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There are many good reasons for maintaining the appearance and standard of repair of your business premises and it can have long-term cost benefits when you carry out regular repairs and updates rather than wait until something goes wrong.
Building maintenance is a cost that has to be found out of your turnover, so here is a look at some of the ways that you can get the best return on your investment, when hiring contractors to provide you with the service that you want to keep your building looking good and performing at its best.
Why outsourcing works
If you are weighing up your options and deciding if you would be better to hire an employee to maintain your building or use an outside contractor, the latter option almost always works out to be more cost-effective.
Having your own maintenance man or team on the payroll will mean that you will have to not only pay a regular salary each month regardless of the tasks that they have had to carry out, but you will also need to consider ongoing training to keep their skills and knowledge up to date.
Outsourcing your building maintenance tasks to a contractor will mean that you get access to workers who have the requisite skills and training needed, but you will only pay for their time and materials used and only when you need them on site, which invariably works out less expensive than a full-time employee.
When you pay a third party contractor to handle the repairs and maintenance of your business premises, you can take comfort in the knowledge that the condition of your building will normally be in very good hands.
Assessing your needs
At the onset of the hiring process and before you invite a commercial maintenance company in to tender for the work, you should conduct your own evaluation of the condition of your premises and form an idea of what services you will need and how frequently they need to be carried out.
You are entrusting the health of your building to someone else, so you need to be comfortable with their professional competency and happy that they offer the flexibility and terms that you have decided are appropriate to your needs.
It may well be that you do not need full-time maintenance services. If that is the case, look to appoint a contractor who will work for you part-time or alternatively, offer on-demand commercial services that you can tap into when you need them.
Service and reliability are paramount
The magic formula that tends to work best of all when hiring a maintenance company is to not put pricing as your key priority over service and reliability.
A good building maintenance company that takes its responsibilities very seriously and wants to provide you with a good consistent service may charge more than some others around. In the long run, working with a company that has well-trained staff, offers expertise knowledge and is fully licensed and insured, will almost always turn out to be smarter move compared to choosing on price alone.
Ask plenty of questions
When you are interviewing a prospective contractor to work with, do not be afraid to ask as many questions of them as you want.
You need to be comfortable working with the company and providing them with access to all areas of your building, so ask questions like do they perform background checks on their workers and what ongoing training and professional development assistance do they receive?
You also need to ask about the extent of their services, so clarify if they offer things like 24/7 emergency repairs, plumbing repairs, electrical repairs and also establish whether they carry out safety audits on a periodic basis.
The ability to form a working partnership with your chosen building maintenance contractor is an important factor and when you find make right choice; you can enjoy peace of mind that your building is in good hands.
About the Author
Olivia Bee has worked in company management for some time now. An avid writer, she likes to share her experiences with others by posting online. Look for her articles on a variety of websites, especially, maintaining and managing businesses and their buildings.