Property Maintenance
Customer Engagement for Property Maintenance
Visit Descartes at the Commercial Vehicle Show NEC, 21st-23rd April 2026
Housing providers and repair contractors are challenged with meeting rising customer expectations and increasing tenant engagement while reducing costs.
Streamlined routing and real-time tracking solutions improve customer satisfaction, increase first-time fix and reduce call centre traffic.
Unlock the secret to reducing call centre traffic and improving your resident experience.
Discover how to reduce your operational costs and improve resident communications both before and after a service appointment.
+20%
Improve first time access rates
Automatically
Send real-time appointment updates
Up to 50%
Reduce complaints
Gather instant feedback after appointments
Discover more about customer engagement
Explainer: Descartes Customer Engagement Platform
Route Planning and Optimisation
An introduction to the Descartes Scheduling and Routing optimisation tools that can create and execute plans, increasing efficiency, providing greater visibility and streamlining communications.
Customer engagement
Customer notifications, real-time appointment tracking and feedback collection improve tenant experience and reduce operational costs.
Descartes Housing Solutions
With your current vehicles and drivers, Descartes can help you cut down on mileage, fuel costs, and gain first-time access while enhancing the customer experience.
Descartes field service customers already include:
- Social housing providers
- Repair and maintenance contractors
- Builders' merchants
- Utility providers
Not sure where to start? Contact one of our experts.
By filling out the form below, you'll be connecting directly with one of our expert consultants who specialise in customer engagement and fleet optimisation.
Here's what you can expect once your submission is received:
- Personalised Consultation: Our expert will take the time to understand the unique needs of your fleet or business.
- Insight into Your Challenges: Share any roadblocks or pain points you're facing, and we'll provide actionable insights.
- Solution Discussion: We'll talk next steps to explore potential strategies and solutions that could enhance your efficiency and performance.
Logistics solutions for social housing, property maintenance and contractors
Increase feedback response rates and enable rapid service recovery with timely surveys and negative feedback alerts.
As soon as the job is complete, the customer receives a link to an intuitive form where they give feedback on their experience.
- Appointment management
Tenants want service appointments that work around their schedule. Confirming, cancelling, and rescheduling appointments by telephone uses valuable support resources while wasting customers’ time.
Streamline the process by offering appointment management through a web-based customer portal.
- Route planning, scheduling and optimisation
Route planning enables fleet and service managers to optimise the routes taken by their mobile operatives, whilst route scheduling creates an efficient schedule for drivers and service staff to follow.
Route optimisation and dynamic scheduling software responds to changes in real time to maximise efficiency and customer experience.
Learn more about route planning and scheduling
- Appointment tracking
Enhance the final mile experience for customers and improve fleet efficiency with customer notifications and order tracking.
Appointment tracking software uses order status and driver location data to provide a better customer experience.
Customers receive either SMS or email notifications throughout the order lifecycle. These messages link to a branded, web-based portal where customers can view their order progress and track their driver’s arrival in real-time on a map.
Learn more about notifications and tracking
Property Maintenance Case Studies
“To anyone considering the solution, I would say go for it. It’s really good value and there are so many extra benefits in addition to reducing no-access. Customer expectations are high because of services like Amazon: they don’t want to wait in long call queues or be given five-hour ETA windows. The solution really modernises how we work.”
Nicole Arthur, Head of Housing Assets, Gravesham Borough Council
Decrease in no-access rate 26%
Follow-up phone calls Reduced
Feedback response Increased
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“If you’re looking to improve the customer experience, there’s no reason not to use the solution. We chose the platform to improve the customer experience and saw additional benefits such as a reduction in missed appointments and increased response to feedback.”
Andrew Rysdale, Assistant Director of Property, Fairhive Homes
Reduction in failed appointments 37%
Customer feedback response rate Increased
Customer satisfaction star rating 4.5
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“The transactional feedback data is worth its weight in gold. It solves the challenge of trying to be precise and recognise after each repair whether the customer is happy.”
James Emblow, Head of Property Analytics, Paradigm Housing Group
YoY Reduction in carded appointments 20-40%
Customer satisfaction rating 4.6/5
Mobile operative downtime Reduced
Read more