HomeServe now has a 98% customer satisfaction rate, thanks to the Praxedo solution.

Tell us briefly about your company and what you offer.

Specializing in plumbing, electricity, heating, air conditioning and kitchen appliances, HomeServe has provided equipment repair services and facility management assistance for over 20 years. Our customers typically have recurrent maintenance contracts in place, or require our services due to one-off emergency requests.
 
We currently serve 1.2 million customers, work with 750 contractors in France, and our annual revenue is roughly 140 million USD.

Our business operations highly depend on our network of 1,350 technicians across the country who complete over 150,000 work orders per year using Praxedo.

Can you describe HomeServe’s pain points before implementing Praxedo software?

2010: The transition to digitize our processes

We began digitizing our workforce back in 2010 by equipping our technicians with electric pens. However, completing work order reports on paper meant we were still limited in the amount of data we were able to collect.

2016: An increasing need to collect work order data
 
When the company adopted a new strategy focused on digitization, efficiency, and customer satisfaction, we decided to review our work order management software. We needed to have a 360 degree view of every work order – job deadlines, appointments scheduled, etc. But above all, we needed to access that data in real time to be able to respond more promptly and effectively follow-up.

Finding the right tool for our contractors and their technicians

Attracting contractors was an ongoing challenge. We knew we needed to offer them the right software tools that simplified their interactions with customers, and that improved their productivity and reputation.

What led you to Praxedo to solve these challenges?

After conducting an exercise comparing various field service management (FSM) software solutions on the market, we chose Praxedo because they were able to meet several of our business needs that others could not.

An intuitive, yet easy-to-use field service software
 
User-friendly technology was vital for us. Because we serve a wide range of businesses, our FSM software needed to be simple to implement, and easy for everyone to use. We wanted to quickly convince our contractors and their technicians of its value and the tool needed to be flexible enough to interface with the information system we were already using.
 
Adapting work order forms to our various services

Given the wide range of services we offer, it was essential for us to be able to customize our forms according to the different types of work order requests. The goal was greater efficiency through simplifying our operational processes.

On that front, Praxedo has kept its promise – to allow us to implement their solution in record breaking times, and get our field technicians adapted to the mobile app as soon as possible.

How do you use Praxedo?

Since every contractor is different, they use it in various ways. 75% of our contractors use it daily for a variety of maintenance services, which comprises 1,350 technicians and 700 businesses – so obviously, their needs differ vastly from one another.

It depends on the structure of their business. For example, an independent contractor may use the mobile application for all of their operations, while larger enterprises with personnel dedicated to work order management for example, may use just the web platform to manage administrative activities such as scheduling and dispatching.

Can you describe the life cycle of a work order, and how Praxedo supports you?

Contractors either receive the work orders assigned to them directly or retrieve them from our Marketplace portal. We then track the initial contact and scheduling of the job.

While at a job site, the technician will fill out the work order report, add photos of the equipment and notify us of any anomalies relating to the work. All the data is transmitted to our information system via the web service platform, allowing us to update the information in the management tool in real time.
 
Praxedo has helped us structure this model by standardizing how we process data from the service calls we receive. We’ve been able to create specific forms for different types of jobs, and we can manage them autonomously. For example, when a contractor identifies the source of a problem during a job, they can document it using drop-down lists we’ve already configured, directing the technician to input the correct information rather than through a text box with no guidelines that led to multiple errors in the past.

In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we even added alert messages to our forms which was very practical.

How does using Praxedo benefit your organization?

Tracking work orders in real time is a big plus

The primary benefit is being able to track work orders from A to Z in real time. 95% of our work order reports are completed through the app, and 90% of our bookings are assigned there. This has allowed us to send text notifications to customers, who can then trace the status in real time via their customer portal. With a 98% customer satisfaction rate, the Praxedo solution has clearly impacted our service quality.

Enhancing our reputation with contractors and customers alike

Our contractors are taking photos during jobs which they didn’t do before. This saves us time processing files as well as resolving the occasional dispute. This benefits our contractors’ reputation and ours. We regularly highlight this functionality during discussions with our partners.

More recently, Praxedo software has allowed us to implement a marketplace solution which was not compatible with the internal tools we used previously. Now, we are a lot more reactive and see a decrease in the average cost per work order.

Numbers say it all

The numbers clearly illustrate the benefits of the software. Our ability to track work orders has allowed us to monitor new benchmarks and plan accordingly. For example, we’ve increased the rate at which we book appointments from 48% to 66% in 2 years. This allows us to respect the scheduling deadlines made to our customers.

Moreover, more data is captured through the app, we communicate better with our customers, and we have full traceability of the service jobs we carry out. Additionally, the number of phone calls we receive relating to a given work order has dropped from 4.3 to 3.9.

If you could summarize the Praxedo solution in 2 ways, what would they be?

Traceability

Traceability plays an important role in monitoring and improving the quality of our service. Thanks to the data captured through the mobile app, we can view job history and better manage and engage our network of contractors.

Better response times

Our customers expect prompt service. With the app, we can take action even before the customer seeks assistance.