Rethinking Maintenance: Repair Before You Have to Replace

I worked in commercial and residential maintenance in Australia for many years before joining Janus International, so I understand how hard it is to rely on contractors because, in general, they're notoriously unreliable. But it doesn't have to be this way. If you partner with the right company for your maintenance contract and service agreement, you'll not only have contractors who show up on time for break-fix repairs like a rolling door that a tenant backed into, you'll also be following a model that can help ensure that your facility gets the proper upkeep, repairs and preventative maintenance that are vital to your bottom line, your tenant's peace of mind and your competitive edge.

But before you can negotiate the right maintenance plan for your facility, you need to know if it makes sense for you, what kind of benefits you can expect, the types of maintenance contracts that could work for you, and the terms and conditions you'll likely want to include.

What's a maintenance contract and how do I know if I need one?

A maintenance contract is an agreement between you and your service provider that outlines the tasks, schedules and frequency of the maintenance services they provide for your equipment and facilities. You can use:

• In-house maintenance teams
• Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) technicians
• Third-party maintenance service providers
• Any combination of these three options

It's most common for organizations to need at least some outside help either because of the workload or costs associated with hiring experts full-time. With trained and experienced self-storage maintenance professionals like we offer with our Facilitate division, you don't have to worry about whether your contractor is certified and trained for the specialty repairs you need, like your rolling doors or smart locks.

And you also don't need to worry about astronomical costs. Since preventative, reactive, and scheduled maintenance is periodic and infrequent, it makes economic sense to go with a maintenance contract and agreement like we offer with our Facilitate Service and Maintenance.

What are the benefits?

By outsourcing a portion or all your maintenance responsibilities to a third-party team of licensed, certified experts, there are some obvious benefits like no longer needing to staff an in-house maintenance department or waiting endlessly for ad hoc contractors to fix your broken door or service your ventilator.

But there are other big benefits, too. When you hand the responsibility for your maintenance requirements to a service like Facilitate to manage and complete:

• You get a team that is qualified to inspect, test, maintain and repair all your self-storage specialized assets and equipment.
• You reduce operational reactive costs.
• You reduce downtime for units and spaces that results in improved customer satisfaction.
• You can direct your limited budget elsewhere because we have the tools, spare parts and manufacturing abilities needed to keep your equipment in the best possible condition.
• You can prolong the life of your assets and increase the value of your portfolio by properly maintaining your facility.
• You and your team can focus your time and resources on what you do well.

What are the different types of maintenance contracts?

Easy Maintenance.Operators who currently don't have the capacity or number of locations to take full advantage of the economies of scale of contracted programs may be attracted to a service agreement that provides exclusive offers on seasonal items like door regreasing or fixed-price servicing on storage-specific items like rolling door services and replacements.

Reactive Maintenance.This service agreement is activated when something goes wrong so you can minimize asset downtime. At Facilitate, we provide fast and efficient action to restore your assets to normal operating condition through repair, service or replacement - and sometimes all three depending on the situation.

Preventative Maintenance. This type of service agreement identifies and repairs minor issues to prevent them from becoming big problems with bigger price tags. With Facilitate, we complete pre-defined checks and tasks at scheduled intervals to help you avoid any unforeseen failures that lead to greater costs for repairs and lost revenue. For example, we perform regular roof inspections so you can avoid a roof leak that requires a $300,000 replacement and a month without tenants.

New Stays New.This service agreement is designed to keep new assets in new condition. If you're planning an R3 renovation, for example, we would start these services as soon as you're operational to provide you with access to the wide range of trusted Janus contractors and partners to keep the entire facility in prime condition.

What should your facility maintenance contract include?

Regardless of the maintenance service company you enlist to take the load off you, you'll want to make sure there are certain elements specified in your service and maintenance contract. At Janus, our Facilitate contracts always contain these details:

• Full names and details of both parties
• Types of maintenance
• Scope of the work
• Equipment details
• Service schedules
• Response times and contact details/job-logging details
• Service completion times
• Payment terms
• Warranties and guarantees
• Contract termination details and agreed cooling periods

For most self-storage facilities today, it makes sense to rely on a maintenance service company to keep your property in tip-top shape versus pouring countless hours into trying to manage it yourself only to be frustrated with the results. Once you've decided the type of maintenance agreement that can work for you, reach out to a provider like Facilitate who can handle all your repairs and preventative maintenance so you can run your business.