Building a new home is one of the biggest investments that many will make in a lifetime. When choosing a builder, an individual seeks a company that will go above and beyond.
AusHomes, builders of high-quality, cost-effective homes in South-East Queensland, are using Avantix’s digital scanning services to go above and beyond for their customers and their legal requirements. The bonus? A huge savings on cost.
EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE
“I get phone calls from people who I built a house for 20 years ago asking which roof tile was used during the build, or to get help finding the sewage connection point,” says Brett Shepherd, CEO of AusHomes, which work exclusively in the domestic building market.
Answering these kinds of questions is all part of AusHomes excellent customer service. When operating on paper archives of records, such a request would necessitate a trip to the rented storage facility and retrieval of the correct archive box. Shepherd soon realised there must be a better way.
“We moved to the digitisation of our build records,” says Shepherd. “Now, thanks to OCR recognition and astute naming of our digitally scanned files, questions from homeowners can be answered with a few clicks, all within the one phone call.”
Find out today how digitisation could help your customer service excel.
EXCEEDING LEGAL REQUIREMENTS
Houses are built to last far longer than a lifetime. Yet legislation requires that records relating to a build are retained for less than a decade.
Though AusHomes hands over all certificates as well as a detailed folder relating to the build at completion, unsurprisingly, many people lose these over time.
Though complaints about AusHomes’ work are rare, disputes do happen. The easily retrievable digital files are AusHomes first line defence in their risk management of such instances. Without excellent records, any disputes can easily become a case of one word against another.
“For the protection of the company, we digitise all records including photographs of the home just before handover of the keys.”
Another benefit of AusHomes long-term view of record management is that their current practice is likely to be in line with any potential future changes in legislation. While other businesses may have to scramble to comply, AusHomes will likely be able to continue business-as-usual practice.
COSTS DRAMATICALLY REDUCED
If you assume that going digital would be an added cost of business, read on.
The financial benefit of AusHomes’ long-term digital strategy is substantial. Over more than 20 years in the business, during which they have built over 4,000 homes and apartments, the bulk of paper records was substantial and constantly growing.
“It used to cost $40,000 per year for rental of storage space just for records relating to new home builds” says Shepherd. “The cost of the digital scanning services is a fraction of that, around $5,000 per year.” Add in the costs of folders, binders, dividers and archive boxes for files that could be 2 inches thick and, according to Shepherd: “We’re talking about an aspect of our business that now costs less than a 10th of what it did previously.”
Speak to Avantix about how scanning services could reduce your costs.
Shepherd sums up the advantages of building record file digitisation. “It’s a highly efficient way of storing files that goes beyond current legal requirements, protects us in cases of dispute, and allows us to provide excellent customer service.”
Avantix congratulate AusHomes on their decision to build and protect their business by using digital scanning in a farsighted strategy that is contributing to them going above and beyond the expected.
Avantix are ready to guide you through your digitisation process. Call us today to discuss your needs.
