Cloud software for managing customer service

The housebuilding industry relies on one thing: homeowners. Yet traditional customer care methods can be lacking. James Farrell, Co-Founder and Managing Director of clixifix explains how his company is taking customers to the cloud.

PRODUCT | Clixifix

PRICE | Based on the number of plots if residential or the number of projects if commercial, from £99/month

CHALLENGE | Contrary to popular belief, the construction industry is not all about bricks and mortar; it’s all about the customer journey. In very simplistic terms for the house builder, their customers are the only reason that their construction business exists. After many years working in the housebuilding and construction industries, nothing frustrated us more than the customer care systems we used. When we looked at the enterprise software already out there we discovered it was difficult to implement, expensive and lacked transparency. In a nutshell, small to medium sized businesses couldn’t afford it and the bigger companies who could, didn’t like that the software simply wasn’t easy to use or display. We tried process after process, from paper files to emails and complex spread sheets – all of them time-consuming, all of them ineffective and painful. In 2012, we decided to flip these negative experiences into a positive and began to develop Clixifix.

SOLUTION | Clixifix is a cloud-based application – there’s no software to install or download. We designed the application so it would issue unique ticket numbers for every single defect or repair that is reported to a company. Every defect falls in to one of four categories – it’s either an emergency, or a high, medium or low priority repair. Depending on the company, which can set its own internal key performance indicators, the response times could range from four hours to 28 or 60 days.

Once you create the ticket, there is a chronological countdown until the ticket is closed or resolved. Every one of the team has a unique user name and password to log-in and they can see the dash board, which shows them how many tickets are open; it’s all in front of them and very transparent. The subcontractors are nominated on the ticket so they know how long they have to respond, and the process goes from there. On their dashboard, they will only see the jobs that they have been instructed for. There are lots of add-on features; for example you can upload support documents on-site from a mobile, you can create appointments on the move, you can add comments and so on.

Enabling the new home-owners and clients to login to their personalised dashboard to consume up-dates on reported defects and repairs, view support documents and view product information and even help videos instantly can be invaluable. This omni-channel approach is consistent with their pre-sales experience and could cement your companies’ reputation for excellent Customer Care.

OUTCOMES | Clixifix has been developed by individuals who have worked for many years in sales / marketing and Customer care of new homes and the product and workflows reflects that. We had our fill of Excel hell in relation to customer care. We hope that the term ‘powered by Clixifix’ will become synonymous with excellent customer care in our industry.

We wanted to save people time and money as well as help them improve levels of customer satisfaction. One platform for all customer care issues to be logged and accessed by everyone who needed to be involved, and which promoted collaboration to quickly and effectively find the best solution to any problem. Clixifix provides a clear audit trail from the very first contact from the purchaser or resident, which can’t be deleted. It brings transparency and accountability to the process.

Current property developers using Clixifix include Argent, Rowland Homes and Galliford Try.