Embracing Outsourcing 2.0: Optimize Your Service Provider Network and Facilities Workflows

Outsource your facilities needs to repair & maintenance experts who can source and manage top providers and offer 24/7 support

Location expansion is a sign of your company’s success — you’ve figured out the secret sauce to delighting your customers and growing your business. It also means that the challenges you’ve been able to overcome while running a handful of locations will also need to be overcome at scale.

Like many companies that don’t have a dedicated facilities team in-house, you may find this intimidating, especially when it comes to streamlining workflows and finding the right service providers to take good care of your equipment. 

Sticking with your existing repair and maintenance processes as you expand can lead to more downtime, balloon service budgets, and negatively impact customer experience. So work smarter, not harder –  turn to a facilities outsourcing partner who can handle it all.

Rapid Growth Can Mean Facilities Managers Are Stretched Thin

As you scale, two of the most noticeable areas of facilities management that take a hit are the efficiency of your workflows and the quality of your provider network. Existing processes, personnel, and provider sourcing methods are often not sufficient to meet the needs of a greater number of locations and assets. Ambitious businesses often face issues like: 

Complex, Inefficient Workflows That Slow You Down When You’re Trying To Speed Up

As your business accelerates, keeping track of open work orders — especially if doing so manually — becomes more complex, with more moving pieces to account for. Thus, your previous ways of working may no longer serve you well. 

• Regular maintenance of all assets can take a backseat to reactive repairs, costing extra time and money. 

• A lack of a scalable system to track work orders increases downtime for your revenue-generating assets.

• An expanded asset fleet means more equipment to track, and likely more blind spots about asset performance and total spend per trade. 

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) may not be defined across your various locations, compromising the customer experience and brand standards. 

A Lack Of Proven Service Providers To Handle Every Region and Trade

Even if you have scaled up workflows, it won’t make much difference without high-performing service providers. Building a network that spans regions and trades can be a tall order, especially for businesses that are continually expanding into new territories or have senior leaders managing it all themselves.

• It’s time-consuming to find service providers in an unfamiliar market, taking your focus away from strategic initiatives your business needs to continue to grow. 

• There’s no guarantee that the providers you do find will be reliable and perform high-quality work the first time. 

• A lack of transparent pricing and wildly varying costs can eat up your budget and negatively affect your bottom line. 

• You have to develop relationships from scratch, which can be a prolonged process for a swamped facilities team or senior leader. 

There are many hurdles to overcome when you’re managing facilities for a growing business with a small team or even on your own. Instead of going it alone, partner with a facilities and maintenance expert who can take the day-to-day burden off your shoulders. By outsourcing your facilities and maintenance operations, you can make key facilities decisions while focusing on what really matters — delighting your customers.

Why Outsourcing Facilities Management Is a Game-Changer

Outsourcing used to mean giving up control and visibility into your operations and provider relationships, but modern outsourcing can and should be more like a partnership. Your partner takes on the executional lift while providing transparent results — without the additional cost. It’s a win-win that will help you accelerate facilities management alongside your business with:

Best Practice Workflows That Are Repeatable

An outsourcing collaborator will streamline workflows across all your locations, so you can focus on actual management instead of putting out fires or following up on minutia. You’ll benefit from optimized efficiency and transparent results while your outsourcing partners help you:

• Prioritize preventive maintenance to reduce downtime and cost, while boosting asset performance and customer experience — without extra headcount. 

• Manage open work orders and verify completed work, so you can focus on the big picture. 

• Streamline communication and operations across locations to boost performance and the bottom line. 

• Standardize work with repeatable, best practice SOPs for every location to deliver consistent, world-class customer experience. 

An Expanded And Optimized Service Provider Network

The best partner will source, manage, and coach vetted service providers. The ideal partner can go even further, ensuring that your network of providers meet your unique needs — with transparent pricing that fits your budget, objective performance metrics, and coverage in your required geographies. Outsourcing enables you to:

• Access a vast marketplace of service providers that spans trades and regions to hire service providers without hidden markups.

• Get better work done, faster by providers who meet your business needs and quality standards.

• Benefit from providers who are continuously coached by your outsourcing partner, helping optimize performance and costs.

• Own the provider relationships when you collaborate with a modern outsourcer, unlike the opaque, sometimes non-existent provider relationships you find with traditional outsourcers. 

Many growing brands find that one of the most valuable decisions they can make as they scale is to outsource their facilities and maintenance to experts. Investing in partners that stay with you every step of the way helps support growth, efficiency, and employee and customer happiness — without stretching your budget. You’re able to improve asset and location performance, processes are streamlined, and you spend your time focused on strategic business goals while your partner handles the stress of the day-to-day.