Tables 8.4-8.7 outline the scores for each maintenance service on the vari- ous service quality determinants. Due to the fact that not every housing as- sociation studied performs maintenance of ventilation systems or cleaning of shared areas, the score is also calculated per association. In other words, the score is divided by the number of associations with specifications.
Comparing the tables, it can be observed that clauses relating to mainte- nance of heating and water systems receive the greatest coverage, and exte- rior paintwork is also well covered. Specifications for the cleaning of shared areas appeared to be at a lower level of coverage from the customer’s point of view. The same is true, to a lesser extent, for the maintenance of ventila- tion systems. This would appear to be consistent with the general attention given to the first types of maintenance mentioned, but less for the cleaning of shared areas and the maintenance of ventilation systems, and the subse- quent development of contracts in these areas.
Cleaning of shared building elements
The documents relating to the cleaning of shared building elements give most attention to preventing damage to tenants’ personal property. The evaluation of the service and any restoration of service also receive attention, as does the competence of the cleaners. Completing maintenance work in a single
Table 8.4 Service quality determinants for cleaning of shared building elements
Service quality determinant Weak (x1) Average (x2) Strong (x3) Score Score
Avoiding damage to personal property 0 7 0 14 3.50
Evaluation and restoration of service 2 2 2 12 3.00
The competence of maintenance workers 0 4 1 11 2.75
Limiting and tidying up litter and dust around the work site 0 0 3 9 2.25
Flexibility in making appointments 3 3 0 9 2.25
Limiting nuisance caused by noise and vibration 0 0 3 9 2.25
Politeness of maintenance workers 0 4 0 8 2.00
Provision of information before the start of maintenance work 3 2 0 7 1.75
Being available to answer questions and receive complaints 4 0 0 4 1.00
Sticking to execution planning agreements 3 0 0 3 0.75
Limiting the time taken by work 3 0 0 3 0.75
Having maintenance workers wear smart, uniform overalls 0 0 1 3 0.75
Being addressed in your own language 0 1 0 2 0.50
Speed of response 0 1 0 2 0.50
Completing maintenance activities in a single visit 0 0 0 0 0.00
Tenant participation by providing maintenance options 0 0 0 0 0.00
visit and tenant participation (availability of maintenance options) are not ad- dressed, which makes sense given the nature of the service. The efficiency of cleaners only has a limited impact on tenants’ satisfaction. Furthermore, one can make few choices when it comes to cleaning work. What is more strik- ing is that ‘being addressed in your own language’, and ‘having cleaners wear smart, uniform overalls’, receive little attention, despite the fact that these kinds of issues can have a direct impact on the impression given to tenants.
Maintenance of heating and water systems
The item that is mentioned most frequently is ‘being available to answer questions and receive complaints’. Accessibility is the key factor for reactive maintenance, and is indeed essential for being able to carry out such mainte- nance at all. Much attention is also paid to flexibility in making appointments, and preventing damage to personal property. The documents give no atten- tion to allowing tenant participation by providing a range of maintenance choices, and addressing tenants in their own language. Little attention was also paid to ‘completing maintenance work in a single visit’ and ‘limiting the time taken by work’.
Maintenance of ventilation systems
Contracts for this type of maintenance give most attention to flexibility in making appointments. ‘Preventing damage to personal property’ also (again) receives substantial coverage. This also applies to ‘limiting and tidying up
Table 8.5 Service quality determinants for maintenance of heating and water systems
Service quality determinant Weak (x1) Average (x2) Strong (x3) Score Score
Being available to answer questions and receive complaints 5 5 6 33 5.50
Flexibility in making appointments 6 6 3 27 4.50
Speed of response 1 7 4 27 4.50
Avoiding damage to personal property 2 10 0 22 3.67
Limiting and tidying up litter and dust around the work site 6 2 3 19 3.16
Politeness of maintenance workers 5 5 1 18 3.00
Limiting nuisance caused by noise and vibration 2 3 3 17 2.83
The competence of maintenance workers 5 4 0 13 2.17
Provision of information before the start of maintenance work 11 1 0 13 2.16
Evaluation and restoration of service 3 3 0 9 1.50
Sticking to execution planning agreements 5 1 0 7 1.17
Having maintenance workers wear smart, uniform overalls 0 3 0 6 1.00
Completing maintenance activities in a single visit 1 2 0 5 0.83
Limiting the time taken by work 3 1 0 5 0.83
Tenant participation by providing maintenance options 0 0 0 0 0.00
Being addressed in your own language 0 0 0 0 0.00
litter and dust around the work site’ and ‘limiting noise and vibration’. No attention was given to ‘completing maintenance work in a single visit’, ‘al- lowing tenant participation,’ ‘addressing tenants in their own language’ and ‘having maintenance workers wear smart, uniform overalls’.
Exterior paintwork
‘Preventing damage to personal property’ is the best-covered service quality determinant for this type of maintenance. ‘Limiting and tidying up litter and dust around the work site’ also receives a great deal of attention, followed by ‘limiting noise and vibration’ and ‘ensuring satisfactory provision of informa- tion prior to the start of maintenance work’. No attention is given to ‘complet- ing maintenance in a single visit’, ‘having maintenance workers wear smart, uniform overalls’, and ‘speed of response’. Due to the fact that exterior work takes place outside the home, failing to complete maintenance in a single vis- it usually has no direct impact on residents’ satisfaction levels. Overalls are apparently not considered to be important outside the home, although they could have some merit from the point of feelings of reliability and identity. Speed of response is generally unimportant in this case, as paintwork is usu- ally planned maintenance.
Differences according to types of maintenance
Documents relating to all types of maintenance contract paid particular at- tention to preventing damage to (tenants’) personal property. This would ap-
Table 8.6 Service quality determinants for the maintenance of ventilation systems
Service quality determinant Weak (x1) Average (x2) Strong (x3) Score Score
Flexibility in making appointments 3 4 1 14 4.67
Avoiding damage to personal property 0 6 0 12 4.00
Limiting and tidying up litter and dust around the work site 2 0 3 11 3.67
Limiting nuisance caused by noise and vibration 0 0 3 9 3.00
The competence of maintenance workers 0 3 0 6 2.00
Politeness of maintenance workers 0 3 0 6 2.00
Being available to answer questions and receive complaints 4 1 0 6 2.00
Speed of response 0 3 0 6 2.00
Provision of information before the start of maintenance work 5 0 0 5 1.67
Sticking to execution planning agreements 3 0 0 3 1.00
Limiting the time taken by work 3 0 0 3 1.00
Evaluation and restoration of service 3 0 0 3 1.00
Completing maintenance activities in a single visit 0 0 0 0 0.00
Tenant participation by providing maintenance options 0 0 0 0 0.00
Being addressed in your own language 0 0 0 0 0.00
Having maintenance workers wear smart, uniform overalls 0 0 0 0 0.00
pear to be mainly related to limiting the risk to the client by avoiding damage claims from tenants. It is also a way of preventing tenants from having valid grounds for complaints. Another complaint-related aspect of service that re- ceives much attention in the documents examined is ‘limiting and tidying up litter and dust around the work site’.
‘Completing maintenance in a single visit’ is not addressed in the specifica- tions, and it is likely that the purchasing party takes this aspect for granted. One might reasonably expect documents related to paintwork and cleaning not to cover this aspect, in view of the nature of the services provided. For these types of maintenance, the distance between service provider and ten- ant is relatively large. The omission is more surprising in the case of mainte- nance heating and water installations, and maintenance of ventilation sys- tems, both of which take place closer to tenants. This is reinforced by the fact that the tenants’ survey on maintenance (See Chapter 6) revealed that it is precisely this aspect that is particularly important for tenants. Furthermore, the same survey reveals that tenants are relatively dissatisfied with this ser- vice aspect.
Housing associations
One might expect there to be many similarities in how housing associations cover aspects of services in their specifications, given the degree of coopera- tion between them and, in particular, between the different departments of housing association C. Despite this, however, there are considerable differ-
Table 8.7 Service quality determinants for exterior paintwork
Service quality determinant Weak (x1) Average (x2) Strong (x3) Score Score
Avoiding damage to personal property 5 13 1 34 5.67
Limiting and tidying up litter and dust around the work site 3 8 4 31 5.17
Limiting nuisance caused by noise and vibration 1 6 4 25 4.16
Provision of information before the start of maintenance work 9 2 1 16 2.67
Politeness of maintenance workers 2 5 0 12 2.00
The competence of maintenance workers 1 5 0 11 1.83
Sticking to execution planning agreements 3 4 0 11 1.83
Flexibility in making appointments 5 3 0 11 1.83
Evaluation and restoration of service 5 3 0 11 1.83
Limiting the time taken by work 3 3 0 9 1.50
Being available to answer questions and receive complaints 4 1 0 6 1.00
Being addressed in your own language 0 1 0 2 0.33
Completing maintenance activities in a single visit 0 0 0 0 0.00
Tenant participation by providing maintenance options 0 0 0 0 0.00
Having maintenance workers wear smart, uniform overalls 0 0 0 0 0.00
Speed of response 0 0 0 0 0.00
ences between them (see Table 8.8). Although it is necessary to take account of differences caused by the absence or otherwise of specifications for certain types of maintenance for certain housing associations, Table 8.8 gives a rea- sonable impression of the scale of the differences.
The specifications used by housing association departments C2 and C1, which generally had the widest coverage for service aspects, took no account of four service aspects: (1) having maintenance workers wear smart, uniform overalls, (2) completing maintenance in a single visit, (3) addressing tenants in their own language, and (4) allowing tenant participation by providing a choice of maintenance options.
It is striking that ‘completing maintenance in a single visit’ was mentioned by only two of the four housing associations. ‘Flexibility in making appoint- ments’ appears to be a key issue for a few housing associations, but a non-is-
Table 8.8 Cover of relevant clauses per housing association
Service quality determinant
Association C2 Association C1 Association C3 Association B Association A Association D Total
Avoiding damage to personal property 12 11 8 4 6 3 44
Flexibility in making appointments 9 10 10 5 3 0 37
Limiting and tidying up litter and dust around the work site
7 8 6 6 5 2 34
Provision of information before the start of maintenance work
8 7 8 1 4 6 34
Being available to answer questions and receive complaints
8 7 7 5 1 2 30
Politeness of maintenance workers 5 4 4 8 2 2 25
Limiting nuisance caused by noise and vibration
6 6 4 5 3 1 25
The competence of maintenance workers
5 6 5 4 1 2 23
Evaluation and restoration of service 7 4 4 1 5 2 23
Sticking to execution planning agreements
5 4 4 3 1 2 19
Limiting the time taken by work 4 4 4 2 1 1 16
Speed of response 2 4 2 3 3 2 16
Maintenance workers wearing smart, uniform overalls
0 0 1 1 1 1 4
Completing maintenance activities in a single visit
0 0 0 2 1 0 3
Being addressed in your own language 0 0 1 0 0 1 2
Tenant participation by providing maintenance options
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 78 75 68 50 37 27 335
sue for others. Finally, tenant participation via being able to choose between various maintenance options was not mentioned at all in the agreements ex- amined. It is possible, however, that this aspect is dealt with separately from the purchasing process (for example, in advance).
Perception and effect
How consistent are buyers’ expectations regarding what is important for end- customers in the actual specifications? For planned exterior maintenance, damage to personal property is indeed given considerable attention. Sticking to execution planning agreements also receives reasonable attention in gen- eral conditions and framework agreements.
For tenants, the most important point for maintenance carried out in re- sponse to requested repairs in the dwelling was that of ‘flexibility in mak- ing appointments’. As we concluded in the previous section, the occurrence of this aspect in the specifications is extremely variable. In general, however, this factor is mentioned fairly comprehensively in the various documents concerned with the maintenance of individual heating and water systems and the maintenance of individual ventilation systems, both of which both take place inside the home. A striking point, again, is that purchasers identi- fied ‘completing maintenance in a single visit’ as an aspect that they would expect tenants to find important, and yet this element was always absent from the maintenance specifications.