Achieving real value through partnership

In the world of facilities management, building a really good relationship between the FM provider and client is indeed the most critical aspect of the business. There is no perfect client as there is no perfect service provider, and whether clients are difficult or not is dependent on their marketplace, their own end users and their relationship with service providers.

The ambition of FM service providers is to build a long-term relationship that is mutual and beneficial to both parties. So, partnership is meaningful because solutions are shared. To the FM provider, this means working together with client as a team no matter how difficult the client or contract framework may be to satisfy, and to the client, it means an assurance of business continuity.

Working as a team demands that each party respects and trusts one another. If this does not happen, then the team will fail to perform. In support services, the team ethics goes beyond just the immediate employees of the service provider; it includes the client and its people as well. If true partnership is missing, the real value from excellent facilities management support will be hard to deliver and the expectations of the end users will not be fulfilled – the collective efforts of both parties would have failed.

Cultural fit in a nutshell is achieving a level of solid working relationship, it requires both sides doing their respective due diligence as well as understanding the values and behaviours of the parties. On the part of the service provider, its people must be fully engaged in its brand values and commitment to service. These values and behaviours must correspond with the potential client.

Business continuity is vital to the clients as they demand ‘extra mile’ support from service providers, i.e., staff on site day or night, personal number of the managing director of the service provider. Even more so, business continuity in a crisis situation is the real test of any relationship between client and service provider. This is when one sees the true nature of the people you work with as there is often nowhere to hide anymore.

Recently, a major corporate finance client suffered a massive power failure when a buzz bar failed. The unit physically melted. It was a technical failure that was difficult to predict but no matter how the issue arose, the loss of power was critical to the bank’s operations. The situation needed to be resolved as fast as possible, so the call was made to its outsourced facilities management company. The FM provider had to confirm the nature of the problem, find a way to re-connect power as fast as possible but at the same time ensure that the bank could continue with its operations with minimum downtime.

This meant finding alternate power or an alternate location from which to work. This is exactly the kind of situation where team work is vital. It requires total trust between the outsourced service engineers and client team. The clients do not want to know the details of the problem, they just want a fast, safe, sustainable solution and they want it ‘now’. It was what this bank’s FM service team was paid to do – provide business critical support services.

For business continuity to be provided round the clock and throughout the year, complete trust, openness and respect are required between the service provider and the client. When you have that kind of relationship, it is a solid partnership and that is worth much more.

By: Tunde Obileye