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EVALUATING YOUR EXTERIOR STORE MAINTENANCE
Evaluating exterior maintenance services through an ESM company can reduce your bottom line.
Kevin Dent
The Evaluation Process
Exterior services management (ESM) is just like any other integral part of your bottom line.
In other words, for your company to become more efficient and increase quality, you must have
an evaluation process in place that corrects and justifies the overall budget. Most aspects of
retail and corporate business are managed "by the numbers"; why should your exterior maintenance
be any different?
Whether you are the director of facilities with total responsibility, or a regional facilities
manager with 60 to 70 sites, you've experienced the task of attempting to evaluate your
contractors and services provided. When it comes to the "bottom line," you are the ones
held accountable for the quality assurance and costing related to exterior maintenance
on your company's properties. An ESM company can help you perform better by reducing the
confusion/clutter that results from the challenges of budget preparation, verification of
proper insurance coverage, performing exterior asset inventories, and helps to ensure consistent
standard site specifications and multiple inventories.
The Test Market
Dealing with national retail corporations and their contractors for the last 25 years has
allowed me to completely understand and feel the pains you have within the ESM environment.
Most companies are reluctant to put too much trust and responsibility with any one given vendor.
A facility manager's first impression on allowing an ESM company to handle all their sites is a
little overwhelming at first. Understandably, this is their responsibility, and their decision
is a very important one. An ESM company provides many advantages by relieving your company of
exterior maintenance so their attention can be devoted to the actual structure that generates
revenues. To assure managers that the ESM platform is a very safe and reliable model, I have
often suggested a "test market" of certain regions within the company's portfolio, which allows
the managers to experience the benefits with the ESM system. This test market also proves the
strength of the ESM system to upper management with a direct effect on consistency and quality
assurance.
Passing The ESM Test
One of the most difficult challenges when dealing with a national company is preparing the
regional managers for the assessment of local contractors. Unfortunately, this is an integral
part of the initial ESM evaluation process and it is usually a bit of a hurdle for the local
and regional managers. However, a strong ESM company will have knowledgeable quality assurance
managers (QAMs) covering different regions of the United States. These QAMs will meet with your
contractors on a local and individual level and discuss "front line" tactics for quality
assurance, site specifications, exterior asset inventories, good business practices and
various other duties that all contractor partners should master. The largest concern comes
not from the regional managers, but from local managers and their relationships with existing
contractors. Obviously, some of these relationships have been in place for years, even
decades; it is sometimes difficult for a regional manager to explain to site managers why
their contractor of 10 years isn't up to par with the rest of the industry. On a positive
note, a successful contractor can often be retained and contracted through the ESM company,
in turn making the transition more seamless. Passing the ESM test and moving onto a
contractor/partner relationship with the ESM increases their work as the ESM company
expands site coverage. The whole process can be a win-win scenario when everyone is focused
on the real objective... saving the company time and money.
Geographic Costing
Make sure your ESM company has demonstrated the expertise required to accomplish this
concept. Customers should benefit from quick competitive costing as opposed to traditional
bids, which will reduce overall spending on all exterior grounds and parking lot services.
I have spent years researching weather patterns, population density, transportation statistics
and other ESM data to formulate efficient costing zones. An ESM company should know the various
markets and manage the best price for you. There must be a strong business partnership for the
customer to relinquish the multiple bid concepts used for years and embrace the expertise of
the ESM professionals.
Ready To Evaluate Your Exterior Maintenance?
Most companies have varying lease and ownership situations throughout their property
portfolios. As a result, the first important step in lowering your bottom line and
maximizing your exterior store management is to prepare a clean list of the locations
you're responsible for as a tenant. A professional ESM company will need clear direction
from you as they do a physical inventory of your property's exteriors where you are
responsible for maintenance. Do you have current exterior service specifications? If
so, the ESM will be able to utilize these in accessing the current condition of your
locations vs. your expectations. If no specifications exist, then your ESM will work
with you to develop a standard that meets all your needs. Once the physical inventories
are completed, the ESM should present a comprehensive proposal to you. Before accepting
a proposal for any of your locations, make sure the ESM offers these minimal points of
value:
- One contract
- One invoice
- One call center
- One insurance certificate
- One emergency contact number
- One online store watcher program
- One online database
- One relationship per region
- One quality assurance program
If your retail stores or facilities are experiencing quality assurance issues, too many
liability cases or simply have trouble completing landscaping specifications for national
formats, you might want to consider calling a national ESM company who will be glad to
discuss a management program that could improve your current landscaping and customer
appeal, reduce your overall expenses, eliminate the worries of liability and provide
fluid service to the exterior.
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