To run a business as effectively and efficiently as possible, you need to get the right kind of help. When it comes to keeping your premises up to scratch, the best match for the job will always be a facilities management (FM) company.
An FM provider will play a crucial role when it comes to optimising the environment in which your business operates, whether that’s an office, a warehouse, or any number of other physical premises. They’ll be responsible for maintaining in a manner that ensures your employee wellbeing, while also ensuring ongoing regulatory compliance.
The right facilities management company will become an ongoing strategic partner, helping you to get access to tailored solutions, from cleaning to maintenance.
While there are a lot of options out there, it’s important that you choose a solution that’s perfectly able to cater to your precise requirements. To help you out with your search for the right fit, here’s a guide on how to choose the right facilities management company for your business.
Before you can start your search, you need to carefully assess what it is that you actually need help with. Different facilities management companies will sometimes specialise in providing assistance to businesses in a specific niche, and you want to be certain that the option you go with is capable of tackling your core issues.
You’ll want to think about the kinds of premises that your business is responsible for, noting down details about each of them. These details will likely include the kind of premises (such as a warehouse, office, or retail environment,) the size of the space, and any special cleaning requirements or toxic chemicals.
Based on your initial survey, you can look at what you need help with to try to optimise your business’s ability to operate. This process can be made somewhat easier by using some simple key performance indicators, to allow you to start to prioritise what it is that actually needs doing.
Your assessment shouldn’t be limited to just your current premises either; make sure that you think about any future expansions, to ensure that you’re not limited in your partnership. You don’t want to end up with a provider that can’t still help you as you grow – choosing the right provider should mean choosing a solution that can adapt as your needs change.
Once you know roughly what it is that you need help with, you can start your search. Conducting your search should consist of leveraging multiple resources. Carry out online searches, ask around your professional network, and check in any relevant industry journals.
The first bit of the search, getting some company names, is the easy bit. Next, you need to establish which of those might actually be suitable fits for your business’s needs. You need to ensure that they’re practically capable and easy to work with, which can be done by checking for the following.
First, look into their experience. See what kinds of businesses they’ve helped in the past, and what kind of reputation they have in the industry. If the option you’re looking at has a great track record with similar businesses to yours, there’s a high chance that you won’t be disappointed.
Look at the kinds of services they provide, and whether they offer everything you need. There may be one or two things that you need to source separately, but ideally, the company you go with should be able to handle the majority of what you need help with.
It’s also important to check their certifications; in some areas, you may be required by regulations to contract providers that are certified to professional standards. Failure to do your due diligence at this stage could leave you vulnerable to legal action further down the line. All of this may seem like a lot of work, but it will help you to identify a provider that can help your business for years to come.
Ultimately, while there will be businesses that are similar to yours, you will likely have unique problems that require unique solutions. As a result, it’s imperative that the facilities management company that you choose can provide you with a fully customised service, not just some standard package.
Ask the potential options you’re thinking of going with how flexible they are with the services they provide, and how much they can tailor the service to fit your precise needs. Try to find out how they’ll go about trying to understand your needs and the nuances of your business – you don’t want to have to spoon-feed them everything.
Obviously, a good place to find out about this will be from prior customers. Look for online testimonials, and try to see how they’ve been able to cater to unique problems in the past. If you can contact one of their clients directly, that would be even better, but this won’t be appropriate in most situations. You should be able to get a good idea of how prepared they are to fully understand your requirements just by how they communicate with you during those initial consultation phases.
The best facilities management companies will always be on top of leveraging the latest technology at their disposal. Using the latest innovative solutions will often end up saving the client money, while also providing a better service.
During your assessment of potential providers, you’ll want to make sure that the company you’re going with doesn’t use old, outdated equipment. Obviously, this can be difficult to assess yourself, as a non-expert in the field, but you can gain a basic understanding.
Ask about what kinds of automation systems they use when it comes to monitoring environments, and how they’re using innovative solutions to optimise their various processes. You’ll have to do a little bit of research based on your precise niche, as the technologies available will vary drastically depending on what you need help with.
Some of the products you’ll find marketed will obviously be quite gimmicky, while others will be genuinely essential. In the long run, it shouldn’t be down to you to do this kind of research. A capable FM company will make sure that they stay ahead of the curve, so they can provide you with the best service that they possibly can.
When choosing a facilities management company for your business, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of communication. The FM company will often be your first point of contact for a lot of issues that you need to sort out as soon as possible, making it essential that they’re able to respond quickly at all times.
Make sure that you look out for specific mentions of communication in any reviews you find online, both negative and positive. While contacting them to ask about their service, try to notice any communication issues early on; if they’re present during those initial stages already, they’re only going to get worse.
Inquire about their structural approach to dealing with issues, such as how you can flag problems and how they’ll respond to them. Big facilities management providers will be managing multiple buildings across the country, and you need to ensure that your problems won’t be lost among everything else that they’re dealing with. They should have different procedures for flagging different kinds of issues, whether they’re urgent or less time sensitive.
Having a facilities management service that is unable to assist you with issues in a timely manner can make the service next to useless. The whole point is having a reliable point of contact to help you keep your premises in top condition – it might take a little bit of effort to make these assessments, but it’ll be more than worth it in the long term.
Facilities management is absolutely something that you need to invest in, but it’s important that the provider that you choose is up-front with their pricing structures, so that you’re not hit with any unexpected bills.
Once you’ve found a suitable option, you’ll need to enquire about how much it’ll cost to help you to maintain your facilities. You should have already established a budget for this, taking into consideration factors such as how much you’ll save on other now unnecessary maintenance services, cleaning, and repair costs.
Certain providers may also be able to provide slight discounts if you sign a longer contract. Make sure that you carefully look over the details of any contracts before signing. You need to be absolutely clear on any termination processes and additional costs, options for renewal, and your obligations and responsibilities.
It might be good to see if you can enter into some kind of trial period first, to assess whether the service they offer is up to scratch. This might not always be possible, but it’s absolutely worth enquiring about.
Facilities management providers don’t just help you clean your windows and doors – they can often also provide incredibly important services related to regulatory compliance. While this will differ depending on the nature of your business, it’s imperative that you inquire about any regulatory-related questions you might have before engaging a specific company.
You may need to ensure that the company you choose has specific certifications, and that they’re aware of safety standards and specific regulations. You may also need to ensure that their employees have passed criminal background checks, depending on the nature of the environment that they’ll be working in.
These are all things that you need to sort out early on, as they will dictate to a certain extent how things progress. It’s also vital that you make sure they have adequate insurance, so that you’re both covered in the case that anything were to go wrong.
In the current business climate, it’s important that you consider their ability to help you boost your sustainability profile. Whether this is eco-friendly cleaning practices or environmentally friendly waste disposal, the impact can have a significant positive effect on your overall brand image, and will often also end up saving you money.
It’s also crucial to consider social sustainability-related issues. Make sure that the company you’re choosing pays their employees a fair wage, or you can risk bad press. For example, there have been multiple high-profile protests in recent years surrounding the outsourcing of cleaning requirements in several London universities, which most businesses would likely prefer to avoid if at all possible.
Once you’ve gone through all of the points listed above, you should have a very short list of potential options. If you find multiple providers that offer services which are all similar prices, technically excellent and of a similar calibre, then the deciding factors should be how well you get on with the team.
Having a positive interpersonal relationship with the facilities management company you choose can make things a lot easier going forward, likely allowing you to avoid certain issues from arising in the first place.
There’s obviously a lot to consider in the above, but it’s vital that you take your time with this process. You stand to benefit significantly over time in multiple different areas. By ensuring that your premises are kept in a perfect state, you can help to attract the best talent, and minimise your turnover rates. You can also avoid any unnecessary legal issues related to incidents and compliance, saving you even more.
While your search needs to include the points listed in this article, it’s crucial that you adapt it to your specific business.
There will likely be issues that you’re concerned about that aren’t contained in this article – that obviously doesn’t make those issues redundant, and you’ll need to take a common sense approach. If you find the right company the first time around, you can save yourself the bother of having to find one again in the future, making all that effort 100% worth it.
Looking to talk to a facilities management company with a proven track record in Hard FM, Soft FM, consultancy and training? Our team at SMC Premier Group are here to help.
Contact our team via our form or alternatively you can call our head office on 0161 282 6444.
SMC Premier Group Ltd
117 – 119a Stockport Road
Stockport
SK3 0JE
0161 282 6444
Other Offices: Liverpool
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