Rob Gilham is Corporate Director of Business Strategy and Assets at whg

When the government announced that the COVID-19 outbreak was a ‘serious threat’ to health back in February 2020 no-one could have expected the closures and restrictions that were to follow. For whg, what followed was 12 months of constant change and upheaval as we amended, and amended again, the services we could continue to offer safely to our customers.

Managing our repairs service right was crucial. With more than 5,000 repairs job carried out each month, we were keen to keep as much running as possible. However, this had to be balanced against our priority to keep colleagues and customers as safe as possible. An additional challenge for us was the number of different areas we operate in. As restrictions changed according to geographical area, so did the repairs service we could offer.

We knew right from the start that emergency repairs had to continue, and as soon as the government announced the first lockdown put all other repairs on hold.

The postponement of non-essential and routine repairs inevitably caused a backlog, and we knew that as restrictions lifted our customer contact centre would receive a huge influx of calls. To help us manage this workload, we broke our operating area up into five geographical
areas, with customers in each area being able to report repairs on certain days.

This was hugely successful in helping us to manage demand on the phonelines and also ensured jobs were issued in a sensible and efficient way, with repairs teams working in set areas on set days. In fact, of the 4000 repairs we had to cancel during the first lockdown we now have only 200 minor carpentry tasks still to complete.

The last year has been a learning process for us, and we have found ways to become more reactive and flexible while continuing to prioritise the safety of colleagues and customers. We have listened to colleagues more, and instead of telling them what was safe to do, as we had
done at the beginning, consulted with them and asked them to share their concerns.

Using their input we amended our services; for example putting a hold on kitchen and bathroom repairs, which colleagues felt they were unable to carry out safely.

We have also listened to our customers to identify their concerns, and on the back of this developed step-by-step videos to reassure them of the safety measures we had in place. Our communications with our customers helped ensure that we were able to maintain full compliance with our gas and electrical checks – achieving some of our best gas safety performance in recent years.

Recently, an additional challenge was thrown our way with the emergence of the South African variant of Covid-19. This meant we now had three different areas, with three different services in operation: The Walsall postcodes where the new variant had been found, the rest of Walsall (which had a higher than average rate of infection), and the surrounding areas.

The lessons we had learnt over the last 12 months meant we were able to swiftly respond to this new outbreak, communicating with customers and colleagues operating in those areas immediately.

With the future looking brighter, and an end to lockdown on the horizon, we are now preparing to bring our repairs services back online, safe in the knowledge that the last 12 months have given us the skills and experience to deal with whatever challenges come our way.