You might have a contract with an FM vendor. They make sure everything is in working order, manage housekeeping, and take care of occupant complaints. But are you getting everything that you need?

It’s easy to be happy enough with a vendor relationship and not want to change. You’d need to do your research, interview vendors, weigh the pros and cons of switching vendors, and review price structures. It is a hassle that often keeps us in contracts that we’ve outgrown.

All facility management vendors offer similar services:

• Housekeeping
• Maintenance
• Equipment repair and replacement
• Supply of materials, equipment, and specialists when needed
  

Is your facility management vendor going above and beyond to a place where they are exceeding your expectations and anticipating your needs?

When scouting out a new FM vendor, look for these often overlooked services that go above the competition.

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1. COVID-19 Outbreak Response

If a COVID-19 outbreak were to happen in your facility, would your facility department know how to get it under control? Health is of the utmost importance in today’s reality. A guessing game on how to remediate an outbreak won’t do. Encompass has a certified SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 site manager and full response team that is ready to act if a customer has an outbreak.

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2. Time Savings

For large portfolios, an in-house facilities department can get bogged down with vendors, asset management, and work ticket management for potentially hundreds or thousands of locations. Outsourcing facility management can save time by:

• Managing multiple vendors.
• One-stop-shop for facility engineers, specialty work, housekeeping/disinfection, maintenance, and grounds.
• Asset management that saves you money.
• Single invoicing that accounting will appreciate.

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3. Dedicated Account Manager

A dedicated account manager is your go-to person for any need you might have. Does your vendor supply a dedicated person for your business? An account manager will work with your company and understand your building.

• Proactively plan by anticipating the needs of your business and building.
• No need to deal with irritating call automation, one phone call will get you to the right person to solve your problem.
• One dedicated professional to assess your KPIs and ensure efficiencies are made.
  
  

4. Money-Saving Asset Management

Work with a facility management vendor who proactively saves your time and money through asset management. The right FM partner can review your data and make suggestions to help you reduce waste.

• Lower energy consumption through FM suggestions such as motion sensor lighting.
• Lower emissions by making smart building adjustments like right-sizing your HVAC.
• Reduce water consumption by replacing your faucets with a touchless, timed option.
• Smart improvement suggestions based on on-the-ground occupant intel.

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5. Access to FM Reports and Dashboards

Is your facility management vendor providing you access to behind the scenes reports and dashboards to help you understand how your FM vendor is performing?

Encompass has a transparent FM platform that allows customers to fully understand what they are doing and how their building performs.

• Workflow automation - allows facility talent to work as efficiently as possible.
• Work ticket system - home to work tickets, you can see job schedules, tasks, timing, activity tracking, and team communication.
• Project management - From quote to completion, you can see the full picture.
• KPI tracking - you can view work ticket completion rates, team performance, compliance, and more.
• Quality assurance - triggered surveys that tell us the satisfaction rating of our tasks.
• Field insights - We track building insights that enable us to make smart recommendations on cost reduction, cost avoidance, and occupant satisfaction improvement projects.
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6. Scalability

Companies can think agile and scale up or down as needed. By outsourcing to an FM vendor, owners can easily add buildings to their portfolio without adding additional facility staff to their payroll. Selling buildings? There is no need to downsize and pay unemployment. You can scale back with your vendor to accommodate your needs.

If you need specialists for a period of time, you don’t need to hire them. An FM vendor will use their specialists when the project calls for it.

Additionally, Encompass’s proprietary software allows them to easily manage multiple buildings. The work ticket system, field insights, project management, and more make large portfolio management simple.  

7. Culture

Company culture matters. Poor company culture will result in turnover that affects the customer. For example, Miami Jewish Health worked with a large FM vendor that could not keep employees. They were unable to hire, train, and retain service employees. The work tickets were stacking up because there was no one to complete the tasks. Miami Jewish Health reached out to Encompass to help. Encompass was able to onboard the few remaining facilities staff, drafted an action plan, and close those overwhelming work tickets (read the case study here). Without a positive company culture, Encompass would never have been able to take on this task.

While you might be “satisfied” with your current FM vendor, are you getting everything that you truly need from them? Just because your FM vendor is ticking the boxes doesn’t mean that they are enabling you to make the smart decisions to reduce waste and streamline inefficiencies.

If they aren’t anticipating your needs, it might be time to look for a new FM vendor.

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Encompass

Encompass is a full-service facility management company that supports businesses by proactively maintaining their building portfolio. They balance infrastructure and service needs with regulatory and operational requirements to fulfill the needs of time-strapped facility departments. Their state-of-the-art, Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC)-certified COVID-19 disinfection program is built for rapid deployment to assist your facility when you need it. No waiting weeks for assistance in containing an outbreak, Encompass can be there within 24 hours.