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Maintenance services

Responsive maintenance

Responsive maintenance is a critical component of property and tenancy management. DHA is contracted to provide a quality 24-hour maintenance service and to deliver high-levels of tenant satisfaction with that service. To assist in achieving this objective, DHA provides a Maintenance Call Centre (MCC) to receive and take action on maintenance calls from tenants across Australia. During 2013–14, the MCC received 132,613 calls and made 116,850 outgoing calls. The MCC raised 44,672 maintenance requests and responded to 1,277 incoming emails from contractors, Defence members, real estate agents and DHA staff.

Mobile technology

During 2013–14, 147 mobile devices were introduced for property managers and other field staff as part of improvements to the tenancy service. The mobile devices are used during property inspections and give staff remote access to IT systems. The devices also include a function that enables staff to record outcomes of inspections directly into DHA's systems, access historical information about the property or the tenant and the ability to directly raise maintenance requests. This information is electronically available to lessors and tenants via their Online Services account.

The mobile devices have improved business efficiency with a significant reduction in data re-entry and post inspection administration. Improvements to mobile technology and associated systems will continue to refine the customer service experience.

Maintenance surveys

Defence member satisfaction is measured on customer service, contractor service and overall satisfaction with the maintenance service. Performance with completed and invoiced works remained strong, with 95% of 6,998 surveyed tenants expressing satisfaction with the overall service. This result is the same as that in 2012–13.

Contractor management

To enable DHA to give tenants and lessors a prompt and high-quality maintenance service, irrespective of location, local maintenance service providers are used in each region. Sophisticated contractor management software is used to assist the MCC and regional offices to manage about 1,000 individual contractors across the country. To maintain efficient and timely maintenance support, a rolling tender program is used to ensure all engaged contractors are compliant with the high standards of service. Through the rolling tender and software enhancement programs, supervision of the contractor workforce is continually being refined, work allocation is being automated and value-for-money improved.

Figure 2: Customer satisfaction with maintenance service, 2009–10 to 2013–14

Figure two shows customer satisfaction survey results that measure satisfaction with maintenance service. In 2013–14, 95% of customers were satisfied with maintenance services, in 2012–13, 95% of customers were satisfied, in 2011–12, 94% of customers were satisfied, in 2010–11, 91% of customers were satisfied and in 2009–10, 98% of customers were satisfied.

Services Agreement on housing and related matters

The relationship with Defence is managed under the provisions of the Services Agreement on housing and related matters (Services Agreement).

In June 2014, Defence and DHA agreed to align the term of the Allocation and Tenancy Management (ATM) Agreement with the Services Agreement. This extended the term of the ATM by a further four years. In doing so, Defence recognised that value-for-money was provided and services were being delivered in an efficient and effective manner.