The Heat Is On for Facility Managers

It’s a tough time for facility managers nationwide — particularly when it comes to facilities management customer service. Lead times are in the extreme for the key assets that you need to keep customers and employees comfortable. Service providers are struggling to retain staff, which impacts service delivery and communication. And increased demand from customers means greater strain on your assets and energy consumption.

If your organization has had difficulty with facilities management customer service issues, this is a key time to consider alternative solutions. If you’ve been working with separate, local service providers wherever your locations are, it’s likely that you’ve run into extreme delays due to companies struggling with talent and not having materials in stock. While we’re all having to deal with challenges like these, what matters now is switching from a reactive to a proactive approach and identifying solutions to get out ahead of asset maintenance needs.

A key aspect of this solution is getting hyper-specific in your search. Service is everything, and while companies continue to do the best they can to navigate supply chain and staff shortages, working with an organization that emphasizes facilities management customer service in all that it does will yield significant returns throughout the relationship. Here, we’ll explore a few reasons to put this item at the top of your checklist when evaluating service providers.

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Four Reasons to Prioritize Facilities Management Customer Service in Your Partner Search

  1. You need to know you can trust them — As a facility manager or other leader, you’re likely being asked to do more with less as time goes on. You might have a team in place, or you might be tasked with running facilities across multiple locations yourself. Either way, when the time comes to bring in an outside partner to extend your capabilities, building trust and being able to rely on that trust as you continue to work together is critical. Dig deeper into the importance of trust in facility management partnerships here.
  2. You need a dedicated team to work with — We’re sure you’ve been here before: an urgent matter arises (like an asset going down or being damaged), and you either don’t know who to reach out to, you have too many contacts, or your dedicated contact has left the company (without you being informed, naturally). People move on, but communication and coordination are essential. The absence of these leads to significant delays in production, frustration, and numerous other facilities management customer service issues. It’s important to work with a partner that has an established (and tenured) team. Ideally, that team would not only support your everyday needs but would also be the same team you reach out to for emergency requests.
  3. You need to know where things stand — If you don’t know where things stand, then you can’t effectively manage facilities throughout your footprint. It’s that simple. This applies to you and your team. You can’t be in multiple places at the same time, and as your organization grows, a lack of oversight from your partner will only make things worse. The ideal partnership will provide you not only with the dedicated team discussed above but also with technology resources that centralize everything you need to know where maintenance programs and projects stand at any given time. All financial documentation, project details, quotes, estimates, asset lists, and other important information should be accessible to you 24/7/365.
  4. You need a partner for strategic planning — A key facilities management customer service aspect to consider is not just how your partner supports you on a daily basis but how they can support and advise you over the long-term. Does your partner meet with you annually to review your assets and identify those that should be proactively replaced to avoid larger or unexpected future costs? Will they meet with you consistently to ensure the relationship is strong and work is progressing smoothly? Do they assist with CapEx planning or helping you assess spending needs? Work with a partner that will go beyond facility asset management work itself to helping you create the most successful, strategic program possible.

Let’s Build a Program You Can Trust

At CLS Facility Services, everything we do revolves around service — it is in our company name, after all. From the start, you can rely on more than five decades of facility management expertise. As we build your program together, you can rest assured that your entire scope of work will be uniform across all of your locations with cost-competitive pricing (any new or needed work will be quoted with complete transparency, and our estimating team is available to answer any questions). This ensures complete honesty, trust, and transparency in the process.

As work proceeds, your dedicated account manager, PM account manager, and business manager will keep you informed on how asset maintenance is progressing. You’ll be able to reach out to them at any time — even if you have an emergency. You’ll also be able to access all documentation pertaining to your program in our online asset management portal, ensuring that you’re always up-to-speed with everything that’s happening throughout your footprint.

If you’re ready for a new approach to facilities management customer service, our team is ready to connect with you. Connect with us today, or set up a quick call at a time that works for you.