Why Preventive Maintenance is Important & What It Covers
You have multiple brand assets at each location in your footprint. More than ever, ensuring those assets perform reliably for you is critical to connecting with customers and employees and maintaining those relationships.
The last two years have shown multiple industries that the way they’ve been doing things can’t be the same way they do them now. While consumer preferences and trends were already causing major shifts, such as in the banking industry, other industries have had to rethink the way they engage their customers. On the plus side, other industries experienced stronger positions and demand — enabling them to leverage those gains to solidify the position of their brands in the market, such as in the convenience store industry.
Additionally, the ongoing labor challenges that many industries are experiencing mean that brands have had to not only rethink their core benefit offerings but also their spaces and image in order to attract the talent they need. Buildings that are clean, functional, thoughtfully designed, and safe speak volumes for candidates who are considering a growing number of factors when it comes to where they spend their working hours.
And of course, there’s the financial component. With sales in some industries spiking and wobbling in others, it’s important to take control of energy spending, facility maintenance costs, and other expenditures that impact the bottom line. These reasons — and many others — are why preventive maintenance is important to have as a consistent solution in your ongoing brand management toolkit.
What Goes Into a Preventive Maintenance Program?
At a high level, the reason why preventive maintenance is important is that it proactively protects all of the brand-asset-related goals mentioned above: deeper connections with customers, more desirable and welcoming spaces for talent, and improved financial and operational performance. But there are a number of brand assets that preventive maintenance touches:
Signage
Each of your locations has countless signage points. These include your exterior building and pylon signage, interior signage in lobbies and throughout the building, wayfinding signage to identify spaces and route foot traffic, and many more. It might also include digital signage, ADA signage, and other specific types that make using your facilities clear and pleasant. When these signage points are damaged, have experienced an outage, or are beginning to show their age, addressing them quickly is important.
That’s because signage is often the first interaction people have with that location. Even seeing your building sign as they drive to your location creates an impression — no matter how many times they’ve seen it before. And you’d better believe that they’ll notice and remember the one time that the sign has a damaged or non-illuminated letter. Interior signage that is outdated or is not functioning as intended, sends the same negative message.
Why preventive maintenance is important here: Signage crews visit your facilities on a predetermined schedule, such as quarterly, to identify potential issues before they become costly, brand-impacting problems. In many instances, issues can be resolved quickly. In the event that a larger repair or replacement is needed, you’ll be provided with an estimate and timeline. The result is that every interaction, whether during the day or at night, results in a positive impression and a welcoming feeling for all who are looking for your locations in their communities.
- Real-World Examples: See how proactive preventive maintenance programs ensure high-performing signage for different industries.
Lighting
Just like signage, your customers and employees benefit from functioning lighting, often failing to notice how pleasant and bright it makes a space — until there’s a problem. Even one light in a sea of hundreds or thousands in a warehouse, supermarket, retail store, or office space is immediately noticeable and creates a negative impression. Is the brand too lazy to fix this? Do they not have the resources or team to fix it? Do they even care?
Parking lot lighting, exterior building lighting, and other lighting sources must all be proactively maintained to ensure that people have the best experience possible while also making spaces safe and efficient. When these brand elements are performing optimally, the results can be significant for brand perceptions and bottom lines alike. But when they’re not, they lead to concerns over safety, impacted sales, low productivity, and more.
Why preventive maintenance is important here: It’s difficult for your employees to address lighting issues themselves, especially when the lighting is out of reach or requires technical expertise. When issues arise, those employees would have to contact someone locally. But with a preventive maintenance program, lighting is addressed proactively. Lamps and other assets can be replaced prior to the end of their expected lifespan. Underperforming assets (like flickering lights) are noticed and replaced. Any outdated elements can be retrofitted or upgraded to take advantage of energy rebates and savings while also boosting illumination in a space. The result is happier, more comfortable customers and employees — and avoidance of excess costs.
- Shine a light on possibilities: Learn about money-saving energy solutions for lighting and other building systems in this quick infographic overview.
Facilities
Signage and lighting are major influencers in the perception of your brand, and when issues arise — they’re noticeable. But so too is the condition of your facilities themselves. While multiple industries conduct refresh cycles every several years, physical brand assets like counters, kiosks, surrounds, furniture, fixtures, doors, windows, displays, flooring, walls, and countless other building elements are just as subject to wear, damage, and problems as everything else.
These brand assets play an equally important role in how customers and employees experience your brand. When they walk into a space only to be met with dirty, damaged, or malfunctioning assets like these, that chance to make a strong impression is lost — resulting in the customer never coming back and potentially spreading the word about their negative experience. That one bad experience just turned into a dozen or more negative perceptions about your brand.
Why preventive maintenance is important here: Preventive maintenance programs that include facility repairs and upgrades as needed ensure that these important assets are always in peak condition. In the event that they need to be repaired or replaced, that work can be done on-site or shortly after the review is done — minimizing the impact of the issue and keeping your spaces looking their best for everyone who experiences them.
Put Decades of Experience to Work in Protecting Your Brand
At Stratus, our repair & maintenance division works with brands in multiple industries across the country to help them protect, preserve, and restore their most important assets. From repairing exterior signs with malfunctioning letter sets and restoring lighting to keep employees productive to quickly refurbishing interior spaces based on changing customer preferences, there’s nothing our preventive maintenance team can’t address in a timely fashion. When coupled with our on-demand maintenance services and disaster recovery capabilities, your brand assets will be protected 24/7/365.