In facilities maintenance, we see value in always meaning something. Just not everything.

The allure of an all-in-one facilities maintenance provider is nothing new and certainly nothing that is going away anytime soon. Understandably, who doesn’t want fewer people to call while casting a wider net and achieving greater productivity? Although there are plenty of national facilities companies daring enough to market themselves as such a solution, our experience has taught us that the complexities of providing truly valuable counsel on too many trades is a very difficult promise to deliver.

One of our objectives is to expand your company’s current general repair program’s capabilities by filling the role of a bolt-on facilities maintenance department. Your account manager’s goal is to provide the look, feel, and genuine care of a co-worker. To achieve that requires the time and focus of a singular facility manager (unless the work order volume dictates more) working directly with a client to quickly gain an understanding of their personality and corporate culture, plus the physical aspects of their real estate assets. Taking the time to learn these important attributes coupled with a detailed knowledge of the trades we provide can only seek to foster a long-term relationship. By introducing specialty, more complex, trades (HVAC, fire suppression, landscaping, etc.) to what is already a long list of our core general repair services, we’d need to introduce additional specific personnel to manage the skills associated with these services. Not an impossible path to take, but it would divert from and compromise the clear and simple process our customers find so beneficial.

If consolidation is the top priority and good counsel is desired, the true solution is a combination of aggregators and a well-structured, centralized method of communication. By sourcing several multi-site facility service companies that combine to cover all of your R&M needs and filtering your correspondence through a professional work order management software program, you can attain amazing efficiencies, and organization, while still having the flexibility to make changes down the line without uprooting your process. A sample list would be categorized like this:

• Commercial Cleaning
• Fire Suppression
• General Repair (Handyman, Paint, Plumbing, Electric)
• HVAC and Refrigeration
• Landscaping/Snow Plowing
• Roofing

This approach is scalable, user-friendly, and provides a relatively quick start-up. It may not be the single-source provider you set out to find, but it will get you the results and quality you’re looking for.