When it comes to third party facility maintenance services, smaller multi-site operators have as much to gain as larger chains. Maybe even more.

The early development of a multi-site retail, office or restaurant chain usually holds off on committing to a full-time facilities manager. We typically find that R&M duties get assigned to the store/location managers or a construction manager, if you’re lucky enough to have one. The priority is spending your capital on fueling expansion and the minimal amount of general repair work you experience should be covered by new construction warranties. You can afford to ignore having a facilities program in place, until you can’t.

If you think that managing a facilities maintenance program is just having a rolodex of good vendors, such as, plumbers, handymen, and electricians, guess again. While that certainly helps, it still requires experienced oversight, input and documentation. Are you saddling your location managers with the task of reviewing the issue, understanding the options and maintaining a detailed database of your work orders? Not that it can’t be done, but this takes time and focus. Time and focus that should be spent on insuring your business is offering the very best experience to your guests and maximizing your bottom line. Not fixing leaking sinks, replacing damaged light fixtures and other unavoidable repair work.

By acting as an out-sourced facilities department, UmbrellaOne not only addresses the service technicians servicing your store/location, we also help to develop a step-by-step process as to how issues are resolved. For instance:

• Who within your organization is authorized to issue service requests?
• What is the process that service requests are sent out to your facilities service partner?
• What protections are in place for you to manage and review costs?
• Who is reviewing the proposed solution to determine if appropriate and of good value?
• Who is collecting and reviewing your service technician’s certificate of insurance?
• Who is documenting the origins of the problem, communications, parts required, etc.?
• Who is confirming satisfactory repair work are performed and enforcing warranty service if and when needed in the future?

This list goes on and this holds true for operators of a free-standing single location as much as it does for national multi-site operators. So, if you’re in the early stages of your expansion and don’t have the budget for a full-time investment in a facilities management role, reach out to UmbrellaOne to learn how we can help you reach your goals and protect the investment you have made in your physical locations.