In our last blog, we talked about the importance of building and maintaining a solid and dependable extended network to handle any and all store maintenance and issues nationwide. Your extended network will serve you well throughout the year—and particularly during this busy holiday season. Now, we want to highlight another critical component in your facility management toolbox: a dedicated customer service team.

As we’ve mentioned, December is crunch time for retailers, and facility managers are pressed to ensure that all stores are functioning optimally in every way possible. You don’t have time to worry about whether a scheduled service call – or certainly an emergency call – is being handled properly, let alone handled at all.

That’s why we at CLS Facility Services believe that facility management companies should assign a specific account team to service your account. We do just that—but not all providers follow our cue.

Why is this so important? Consider a hypothetical issue with your Denver store. When you pick up the phone and call your outsourced facility management provider about it, which of the following scenarios would you rather have happen:

  1. You’re connected with your specific business manager whom you know, and whose job it is to know you and your account inside and out. That manager is adept at negotiation and understanding business from your perspective. He/she knows your company’s specific real estate and store procedures and protocols; knows your not-to-exceed amounts; knows what exactly how communication should flow with store managers and store personnel—in Denver and elsewhere; knows the time of day when technicians can be working on site, and when they can’t interrupt store operations; knows which stores are your key flagships; and so much more.
  2. You’re routed to your facility management provider’s call center, where you eventually reach one of many operators who very likely don’t know the key information about your account that a business manager would—or need time to access it in their database and review it before acting on it.

At CLS Facility Services, we’ve structured our client service operations around assigning a specific account team – headed by a dedicated account manager – to your account. We believe that’s the best way to proactively service our clients, and address issues quickly if and when they arise.

As you move into this critical selling month for your business, we at CLS wish you a holiday season filled with brightly lit interior and exterior lamps, fully functional ballasts and signage, smooth-running, hassle-free HVAC units, and of course, customers—lots of customers.

If you are looking for a facility management company for 2017, with close to 50 years of experience managing multiple locations nationally, learn more about CLS Facility Services by contacting us at 800-548-3542 or by filling out our contact form.