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How to choose the perfect facility management company for you

Relying on the best facility management company on the market, depending on your specific needs, may not be an easy task. Finding the right partner for the management of a property, or a shop, or for an effective maintenance or cleaning service, is never a choice that can be left to chance.

How to evaluate the ideal supplier? There are many facility management companies on the market, but not all of them meet the same requirements. The skill lies in choosing the right solution for your needs. There are many parameters to judge facility management companies. 

What a facility management company should do 

What provides the extra edge when offering a facility management service? The ideal business partner needs to listen and understand the customer’s needs in all their specificity, and modulate a service management that is perfectly adapted to the customer’s needs.

Designing a tailor-made service means meeting the customer’s demands and guaranteeing transparency. It must include a dedicated project manager, capable of managing every need with the client, as well as a customised management platform shared between the facility management company and the client, including the sharing of SLAs and KPIs.

A feature not to be underestimated, also, is the ability, not only to provide effective monitoring reports, but to offer the client improvement proposals which a good facility management company should have among its skills.

What services should a company that specializes in facility management offer? 

The choice of the right facility management company involves a careful evaluation of the services provided. A quality proposal should include:

• Cleaning services, to ensure sanitised environments; 
• Reception, for welcoming employees, clients, and visitors; 
• Mail and courier services: timely and organized management of communications; 
• Archive administration and logistics: handling documentation and contracts with external service providers; 
• Auxiliary services: complementary activities aimed at improving well-being and operational efficiency within the company, such as security and management of common areas; 
• Operation and maintenance of facilities: regular and extraordinary maintenance, operation, installation, and design of water, electrical, mechanical systems, and surveillance systems; 
• Fire prevention and intervention in emergency situations; 
• Energy management: optimsation of energy consumption; 
• Project management: planning and management of infrastructure projects; 
• Turnkey offices: complete solutions for ready-to-use workspaces. 

Last but not least, it is crucial to stay updated on facility management trends to offer clients services in line with market expectations. 

The responsiveness of a facility management company  

A sure trend of success for a good facility management company lies in the responsiveness of the management replies it gives: a concept valid in both simple and complex situations. 

 Reactiveness to the problem is crucial. Consider, for example, a shop that has to open to the public, at which the shutter jams or the air conditioning system breaks down. These are two unpredictable situations, different from ordinary maintenance, that require quick responses. 

The facility management company in charge of maintaining that particular retail customer must respond extremely quickly, to minimise inconvenience or loss. 

Selecting the right facility management company 

When choosing the right partner, it is crucial for the customer to make sure that the facility management company they decide to entrust has certain characteristics, capable of satisfying an emergency in a short time.  

 The best choice? A company with an in-house organisation that does not rely on sub-contractors. In this way, by virtue of a direct relationship as well as the presence of maintenance teams close to the customer, the time to solve the problem is shortened considerably to the benefit of the business. 

The added value for a facility management company 

If extraordinary maintenance is strongly linked (and effective) to a response that is as streamlined and short-chain as possible, when choosing the best facility management company one cannot fail to evaluate an aspect that may appear secondary, which in reality is not at all: compliance with all ordinary maintenance with particular attention to those required by law. 

The concept is not always perceived as urgent by the client and is certainly less conspicuous than the management of a building, but it can nevertheless make a big difference. 

The management of less visible aspects, such as fire protection or electrical panel maintenance, must be carried out at the correct time and in the correct manner. That’s why a company needs the perfect facility manager.  

The risks of choosing the wrong facility management company 

These are important activities that, if neglected, can even lead to an incident that can damage the client’s image: not only material damage, but also negative media exposure for an important brand.  

Since it is not easy to manage the whole series of necessary maintenance tasks in a workmanlike manner, it becomes necessary to trust and rely on a facility management company that can organise the service and guarantee the execution of each maintenance task.  

When does such an approach become truly successful today? When the chosen facility management company, as mentioned above, has the necessary in-house resources, not only field operatives, but also an in-house engineering team that certifies and constantly updates customers’ maintenance plans.