How Important Is Facilities Management To Customer Experience?

Good facilities management firms take advantage of analytics, automation, machine learning, AI, and IoT to track and apply the data they collect to improve the customer experience

- Graeme Flaws, Operations Director At Serco Middle East And Nawara Al Osaimi, Lead Of Experiencelab, KSA

Facilities management is the best well-kept secret to great customer experience. That was, until the pandemic hit last year.

Think of the customer experience of any facility, a mall, or an office building, as taking place on two stages much like a theatre performance: – Front stage, the bit you see and interact with – like the receptionist at the office building, a visitor ambassador at an event or even the physical spaces you move through. Backstage – the things you usually don’t see, or engage directly with, but have a big impact on how good your experience is.

As COVID-19 swept across the globe, the services delivered by facilities management teams in every building, metro station, mall, airport, etc. suddenly became highly noticeable. From continuously sanitising facilities, to ensuring that people are following safety procedures such as social distancing and always wearing masks, facilities service providers played a key role. We all started caring about seeing these services in action. They made us feel safe. And if we never spent much time thinking about them before, we’re more likely than ever to notice if they are not there.

The impact of many FM services on customer experience often goes unacknowledged – until something goes wrong. The AC is not working, now visitors and staff alike complain about the heat. Spaces are untidy or dirty – cue more complaints. A water pump breaks down and needs costly repairs because routine maintenance has not been carried out when it needed to – now the business must find money for emergency repairs. Good facilities management goes mostly unnoticed because the goal is to prevent emergencies and anticipate needs before they arise.

So how can a provider deliver facilities management services that will lead to a smooth experience and customer happiness?