An ounce of prevention (or facility preventative maintenance in this case!) is worth a pound of cure.
At times, it can feel like janitorial work is far more than keeping things clean. There are school janitors who entertain kids, office janitors who are a welcoming presence in the halls, and janitors working in hospitals keeping rooms sanitized and safe. So it’s little surprise that facility preventative maintenance is in the janitorial wheelhouse.
In fact, janitorial and maintenance services are especially complementary. They’re like butter and biscuits; you could have them separately, but why? That doesn’t mean you should go fixing stuff because you’re nice. You want to make sure you and your team are licensed and insured to handle maintenance issues. Always check your state regulations on these matters, since they can range so much.
However, if you can or already do offer maintenance services, creating a facility preventative maintenance schedule has some enormous benefits.
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10 Reasons you want to create your facility preventative maintenance schedule right away
The specifics of your facility preventative maintenance list may be different depending on the kind of facility and tools you have, as well as your team’s training and background. But the benefits carry across to any facility.
1. It saves you money. Everyone loves saving money, and making sure everything is in good working order is a great way to avoid spending big bucks on extensive repairs.
2. It saves you time. Almost as good as saving money is the time you save by conducting facility preventative maintenance and taking care of problems before they result in serious downtime.
3. It’s good for your facility. Preventative maintenance can help keep things in good working order. A straightforward example would be replacing frayed electric cords, so you don’t end up shorting out equipment or worse.
4. It keeps things from getting out of hand. One of the big benefits of facility preventative maintenance is that you are less likely to run into a major malfunction.
5. It keeps your team and your customers safe. Basic maintenance will help you identify multiple hazards, whether that’s malfunctioning light switches that would leave areas dark or water leaks that could create a slip and fall hazard.
6. You can plan more accurately. Conducting regular maintenance ensures that you take a good look at the details of your facility. When you notice something that will soon require a significant repair, you can plan for that work at a convenient time.
7. You can budget more accurately. Similar to planning, when you know about a considerable upcoming expense, you (or the facility you’re working for) can start to budget appropriately for it. Plus, no one wants a last-minute bill that could run into the thousands.
8. It’s healthy. This may not be the case for all aspects of your facility preventative maintenance list, but in the case of your HVAC system, it’s true. Fresh filters help keep the air clean, which is good for your health and the health of your customers.
9. It’s good for profits. Lastly, offering preventative maintenance to your customers is an excellent add-on to janitorial services. And it’s a simple way to increase your revenue.
10. It increases customer satisfaction. We all know customer satisfaction is vital to our businesses. We also know it’s nice when we don’t have to worry about the little things. Preventative maintenance takes care of those little things, making it an easy way to help your customers.
Putting your plan into place
Yes, there are plenty of benefits to a janitorial preventative maintenance schedule. But to get those benefits, you need to put an actionable plan into place. What does that mean?
Start with the “schedule” part of the equation. Put the tasks into your daily, weekly, or monthly checklists. Add them to your regular janitorial inspections. Follow up.
And if you use software like Janitorial Manager, you can easily update your checklists to include these items and customize them for each location you service. In that regard, it’s no different than adding in your equipment maintenance or adding new services to an already existing client.
In short, the benefits of preventative maintenance are numerous. If you can add this to your service plan, go for it. Everyone will be better off because of it.
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You’ve written it so well, and you have some really good ideas. This post is outstanding!