Regular maintenance ensures that buildings stay clean, safe, comfortable, and operating efficiently for occupants. Facility management companies like those at All Pro Cleaning Systems provide maintenance services to commercial properties like office buildings, hospitals, schools, and retail stores. When choosing a facility maintenance provider, there are many important factors to evaluate about the quality, expertise, services, and management approach of potential vendors.
Services Offered
An extensive range of facility maintenance services allows a property manager to consolidate vendors and simplify management. Essential services to cover include:
- HVAC system maintenance
- Electrical and lighting services
- Plumbing repairs and maintenance
- Landscaping and groundskeeping
Look for companies that also offer handyman services, waste management, security system maintenance, elevator/escalator maintenance, and other specialties under one contract. This breadth of in-house services brings convenience and cost savings.
Expertise
Relevant expertise in facilities maintenance leads to higher quality outcomes. Look for proven experience maintaining properties like your own. Do they have extensive experience caring for buildings of your size and type? Do they bring specialized expertise in hospital maintenance, retail store upkeep, etc.?
Find out what qualifications and training facility staff possesses. Well-trained technicians with industry certifications indicate advanced technical skills. Facility management companies with staff carrying certifications show an investment in developing talent.
Quality Control
Consistency and quality control over time lead to superior maintenance outcomes. Evaluate which metrics potential vendors use to track service quality. Are standards and processes formally defined across all locations? Can they show a proven ability to meet well-defined quality assurance goals over years of service?
Such metrics, coupled with advanced mobile technology for maintenance tracking, lead to accountability. This allows gaps to be quickly identified and corrected.
Management Approach
Day-to-day attention and responsiveness set some facility management companies apart from others. Response time to maintenance requests can make or break occupants’ comfort and workflows.
Ask about call center staffing levels, average time-to-response metrics, and processes for escalation when issues inevitably arise. A focus on communication and customer service indicates the provider will be an engaged, reliable partner in maintaining your facilities.
Sustainability
Environmentally conscious maintenance aligns with many organizations’ values today. Look for providers that are focused on sustainable operations; this includes judicious use of resources like electricity, recycling programs to reduce waste, and inventory tracking to cut unneeded supplies spending.
Some facility companies also bring expertise to help property managers benchmark energy use, identify equipment upgrades for efficiency, and more. A commitment to sustainability signifies forward-thinking maintenance practices.
Budgeting Approach
When budgeting for ongoing maintenance services, the approach should be carefully evaluated based on your facilities management priorities and constraints. The financial model affects cost predictability, flexibility, and how well maintenance needs are met.
One common option is time and materials billing, where you pay set hourly rates plus material costs as needs arise. This allows great flexibility, as you only pay for services used each month, but provides less predictability in monthly expenses.
Another approach is preventative maintenance contracts with agreed regular services conducted for a fixed monthly fee. The advantage is proactively avoiding issues through consistent scheduled attention, but the set service scope offers less adaptability if requirements change.
Some providers take a custom budget approach, tailoring a framework based on past maintenance spend and projected future needs. This aims to balance cost predictability with the flexibility to evolve as your maintenance requirements change over time, potentially an ideal middle-ground solution.
Conclusion
Partnering with a facility maintenance company aligns the expertise, quality control, and management approach needed to maintain productive, comfortable buildings. Evaluating vendors across these factors allows managers to select a strategic facilities maintenance partner.
