Aug 18

7 Steps to Providing Remarkable Customer Service

Researchers say an unhappy customer will tell an average of ten people about their bad experience.  Usually twelve percent of them tell up to twenty people.

A satisfied customer will tell about five people about their positive experience.   This means bad news spreads a whole lot faster than good news.

Great service strengthens customer satisfaction and can turn ordinary clients into long-term clients.  Here are a few ways to increase your customer satisfaction:

  1. Be Accountable – effectively use good Maintenance Management Software or Cleaning Business Software to track work performance and client requests.
  2. Listen to your Customers – be knowledgeable and work to help them find solutions
  3. Be Dedicated – follow up consistently to meet their needs
  4. Be Respectful – even when they may frustrate you
  5. Go Above and Beyond – don’t just focus on immediate profit, give them more than they expect
  6. Be Genuine and Personalized – take time to customize all correspondence, whether they are notes, emails, or letters
  7. Show them you Care – Throw in something extra, whether its additional info on the use of a product or a genuine smile.  Make sure they feel appreciated.

The experience of a customer is affected every day you provide service.  A satisfied client will provide positive feedback, help you make more money, and even help you get new clients.

Aug 06

LEED Credit for Innovations in Design (ID 1-1.4)

Building operators and team projects have the opportunity to be awarded points for exceptional performance through technological strategies.  The LEED for New Construction Green Building Rating System encourages strategies for measureable environment and health benefits through technological innovations.

There are two innovation strategies that qualify under the LEED standards:

A project that incorporates energy efficiency measures and demonstrates performance improvements for environmental benefits.  These credits are awarded for achieving percentage change in existing building maintenance.

An innovation credit can be attained with a Building Operations Plan.  This would include an operating plan which identifies all space uses, occupancy types in the building, and conditions required in the spaces.  There would be documentation of schedules for all occupants of the building, whether they are a full time occupant or part time.  The mode of operation provides indoor scheduling for the employees occupied and unoccupied or day versus night scheduling.

The Building Operations Plan summary would give a report of the systems installed in the building, for example:  space heating, space cooling, ventilation and humidification.

The documents submitted to USGBC must include narrative submittal of credit requirements, projects approach to achievement, description of quantifiable environmental benefits, and copies of the reports.

Using either strategy, the results of the project or plan need to be tracked to demonstrate value was achieved.  Companies of all sizes use Facility Maintenance Software to keep them on track and to document their performance.

Aug 03

LEED Management

Many companies are working to find solutions to control energy usage and at the same time become environmentally friendly.

The LEED Green Building Rating System for Building Operations and Maintenance sets standards for certifying existing commercial and institutional buildings.  The intent promotes high performance, affordable, and environmentally sound practices in existing buildings.

Facility Managers are using Facility Maintenance Software to implement sustainable operations and maintenance practices to reduce the environmental impact of their buildings.

Facility Maintenance Software can help you obtain LEED credits for:  sustainable site, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation in operations.

Other Sustainable Maintenance Benefits:

  1. Web based systems significantly eliminate paper consumption.
  2. Routine Preventive Maintenance improves indoor environmental quality by replacing filters regularly, checking ducts, and ensuring that the building is properly load balanced.
  3. Repairs are done faster and problems are solved more quickly and efficiently.
  4. Preventive Maintenance Improves Asset Life, reducing waste and improving energy efficiency.
  5. Good operation and maintenance practices can reduce total energy usage by up to 50%.

All buildings are eligible for LEED certification including:  offices, retail and service establishments, institutional buildings, libraries, schools, museums, churches, and hotels.

Jul 30

Work Management Efficiency

Since many facility budgets have been squeezed lately, some facility managers are relying on basic approaches to improve work efficiency:  increase workload or reduce staffing.  Unfortunately, both approaches usually result in reduced work quality and cheating in time and/or work reporting.

Work standards are too easily corrupted without a means to clearly communicate work requirements, track work progress, and demonstrate the quality of work performed.  As budgets get squeezed, many organizations have turned to Preventive Maintenance Software to help them perform these critical functions.

Preventive Maintenance Software can help your organization define work standards that are simple, clearly stated, and that follow industry work standards.  The work standards should have enough detail to clearly communicate work requirements, and also provide a means of easily inspecting completed work to confirm that your quality standards are being met.

When considering performance tracking, ensure that you can clearly confirm what time has been spent on your planned and unplanned work.  Just by having a good tracking system, nearly all managers notice an increase in employee accountability, and if you have any questions about an individual’s work performance, there is plenty of documentation to support corrective action.

The work management challenges facing today’s facility managers are not likely to decrease.  Improving work management systems is a proven path that many facility managers have taken to maintain work performance while improving efficiency.

Jul 29

Planning and Budgeting

Long term planning does not always hold a high priority with facility managers, but all major organizations require it.  They know that a facility management plan is critical for effective budgeting.

It is important to organize an annual facility management plan that includes your budget along with performance tracking, so you measure progress in terms of performance within your budget.

The budget should be formatted so that key indicators can be easily calculated by you and your financial management team.  Also the budget should incorporate detailed financial accountability by department or job function.  This encourages managers to be responsible for funds assigned to them.

To make the budgeting process most effective, all significant costs should be budgeted as part your plan, plans from previous years should be compared to this year, and any financial changes should be highlighted so they can be measured.

One of the best tools for monitoring plan versus cost is Building Maintenance Software.  Your facility manager will have the complete picture of planned work, and be able to better manage unplanned work without spending undue time or resources.