Preventive Maintenance Program Benefits for Your Brand
When it comes to promoting a positive image for your brand and your facility, you’re probably familiar with many of the key elements, such as effective signage, vibrant graphics, and strong lighting. All are essential to connecting your brand with customers.
But there is another branch in brand management that sometimes is overlooked. Maintaining that brand presence matters as well. An unlit sign, fraying graphics, and dated external presence can all negatively affect how your business is perceived, despite the products offered or service provided.
A 2011 study from Morpace.com (now known as Escalent) found that 95 percent of consumers felt a store’s external appearance influenced their decision about whether to shop at that establishment. Furthermore, 96 percent of respondents said that a brand’s appearance was either “extremely” or “somewhat” important.
A more recent survey, conducted by Service Channel, reinforced the importance of appearance and consistency for consumers. The survey found most people still buy a large part of their items in person at a store, and both the Millennial and Gen Z generations are continuing the habit. But 69 percent of the respondents said they would be more likely to shop at a competitor if a broken light or poorly lit exterior led to a “bad experience” in a store.
Finally, 82 percent of those surveyed said they think a brand should have consistent standards across locations, and 70 percent think less of brands that lack that consistency. A preventive maintenance program serves as a bulwark against that inconsistency and when properly executed will keep your brand on-point.
The Advantages of a Preventive Maintenance Program
First, a preventive maintenance program ensures your signage will continue to serve as a beacon, in a literal sense as well as figurative. A well-maintained sign, and illuminated or well-lit one at that, shows potential customers you’re open and you’re ready to serve their needs. Your brand cares about the image it projects and will benefit from the positive energy of having a “front porch” asset in good condition.
A preventive maintenance program proactively evaluates your signage, and will quickly diagnose any issues and quickly resolve them to keep this important aspect of your brand identity intact. Things happen, and you’ll want some reassurance in addressing those needs when they arise.
A preventive maintenance program will also keep your lighting systems, internal and external, operating at peak performance. Lighting helps protect your employees and customers by offering safety with properly lit parking and working areas. Energy-efficient lighting systems are also valuable in impacting your bottom line.
You’ll want consistent evaluations of your lighting system, both during and after operating hours, to head off potential problems before they become unwieldy. A preventive maintenance program gives you the security of knowing that this area of your brand is examined regularly, and offers timely relief should problems arise.
As the cited studies suggest, customers will embrace your brand if the interior and exterior environments provide consistent and pleasant engagements — and will hold it against you if they don’t. Keeping your facilities up to date is more important than ever with the increased pressure most industries are facing from online competition.
With a preventive maintenance program, your brand will have the support it needs to identify and resolve issues that may impact customers in a negative way. Whether it’s regular wear and tear, or outdated elements such as the HVAC systems or roof, or external damage due to weather, a good maintenance plan provides you with a tool to combat those issues and allows you to keep providing a consistent, pleasant experience for those that come to your facility.
A Needed Security Blanket for Your Brand
Preventive maintenance plans give your brand the agility needed to flow past all manner of potential problems, offer consistency across all your locations, and give your facilities a strong image in your markets.
You’ve worked hard to craft and mold your brand’s vision. It makes sense to reinforce and bolster that vision with reliable service to allow it to continue to uphold its promise.
Stratus Has You Covered
Whether it’s resolving a sign outage or repairing storm damage, we’ll be there whenever the need arises. Stratus provides coverage nationwide, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year. With a verified and certified network of field partners and service coordinators, we’ll get the job done quickly and your brand back to normal. We completed more than 62,000 service tickets in 2019 alone.
Stratus offers disaster recovery and on-site safety recovery, full-scale signage services, a substantial assortment of preventive maintenance programs, and specialty service to give you a high-level view of asset performance.
Contact us to learn more about those programs, and everything we do as we delve through infinite possibilities to craft ideal solutions.