its customers.

In Gosport, the app will enable the 3,186 Gosport tenants eligible for Kier’s repairs and maintenance services to report repairs directly using their smartphone. With nearly half of all adults in the UK now estimated to use a smartphone (around 40 million people), the free Kier Repairs app provides eligible Kier customers with even more choice in how and when they can report responsive repairs.

The launch of the app for Sheffield City Council tenants and leaseholders coincided with the opening of its dedicated Tenants Resource Centre. The new Kier Tenant Resource Centre has been opened to provide residents with a dedicated hub where they can use space for community group meetings, training events and to meet other tenants. Kier is also hoping to offer the use of its resource centre to local charities.

The app has been designed to further simplify the repair reporting process and includes a camera function allowing customers to take a picture of the issue they are reporting. This not only helps the customer in accurately describing the issue, but also saves the call centre time in diagnosing the repair and, on some occasions, means that solutions can be offered over the phone. This process also helps break down some language barriers for tenants who may find it difficult to communicate via the telephone.

Furthermore, the app allows customers to report repairs at a time convenient to them rather than being restricted to call centre opening times. Repairs can also be reported on behalf of customers who do not own a smartphone themselves – for example, by the relatives of elderly residents.

Kier Managing Director, Peter Brynes, said: “We developed the app through close consultation with tenants of council properties in order to guarantee customers and clients a new, convenient way of reporting repairs, in addition to existing methods such as telephone, email or in person at Kier’s local call centres. Sheffield and Gosport tenants are the latest tenants to have access to the app and we are liaising with all our clients on looking at rolling the app out to their tenants and leaseholders.”