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Retail Facility solutions, why should they be customised

Retail is one of the sectors that, more than others, has over time affirmed and consolidated Facility Management with regards to the management points of sale, activities located in multiple locations and often spread throughout the country.  

This implies not only having multiple locations to manage, but also the need to ensure comfortable and functional environments in line with the brand’s commercial policies. Premises, structures and facilities must always be in perfect condition and with high levels of efficiency.

In a sector like Retail, which has had a strong expansion in the las few years, maintenance cannot be left to chance, and assistance must be guaranteed, for emergencies, in a short time and with high quality standards.

For these reasons, modern and organised Retail Facility solutions must be customised to the needs and requirements of each individual customer, as well as based on providing rapid emergency responses. 

What are Retail Facility solutions?

Retail Facility solutions represent a specialized branch of Facility Management applied to the Retail sector. It focuses on the strategic and operational management of Retail outlets, taking into account the unique challenges related to different locations and the specific needs of each site.

The goal is to ensure comfortable, safe, and functional commercial environments, guaranteeing consistency and uniformity across different stores. It integrates expertise in architectural, structural, and system field to optimise overall Retail operations, where every detail contributes to the overall optimisation ofsuch operations.

What are the benefits of Facility Management in the Retail sector?

Therefore, Retail Facility solutions are essential for optimising the customer shopping experience through careful management and maintenance of premises, while simultaneously ensuring high-quality standards for the employees. 

In contexts where operational excellence is crucial, Retail Facility Management brings numerous advantages:

• Timely resolution of issues with a focus on proactive maintenance; 
• Rationalization of resources, ensuring customised services tailored to the specific needs of each Retail location; 
• Effective cost containment; 
• Reduction of the risk of emergency situations; 
• Rapid and smooth information exchange, ensuring consistency and uniformity across distant locations.

The Facility Management Plan in Retail

Relying on a Facility Management plan for Retail means relying on a partner who is able to meet every specific need that arises: from changing a light bulb to repairing an air conditioner or a boiler.

Choosing a single point of contact, and therefore a customised and tailor-made plan, allows you to keep a complete check-up of your facilities and maintenance activities under control, always monitoring the situation.

Optimising these processes makes it possible to avoid waste and consumption, minimising the risk of emergencies which, should they occur, could be resolved with prompt intervention at any time of day and in any season of the year. 

Retail needs for Facility Management

The Retail world has a high need for Facility Management. For this reason, the organisational aspect becomes preponderant with respect to the management of the activities of a single shop: one hundred different buildings, scattered in distant and different geographical areas, produce a management volume that is quite different from one single building, full of variables to be considered.

In the latter case, readiness to intervene in maintenance management generates certain success: both with the use of specific software, i.e. a tool conceived and designed for each specific need, and with the presence of specialised maintenance teams with a physical presence throughout the territory. 

The use of a specific software is also the only way to provide the customer with a monitoring of the activity from a technical and economic point of view and constantly updated reporting. 

Customising Retail Facility solutions  

Shortening the management chain by quite a lot, i.e. the response time between the end customer who opens the intervention and the intervention manager, is a considerable added value. How can this be achieved exactly? By having teams directly controlled by the Facility Management company and therefore as close as possible to the intervention site. 

How does Facility Management work in Retail? 

A functional management system becomes the core of the customer’s customised experience. In what way? With service information managed directly by the teams on the ground without going through an additional external structure. A scheme that responds to a customer’s first need: responsiveness. 

If the store’s shutter is blocked or the air conditioner doesn’t work, action must be taken within a couple of hours at most. In the case of Retail customers, stopping business operations is not an option.The most effective response is customisation, tailored to the needs of each customer with an organisation that is as lean and “short chained” as possible. 

Facility Management, Retail, and brand image: how do they intersect? 

There is one last aspect which is not always experienced by every customer with the same urgency. Probably less conspicuous than the cases seen above, but necessary, and linked to regulations such as fire prevention, electrical maintenance, and thermal plant management.

These are less visible but absolutely crucial activities, because without intervention, in the event of non-compliance, there is the risk of considerable image damage. In the unfortunate event of an accident, the responsibility could be traced back to a lack of maintenance. If this were the case, beyond the material damage, the brand would receive far more important and lasting damage.

Since it is difficult to manage all the necessary maintenance with in-house teams, it is worthwhile to rely on a specialised company so that the organisation of the maintenance service and the guarantee that everything is done in accordance with the most up-to-date regulations is handed over to it.

But where does this approach become truly successful today? When the company you rely on has in-house resources, oversees the entire chain from management to engineering to the technician in the field, and uses a tool that is as customised as possible on Facility Management activities, so as to give prompt and customised answers.