Wrong trade. No parts. Wasted visit. It’s one of the most common and costly failure modes in housing repairs – and it almost always traces back to the same root cause: not enough information at the point of triage.
To address this, NCHA is working with Made Tech Housing to implement Evidence – a digital document request platform that enables teams to securely request images and documents directly from residents, providing important visual context they need to diagnose and resolve issues faster.
The challenge: diagnosing repairs without seeing them
Repairs triage is often an imprecise process. A resident calls to report an issue – and the team has to make a diagnosis based on a verbal description alone. Without visual information, it is difficult to assess the severity of an issue, identify the likely cause, or determine which trade to send.
This often results in wasted journeys, wrong-trade dispatches, and jobs that require follow-on works. With the average cost of failed visit running to around £150, the financial impact of poor triage adds up quickly – and the experience for residents waiting for a resolution is equally frustrating.
The obvious solution – asking residents for photos – has historically been easier said than done. Even where email or webform based requests are used, images typically land in an inbox rather than being attached to the job – requiring manual handling to get them in front of the right operative or team. With sensitive images of residents’ homes sitting in staff email accounts, there are data security implications too.
How NCHA is using Evidence
Evidence makes requesting photos from residents a straightforward part of the repairs workflow. When a repairs coordinator needs visual information,they raise a request in the Evidence admin portal and send a secure link to the resident in seconds. The resident receives a link by SMS or email, and is guided through a simple, mobile-optimised journey to upload photos of the issue.
No app to download, no account to create – just a secure link that works on any device. Images are stored securely within Evidence – not scattered across inboxes – and automatically added to the job in the teams repairs system, so the coordination team and operative has a clear view of the issue before they are dispatched. If a resident has not responded, automated reminders are triggered.
For NCHA, templates have been configured to gather images for all day to day repairs, with a specific template and focus on damp and mould: a particularly important use case given the sector’s increasing focus on Awaab’s Law. The system will be rolled out in a phased approach to include other types of repairs over the coming months. Custom templates mean the right information is collected for each repair type, every time.
Built around NCHA’s repairs transformation
For NCHA’s residents, the process is simple: receive a link, take a photo, send it. And the payoff is tangible – faster diagnosis, fewer repeat visits, and repairs that are more likely to be resolved on the first appointment.
For the repairs team, better information at the point of triage means fewer wasted journeys and a reduction in follow-on works – NCHA’s primary measure for first-time fix improvement.
“At NCHA, we’re investing in tools that help our repairs team deliver a genuinely better experience for residents. Made Tech Evidence gives our team a straightforward, secure way to gather the visual information they need before dispatching an operative, which will help us get the diagnosis right the first time and resolve the issue for the tenant on the first visit”
Scott Armitage, Assistant Director of Property Services NCHA
About Evidence
Evidence is part of the Made Tech Housing platform for social housing providers. It gives housing teams a secure, simple way to request and receive any information they need from residents – whether that’s photos of a repair issue, proof of income or identity documents.
Click here to learn more about the product.
