70 | UK Enterprise Awards 2023 Best Home Maintenance Company 2023 - South West FixTeam is a company that very much does ‘what it says on the tin’. In their own words, “we fix things, and we’re a team”. Of course, there’s more to the company’s success to than that , but it sums up the ethos of the business. We spoke with Director Sophie Bennett following the teams ’ well-deserved success. From day one of the business, FixTeam have been a crucial provider of maintenance services to some of the largest property developers on the UK market. With clients such as Barratt, David Wilson Homes, Bovis Homes, Linden Homes, Wain Homes, Redrow, Taylor Wimpey, and Persimmon, the company has flourished and grown steadily. The company expanded our reach beyond the South West this year, , as Sophie begins by explaining. “Up until the end of 2022, we had worked in our home patch, which was a 50-mile radius of Gloucester. With many successful commercial projects under our belt, our developer clients have booking us for projects further afield. We are now serving customers as far afield as Kent and Lancashire. Good teams and quality project management work anywhere in the country.” It sounds like a simple formula to just do a job well, but it’s actually not that common. It’s possible to build a large client base by just supplying quality and reliability in an industry that doesn’t always have the best of reputations. Domestic clients especially often fall foul of rogue traders. “What we had noticed is that householders had started to ask us if we could do additional works. We had been turning that business down until this year, but as the requests became more frequent, we researched the market. Our research unearthed a need for top quality works by a trusted professional firm with a strong brand,” Sophie adds. It became obvious that the company needed to move more towards residential work, working directly for householders, where quality and reliability is so hard to find. FixTeam’s new brand, FixTeam HomeStars was launched in spring 2023 and has really taken off. While it is still in the early stages, it’s clear that the division will, in turn, open up a wealth of opportunityAfter all, Sophie rightfully points out when the development market is quiet, the improvement market rises. Positioning the business to benefit from both aspects is a smart move. But let’s move on to things of a more internal nature. Namely, the values and ethos of FixTeam as a whole. The culture, the goals. What drives the team? Sophie continues, “The owners of the company were so keen to get our values stated to the world that we wrote a book about them called The FixTeam Way - The Little Blue Book of Success. Our team, clients and subcontractors all get a copy when we first start working with them. We believe that our mission and values that drive the business should be out there for all to see. They drive every decision we make. It’s not just about doing things the right way, it’s about doing the right thing. “Before we even launched, it was important that we knew what our work stood for. We want to help our developer clients deliver a better product to their customers and our householder clients have the certainty and security to work with us without any worries about the outcome.” “Team is everything to us.” This adherence to strong values has, in turn, cultivated a strong team culture that embodies creativity and expertise through diversity. “We believe that it’s healthy mix of different skills and personalities that make it fun to be at work. Some people are natural communicators, some people are naturally very organised, and for the business to really thrive, everyone needs to be a bit of both. So we don’t leave that
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