Steven Rae wants EVO to become the number-one digital property maintenance, repairs, and compliance business in the world. Chatting to Housing Digital editor Liam Turner, the CEO explains just why he thinks such a lofty target can be hit
How did EVO come about?
EVO came about when the co-founders, Dean Shepherd and Mark Iandoli, ran a business to actually provide the repairs and maintenance to people who needed that service. What they found was that the communication in terms of tradespeople, landlords, estate agents, was really, really poor. Dean has got a technology background, and he thought, there must be a better way of managing this.
Did you initially start out providing services to housing associations – or was it more focused on private landlords?
Originally, it was to individual landlords, but it became apparent quickly that there was a bigger need within the social and private-rental sector. The more we spoke to the large providers the more they told us how difficult they found managing such large volumes of requests, and the associated work that came along with those requests when using existing systems that were not designed with the tenant experience in mind.
What problem does EVO set out to solve?
The rental property sector, especially the social housing sector, has really struggled over the past 10 years or so, particularly with communication and the sheer volume of issues reported, they spend most of their time going back and forth with emails and phone calls, often with the wrong information, or a lack of information, getting to the right people that prevented them from effectively doing what they wanted to do, which was to go and do the job and fix the issues and make people happy.
They [co-founders Dean Shepherd and Mark Iandoli] found that, in the private sector, unfortunately, there’s a lot of agents who charge a commission on every call out as well as charging the tradesperson a separate fee. So, there’s sort of a double whammy on hidden fees that people don’t necessarily see.
They came up with the idea of putting an app in tenants’ hands. So, they’re empowered to say, this is the issue, take a photo, go through quite a simple, straightforward process, and ask enough information to be able to get the appropriately skilled tradesperson to resolve that issue first time.
What benefits does the app provide?
Obviously, there’s social benefits…because you’re reducing travel and individual van journeys for tradespeople and that sort of stuff, and we also do a lot of video triage, where we’re trying to empower tenants to better resolve their own issues. 20-30% of all issues being resolved via video call would be brilliant because it’s a lot cheaper, doesn’t involve someone going out, and it makes the tenants feel that they’re able to resolve issues themselves.
We aim to reduce no-access visits because we find that, in the traditional model, you go to an agent and they give you a key, you travel for an hour somewhere, climb up 24 flights of stairs, get to the property, and it’s the wrong key. Then you go back to the agent and say, that’s the wrong key. And they say, thank you for that, and they go and put it on the exact same hook they took it off, and say, oh well, never mind, we’ll have to go and get a different key. You’re thinking, you’ve just put it on the same hook. So, the next person who comes will have the same problem!
“It’s all about communication and information, and we nail both those issues for everyone”
Then you’ve got all the horrendous stories, such as Awaab Ishak, who died from damp and mould, people being found two, three, four years after they’ve passed in social housing properties, complete lack of transparency, complete lack of what we call ‘big data’, which doesn’t help housing associations to be transparent with people.
How does the app cater to both tenants and tradespeople?
We have different, purpose built apps designed for each party. The tenant app enables residents to report issues quickly and effectively (and in less than 30 seconds), and in a similar way that they are used to engaging with for all their other convenience requirements, such as ordering a taxi or a takeaway.
The app contains lots of useful info about their property including FAQs on relevant items, which empowers them to resolve some issues themselves. The contractor app is tailored to allow tradespeople to accept jobs and post updates, which are then automatically passed on to the tenant.
This includes when they are on route to the job to allow the resident to track them, details of work activity undertaken, any parts or materials used, and job-completion notes.
What projects have you currently got in the works at EVO?
We are always looking to improve and innovate, whilst still ensuring the apps and dashboard are easy to use – that is always a key consideration and fundamental to how we design things. Video triage is a big focus for us at the moment, including augmented reality to provide further benefit to these calls. If we can reduce the number of visits and journeys, then that’s good for everyone, right?
We are also continually enriching the property data that we hold for every property as this provides key information to make better decisions around what needs doing, who to send, and what equipment and skills they need.
What are EVO’s future ambitions?
Our ambition is to be the number-one digital property maintenance, repairs, and compliance business in the world. This sounds like lofty ambitions but everyone all over the world is struggling with the same issues, it’s all about communication and information, and we nail both those issues for everyone.
Housing Digital Stakeholder EVO is a modern digital solution bringing convenience and transparency to the property maintenance sector for both tenants and landlords. EVO currently works with landlords, housing associations, and local authorities as part of its shared mission to support people’s access to decent quality housing.
Main image: Steven Rae, CEO, EVO
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