Category: Uncategorized

Schools are the cornerstones of society. They are the place where young minds develop and shape the next generation of leaders. It is for this reason that we at MaintenX take school campus maintenance very seriously. We want our local communities to feel secure and confident in the facilities where they send their children to learn. Our dedication to service excellence is guaranteed every time we step onto school grounds. 

We encourage school campuses to invest in preventative maintenance for each of their classrooms and facilities. Preventative maintenance not only provides a safer learning environment for students, but also ensures that teachers have the facilities they need to educate effectively. Preventative maintenance measures may seem like a small contributor to student success, but these minor issues can manifest into major ones very quickly. 

Below are four areas that your school should pay special attention to when scheduling preventative maintenance service: 

Plumbing repair. 

In most cases, plumbing service is not provided until there is a major issue. When plumbing issues arise on campus, it could result in students being sent home, or classes being delayed because students do not have access to bathrooms. It is in your best interest to take care of plumbing repairs as soon as a symptom is presented. You can avoid major shutdowns and save money when your MaintenX team prevents a problem rather than fixes an emergency. 

Electrical preventative maintenance. 

Electrical issues can cause major safety risks such as fires, or major inconveniences such as power outages in a classroom. Both of these cause disruptions in the learning environment and can in rare instances put students at risk. Schedule regular preventative maintenance on your electrical systems to keep your students safe. 

Roofing inspections. 

Roofing repair is not typically an emergency service, but a lack of roofing maintenance can worsen the appearance of the campus and put your facilities at greater risk during severe weather events. In Florida, where MaintenX is headquartered, hurricanes pose a serious risk to all coastal campuses. Without proper roofing inspections, your facilities’ roofing may be subject to damage from severe storms like hurricanes. Don’t let this happen — call MaintenX for routine roofing inspections and repairs. 

HVAC repair. 

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning are a matter of safety and comfort for students and teachers. Campus labs and classrooms where hands-on projects are led require efficient ventilation for proper indoor air quality. Your HVAC unit also makes the classroom an inviting environment for both students and teachers. In Tampa, for example, a broken A/C unit can completely shut down a classroom in August or May. Don’t neglect this vital part of preventative maintenance at your campus. 

If you are interested in learning more about school preventative maintenance, contact your local MaintenX team today!

Guest satisfaction in the hotel business is much more than providing a bed and breakfast for travelers. Business guests want to feel refreshed, and vacationers want to feel relaxed. In order to take care of their needs, your hotel needs to provide all the comforts of home with a little extra sparkle to keep them coming back. 

Hotel guests should never have to worry about a leaky faucet, an inefficient A/C, an electrical short, or plumbing issues while they’re with you. These are the kinds of problems people go on vacation to escape; they should never creep into their hotel experience. Therefore, it is your imperative to maintain your rooms and shared spaces with careful attention to detail. 

This is easier said than done. You’re running a 24/7 operation, with many moving parts to manage. It can be difficult for hoteliers to implement preventative maintenance when they already have a long backlog of immediate maintenance issues that need to be addressed. And since you can’t close shop for a day or weekend, it’s up to your maintenance team to be as efficient and fast as possible with each service request. 

While you likely have many tasks on your plate already, addressing your maintenance issues should be a first priority. Here are just a few ways in which you can improve your guest experience immediately:

Knock out maintenance tasks every time a room is vacant.

If you have a long backlog of maintenance issues, make a point to address them with a technician every time the room is vacant. Or, schedule maintenance services during cleaning times to ensure that the next guest doesn’t have the same problem. Maintenance issues should be addressed within the week before they end up on your hotel’s online reviews. 

Implement a computerized maintenance management system.

Managing maintenance service requests is tricky, but a computerized system will help you to organize and provide relevant information to the technicians. MaintenX uses an intuitive software-based work management system to help you manage requests and have them completed sooner. 

Talk to MaintenX about preventative maintenance options.

Preventative maintenance takes care of potential issues before they become guest complaints. MaintenX wants to help you earn a five-star rating by implementing preventative maintenance schedules that work for you. Talk to your local MaintenX team today to learn more.

Maintenance management is a complex task that requires cooperation from technicians and facility managers alike. One of the hardest parts of the job is keeping track of work orders, prioritizing requests, and improving service as you go. In order to achieve this, you must make the best use of your maintenance history. Here’s why: 

Effective maintenance service is more than fixing the problem at hand. It’s about understanding why the problem occurred, and providing a long-term solution to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Just like a doctor doesn’t provide a treatment for symptoms without understanding the underlying disease, a maintenance technician can not provide a real fix until they understand the equipment issue that’s causing it. 

Just like a doctor does, you’ll have to take a full history of the problematic equipment before giving a diagnosis. In order to do that, your facility needs a proper system for recording work orders and maintenance services. This information is invaluable to your MaintenX technician, so they can better solve your issue and make sure it doesn’t happen again. 

When recording work orders in your maintenance management system, you should include the following information: 

• When was the last time you performed preventative maintenance on the equipment?
• How often do you typically perform preventative maintenance tasks?
• Were any maintenance tasks skipped during the last check? If so, why?
• Which technicians have performed service in the equipment?
• What comments did the technicians leave about their service? 
• Is there a recurrence of specific issues with this equipment? 
• What is the average cost of maintenance for this equipment? 
• What is the equipment’s projected service life? 
• When the equipment needs to be replaced, what new equipment should it be upgraded to?

Your maintenance history tells you a lot about the state of your equipment as well as the facility as a whole. Keeping close record of these things will help your maintenance staff provide the best service possible. This means reduced costs for you and more efficient facility management. 

Contact MaintenX today to learn about our comprehensive preventative maintenance services. We provide maintenance history tracking and ensure that whenever our technicians are onsite, they are providing the best service available.

Preventative maintenance isn’t as exciting as R&D, sales, or marketing when it comes to running your business. However, keeping your equipment in top shape is just as important as the more flashy and attention-grabbing parts of operational success. Your maintenance service is a worthy investment in your business. It keeps it afloat for long-term sustainability and growth. 

However, the ROI of preventative maintenance is often hard to predict. You can measure it at the end of the year in reduced emergency maintenance costs and downtime, which means you have to think proactively when implementing preventative maintenance schedules. Remember the hidden costs of equipment failures that will sneak up on you if you don’t invest in proper maintenance for your facility. They include: 

Unplanned downtime

Downtime is the number one killer of manufacturing facilities and other large operations, and it is often caused by a lack of proper maintenance. Facility managers will run their equipment beyond recommended performance in order to gain short-term results. However, this comes back to bite them when poorly maintained equipment begins to fail. Reduce the risk of unplanned downtime by following performance recommendations and providing maintenance for key machinery. 

Inventory issues

If you do experience an unplanned shutdown of one critical piece of equipment, you will likely interrupt the entire production process. This could lead to shortages in inventory, or inventory backup as you make up for lost time. You want your facility to run like a well-oiled machine, but that won’t happen if you don’t actually care for the machinery you depend on. Schedule preventative maintenance to maintain steady workflow. 

Employee risk

Preventative maintenance isn’t just about saving money down the line. It’s about keeping your workers safe. Equipment failures are rare, but when they happen they have the potential to cause harm to the operators. You don’t ever want to be the workplace that is seen as unsafe, or have lawyers banging on your door searching for poor maintenance practices that result in accidents. Invest in preventative maintenance upfront to keep your team safe. 

If you do not have a preventative maintenance plan in place, it’s time to call MaintenX. We work with top contractors in 13 states to provide the electrical, plumbing, roofing, and other key maintenance services you need to keep your facility running smoothly. Contact us today for more information. 

With winter in full swing, now is the time to ensure that your electrical systems are in tip-top shape. The last thing you want is an electrical problem to cause the heater to malfunction, effectively shutting down your facility. In Tampa, Florida, where MaintenX is headquartered, we don’t face snow or sleet, but we serve 12 other states where snow and sub-freezing temperatures cause major electrical issues. Here’s why you need to prepare now rather than later: 

Prevent electrical shorts. An electrical short circuit happens when too much current is sent through a wire, oftentimes leading to a blown fuse. However, excessive heat or a small explosion can lead to a facility fire, endangering the lives of your workers. Preventative maintenance reduces the chance of these occurrences tremendously. 

Ensure that security monitoring and failsafe measures are in working order. Safety monitoring equipment should also be checked to ensure it is in working order. Many facility accidents happen because the failsafe measures do not occur when an accident happens. Your maintenance staff should check the emergency lights and power indicators to prevent accidents. 

Extend the service life of critical equipment. Preventative maintenance helps you to extend the life of your assets, resulting in cost savings in the long-term. Well-maintained equipment will also provide more power or outputs for a lower price than equipment that needs constant emergency maintenance. 

Prevent unplanned downtime. When an electrical issue occurs, you will have to adjust your workflow to let the electrician service your facility. This leads to downtime that you likely cannot afford. In order to prevent this altogether, schedule electrical maintenance services when it is convenient for you, rather than when it is necessary. 

Save on your power bill. When you service electrical components and equipment, they don’t have to work as hard. This results in increased energy efficiency, which in turn reduces your power bill. During the winter season when energy consumption is already high, this can help you cut costs considerably. 

Make your facility a safe place to work. Fires, equipment malfunctions, and other safety hazards have no place in the work environment. Not only will your facility lose its reputation, but you will likely be greeted by liability lawyers who love to find holes in your maintenance procedures. Be proactive in your safety protocols and you’ll thank yourself when you have zero accidents on the clock. 

It is for these reasons and many more than we encourage all businesses to schedule preventative electrical maintenance through MaintenX. Our network of licensed and specially trained electricians can help improve your facility maintenance standards across the board. Contact us today to learn more!

The goal of any maintenance manager is to unite the maintenance team under one purpose: preventing equipment failures and improving efficiency across the board. This is the sole purpose of preventative maintenance and should be the primary measure of a maintenance manager’s success. If you want to empower your maintenance team to meet these goals, you need to lead them effectively. 

However, leadership isn’t so simple. You are tasked with seeing the big picture and achieving it through day-to-day protocols. Developing the skills to do so takes time. Here are some tips to help you get there faster and more effectively: 

Measure emergency versus preventative maintenance hours logged. 

If your preventative maintenance program is working, you should have significantly fewer emergency maintenance requests than you do scheduled preventative maintenance tasks. This seems intuitive, but many managers don’t take the time to crunch numbers and objectively evaluate their programs in this way. If you want your maintenance team to be at the top of their game, you have to push your preventative maintenance programs to become leaner and more effective. 

Schedule random site inspections.

A part of running a tight ship is ensuring that your programs are carried out as you expect them to be. This requires you to visit the worksite periodically to ensure that protocols are followed and that your maintenance staff is performing functions the way they are trained. You can identify many problems in your maintenance performance by watching how your staff conducts themselves on a daily basis. Oftentimes, a lack of training or supervision is responsible for major maintenance issues.

Conduct wrench time studies.

Wrench time studies evaluate individual maintenance workers’ efficiency and effectiveness at critical and routine tasks. You should be requiring your crews to perform wrench time studies to help you better ascertain the skill level of your staff. However, wrench time studies should not be used as a means to threaten or shame your workers. Go over the results with the individual in private, and use it as a means to identify points for improvement as a team. If someone is falling behind, it likely means they don’t have the proper training and their time with you should be a priority. 

Get to know your crew.

As any manager, you need to have strong interpersonal relationships with your team members. They won’t go to you with problems if they don’t see you as a respectful and trustworthy individual. Know each of your crew members’ names and get to know who they are as people. You will have a much easier time leading when your team trusts you. This is one of the most important steps to effective maintenance team management. 

MaintenX prides itself on having some of the strongest maintenance teams across the country. We serve 13 states with emergency and preventative maintenance services for businesses of all kinds. Talk to us today to learn more about our guiding principles and preventative maintenance services.

Property managers and maintenance staff often have a limited relationship. While they play vital roles to each others’ functioning at a facility, oftentimes property managers and maintenance workers do not communicate unless absolutely necessary. This leads to a minimal level of performance by the maintenance staff, and a lack of knowledge and leadership capability of the property managers. 

Your maintenance staff does more than perform the necessary service. They make your facility a great place to work, serve, and conduct business. Without them, your business would quite literally fall apart at the seams. If you want to get more value out of your investment in preventative maintenance service, consider establishing a stronger relationship with your maintenance team. There are several ways in which you can do this. 

First, you must communicate clearly and often.

Building a relationship with any department takes time and effort. If you work to make the team feel included in decisions regarding your facility’s preventative maintenance schedule, they will likely give you double the value you were receiving before. Clear and open communication will help you make better, more cost-effective preventative maintenance choices.

Next, you must set expectations.

As the property manager, you are responsible for the smooth operation of the facility. Set expectations with your maintenance staff on when, why, and how often maintenance services should be performed. You will also want to ask questions about preventative maintenance best practices to ensure you’re covering all your bases. 

Include maintenance in your strategic planning.

Maintenance is more than preventing disaster. It is an investment in property value and customer retention. A facility that is well maintained will be more attractive to tenants or clients, and will retain its market value longer than one that is minimally maintained. Talk to your maintenance staff to ensure you’re not just covering the bare minimum in your preventative maintenance service. 

Don’t treat maintenance calls as a last resort.

Your maintenance staff should be an ally, not the people you call when you’re at your wit’s end. By communicating and setting clear expectations, you can prevent most emergency maintenance calls. Use your maintenance team as a resource as much as possible. 

MaintenX is a leader in facility maintenance in 13 states across the U.S. We work one-on-one with clients to help achieve their maintenance goals while cutting costs whenever possible. At MaintenX. We believe a job well done doesn’t have to break the bank. Our technicians will take care of your facility needs and help you create a better preventative maintenance plan. 

Contact us today to learn about our services and rates.

First impressions matter. Whether it’s the first impression a customer gets of your business, or the first impression you make on a new renter, they shape the way your facility is perceived, often for years. The outer appeal of a place of business is just as important as what goes on inside. It can make or break your client relationship before it even starts. 

Your first impression is often your only impression. Once your clients or tenants have seen the worst, they likely won’t be able to see anything else. People can forgive the occasional mishap if their belief is that you are typically in control of your facility. Therefore, you should always be on top of facility maintenance in order to put your best foot forward. 

Plan for effective maintenance on areas that matter most. Your overall preventative maintenance plan should include the following areas: 

Plumbing – Plumbing issues don’t happen very often, but when they do they are a major inconvenience. Avoid plumbing issues altogether by scheduling preventative maintenance checks at your facility. This will help you avoid shutdowns which can lead to a declining reputation among tenants and clients. 

HVAC – A facility that is too hot or too cold will immediately make a new tenant or visitor uncomfortable. However, many facility managers will neglect HVAC care in favor of cost savings. HVAC maintenance is about tenant comfort, so don’t skimp on the maintenance of this important piece of equipment. 

Roofing – Roofing that is poorly maintained will make a poor impression as soon as the new tenant or client arrives on the lot. If you don’t want your facility to look run down or vacant, invest in roofing maintenance. Or, step it up a notch by adding solar panels of energy-efficient roofing, which you can use to impress even more. 

Electrical – Electrical maintenance should be a no-brainer to facility managers. Electrical work has to be left to the professionals. It is therefore in your best interest to keep costly repairs to a minimum. Invest in electrical maintenance to keep costs down and your facility in tip-top shape. 

MaintenX offers comprehensive facility maintenance services for business in 13 states. We offer preventative and emergency care to help you make a great first impression, as well as assist when you’re in a crisis. MaintenX has one of America’s largest contractor networks, available 24/7 for your facility maintenance needs. 

Contact us today for more information.

Online reviews are one of the best word-of-mouth marketing tools for businesses. They present the benefits of your services and facility in a straightforward, honest manner and require very little input on your part. However, managing online reviews is critical. If you don’t monitor them, you may receive less-than-stellar ratings and will suffer the consequences. 

When a customer or tenant leaves a review of your facility, you want it to read:

“This place was incredible! Great staff, great services, and the atmosphere was relaxed and inviting. I will definitely be back!”

What you don’t want to see is:

“This place was awful! The staff was disorganized and unhelpful, and the facility was run down. Do not go here!”

Unfortunately, the factors that influence reviews can be very small. You may think you’re running a tight ship, but customers will tell you what you can’t see. Take notice when a facility tenant leaves online feedback – these comments, especially when they are negative, provide you the exact information you need to improve your facility.

One of the biggest factors that cause negative online reviews is, surprisingly, facility maintenance. Most staff workers try to make customer interactions positive, but they can’t do so if a customer notices dirt, faulty equipment, or things like leaks and cracks. No amount of excellent customer service can fix the distaste customers will have for a lack of proper maintenance. It is up to you to invest in proper cleaning and maintenance of your building. 

Improper maintenance will lead to inconsistent temperature control, leaky faucets, plumbing backups, and a visually unappealing interior and exterior. All of these minor inconveniences can turn tenants off to living or working in your facility. However, if you put in the extra effort to make your facility run efficiently and look exceptional, you will be surprised at how easy it is to gain good online reviews. 

Talk to your local MaintenX team about preventative maintenance measures that can improve facility performance and appearance. This small step will transform your facility from three to five stars in no time. You can finally be proud of your facility and show customers the best of what you have to offer. Talk to us today to learn more.

With college tuition rising faster than wages, it’s no surprise that more and more people are turning to alternative career paths. Subcontractor work, as well as other forms of self-employment, is becoming more popular as it allows people to build sustainable careers without going into student loan debt. With a few years of technical school or internships, young professionals can learn the skills needed for subcontractor work in fields like roofing, electrical, plumbing, or HVAC. 

Becoming a subcontractor has many perks. As your own boss, you’ll have more discretion over what jobs you work on and for what price. You can take as much time off as you need to rest and recoup. Many contractors vary their work schedule with their financial requirements, working just as much as they need to and spending their leisure time with family or pursuing other hobbies.

However, this line of work is not always easy. Subcontractors must be highly trained in their fields and must have a strong work ethic in order to balance work and leisure effectively. If you’re interested in starting a career in HVAC repair, plumbing, electrical, or roofing, here are some tips you should follow:

Invest in education. Someone with the right work ethic can make it as a subcontractor, but someone with a work ethic and technical school training will go further and faster in their field. Technical schools can teach you everything you need to know to make yourself a desirable candidate for subcontractor work with a larger company. If you can’t invest in technical school education right away, start saving and work entry-level positions in your desired field. 

Find an internship or apprenticeship. At some point during or after your formal education, you should try to find an internship or apprenticeship to sharpen your on-the-job skills. You may understand the principles of your chosen work, but being able to think critically, problem-solve, and handle customer interactions well is just as crucial as your technical skills. Work with a seasoned professional to better understand the demands of subcontractor work. 

Work within a network. If you are just starting out, working for yourself will prove difficult. You don’t yet have the reputation to attract new customers, and probably don’t have the experience to handle unexpected problems on the job. The best way to learn as a subcontractor is to join a maintenance subcontractor network. These sorts of positions give you ample job experience as well as additional training and resources to thrive in your chosen specialty. 

At MaintenX, we offer exceptional benefits to contractors in our service network. We believe in providing proper training, good pay, and room to grow at the individual level. Our contractors uphold the highest standards in maintenance because we believe in a job well done. If you become a MaintenX subcontractor you will receive: 

• Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance
• Life Insurance and Short and Long Term Disability 
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match 
• Paid Vacations, Paid Holidays, and Sick Days
• Personal Cell Phone Service Discount through Company Cell Phone Carrier Company
• Vehicle and Uniforms 
• Fuel Card provided for Company Vehicle 
• Opportunities for Overtime Hours 
• Opportunity for Career Growth!

The opportunity is endless when you apply with MaintenX. Talk to us today to learn more about our job openings.