Facilities Check List
Practical, step-by-step guides for the busy FM
January 2000
Developing Great Customer Service
A person’s technical skills and qualifications are very easy to identify on resumes and job applications. But credentials and training are of no immediate relevance to facilities management customers. What matters is whether they receive the service they want and if they are treated well.
The perception of service is real to customers. However, the perception has less to do with technical skills than with facilities management employees’ personalities and the quality of the services. Awareness of this perception factor must help shape your decisions about whom to hire and how you assign work.
Facilities personnel must be very patient, courteous, and diplomatic with customers, whose demands may occasionally border on the outrageous. However, there is a fine line between service and servitude. Facilities management is a service; as such, there are limits on what customers may expect. Many facilities staffers and some managers seem to vacillate from one extreme (very legalistic interpretations of what they are supposed to do) to the other (doing anything they are asked, without any questions). This behavior indicates a misunderstanding of the nature of service. There are several keys to developing and maintaining a good understanding of what service is. They are simple, but they are not easy to achieve.
- To the greatest extent possible, try to appreciate the customer’s point of view. Do some homework or research before important meetings.
- Know the facilities management charter thoroughly. Be prepared for occasional confrontations, but try to handle them without being defensive. Avoid taking things personally.
- Be clear about your department’s capabilities, and be realistic in the commitments you make.
- Make your needs very clear to the customers. Tell them what they must contribute to get the service they want and why you need it, whether it is funding, time, or certain types of information.
- Remember that you may become the guardian of highly sensitive information. Keep it confidential.
- Maintain confidence in what you do.
- Never forget to ask for help when you need it.
- Develop the fine art of saying “I don’t know” when you don’t know. Bluffing rarely works for very long.
This installment of FM Check List is adapted from BOMI Institute’s Fundamentals of Facilities Management course, (www.bomi-edu.org/13031.html), a required course in BOMI Institute’s Facilities Management Administrator (FMA) program.
