Floor care is notoriously challenging. One study showed that over a 20-day period fewer than 1,000 people tracked in 24 pounds of dirt at an estimated clean up of $600 per pound. That's why floor care alone can account for nearly 67 percent of a cleaning budget. It is a difficult, labor-intensive task that needs almost daily attention. And when given to store managers to complete, it can put additional strain on operations and if not monitored deferred until floor conditions start to deteriorate.
However, outsourcing to a facilities maintenance partner can provide the necessary support to meet regular floor care needs while reducing the burden on store managers. The three areas below provide the most immediate impact when outsourcing floor care for commercial facilities.
1. Best Practices and Expert Advice
Ensuring store employees know the proper care instructions for commercial flooring involves constant communication about frequency, chemicals and service. Reminders and memos can increase the workload for the regional, district and store level managers, but a facilities maintenance partner is always available to answer questions and provide the best practices when it comes to maintaining floor care between recurring strip-and-wax services.
For example, if a retail locations have vinyl composition tile floors, a facilities maintenance partner can provide subject matter expertise to all locations and steer store employees away from using hot water and traditional cleaning products when mopping the floors. Hot water tends to cause an opaque appearance in the wax making floors look yellow, and traditional cleaning products like bleach and ammonia eat up the wax and lead to bare floors. Proper maintenance instructions like the examples above can avoid costly floor repairs and total replacements.
2. Compliant and Reliable Strategies
The completion of a work order involves communication between the store manager, company stakeholders, and service provider. Price and schedule verification is often an issue, but a facilities maintenance partner already has a relationship with a network of contractors, a work order process, and service-level agreements.
For example, immediate attention to retail flooring is necessary during gondola movements to provide optimal customer experience. During this service, a floor care provider must spot-strip the area where the gondolas once stood and perform a full strip-and-wax service to the entire store, all in a two-night period. A trustworthy facilities maintenance partner is available to track key performance indicators throughout the service and avoid return trips to ensure the job reaches completion to the satisfaction of the location’s manager.
3. Simplified Communication Through Technology
Small tasks take more effort to complete with a delayed communication process. A facilities maintenance partner that offers simplified, intuitive, and up-to-date technology allows a contractor to verify services through a mobile app while they are on site. Streamlined communication through technology avoids downtime and ensures work orders are resolved before they affect the store’s brand perception.
For example, if a service provider encounters a tough stain while performing a recurring scrub-and-buff service, that service provider can use the One by SMS Assist mobile app to request and receive approval to move forward with the spot-strip-and-wax service. After finishing the service, the service provider can upload the before and after photos of their work to verify the service is completed. By using this technology, the store manager doesn’t have to get involved and the stain is handled accordingly.
How to Find the Best Solution
It is important for a company to get the most out of their spend by receiving benefits like the examples above. If you want to learn more about the benefits of partnering with a facilities maintenance partner, you can request a demo from SMS Assist to learn about our services.