Around 70 percent of Australian households either own or are looking to purchase a home, and there’s more than 250,000 service providers with a registered trade business. As encouraging as these numbers sound, the rate of service providers adopting technology to run their business continues to lag behind.

Over the last 5 years, the Australian economy has seen a significant rise in the digital economy, innovative technology and disruptors shaking up industries.

Bricks + Agent property maintenance solution has entered the market at a time when disruption and technological innovation is shaping new ways of doing business and how they can interact with consumers. But what are the changes that are redefining the Australian trade and services industry and how are young industry disruptors like Bricks + Agent helping service providers deliver best-in-class experiences to their customers?

Reliable service providers with a record of support

There are endless accounts of customers falling victim to substandard or ‘botchy’ trade services in Australia, and it’s essential to feel comfortable with who you’re going to hire – especially when you’ve never met them before.

Technology has enabled all parties; service provider, customer, and property manager to ultilise a marketplace where they can check they are hiring a licenced professional and review feedback from previous projects they have completed in order to make an informed decision.

Forget about handling cash

The cash economy is already dying in the trade services industry and with that comes more scams targeted at the ATO in order for dodgy businesses to avoid paying tax such as cash payments. However, customers know their responsibilities and are more informed now. More and more, we are seeing trends of customers asking for tax invoices from service providers and making payment via card,

But the shift to digital payment is not one sided, Its also addressing growing concerns from service providers around late payments and loss of income due to delayed or under-quoting work and not being able to carry out business administration tasks. 

No more chasing late payments

Bookkeeping is certainly not something service providers look forward to. With so much physical work on your hands, no one blames you but this is one of the biggest reasons for customer to delay payments even longer. The fact is, the quicker you get invoices distributed to quicker you receive payments. 

This is where smart technology has really added value and is helping you by creating and sending fast electronic invoices to customers and also taking on the spot transactions. 

Find jobs fast and quote quickly

With a lot of service providers in the market, quoting can sometimes be the only thing that sets you a part from your competition. You can almost say everything you need to by quoting but how quickly you respond to a customer sends a clear message which tells them whether they are a priority or not. Putting all your work on hold to go out and quote for a job you might not get is a tough call too.

Smart technology has completely changed the process. Customers can upload attachments and video details of the project or task and service providers can quickly look and provide a quote or close estimation for the work. 

Interact in real-time and take multi-tasking to a new level

There are many stakeholders involved when completing jobs, particularly when you are working with real estate agencies, and paper trails or email threads just get lost one way or another. With so much other work on your hands, accessing all the job details and communications from one place would ensure smooth completion. 

Smart cloud-based technology has completely simplified and secured every document, communication thread and customer data base and helping service providers streamline their work orders, administration tasks and stakeholders to one place. 

Ready to dive into Bricks + Agent property maintenance and inspection software? 

Bricks + Agent is the most feature-rich and first property maintenance platform in Australia. With intuitive workflows, mobile-app, zero investment to use and customised tools to suit every business, there’s everything you need to run a successful business.

Want to speak to one of our product specialists? Book a free demo to get started.