3 Simple Ways to Find Good Vendors for Your Facility
The best facility managers are like movie directors.
Directors rarely act in their own movies. Instead, they put the right people in the right places and let them do what they do best.
Like directors, facility managers perform best when they are not concerned with doing everything themselves, but rather, putting the right people in the right places to do what they’re best at.
Finding the right vendors is at the core of this strategy, but how do you find good vendors for your facility? Through our 20+ years of experience in the industry, we’ve identified three key ways to do it.
3 Tips for Finding Reputable Vendors for Your Facility
1. Perform a Thorough Google Search
This can be a simple process, but if you do it incorrectly, the consequences could be disastrous.
It’s not enough to simply Google “carpet cleaner [your city]” and trust whichever company pops up first.
Even if that company were us, we’d advise you to dig deeper!
Go to the company’s site. Do they have testimonials? What do the testimonials highlight as benefits of working with the company? Compare that with what you’re looking for in a vendor.
If you want a vendor who is thorough, or easy to work with, or highly skilled—keep an eye out for those phrases in the testimonials.
Also make sure you look at reviews on Google and Yelp. This is another place where you can look for those key phrases like “easy to work with,” “thorough,” or any other qualities you deem important.
It may be tempting to look at only the very positive or very negative reviews, but check out the reviews from the 2-4 star range. What do they say?
In order to receive a rating in this range, the vendor likely did some things well and other things not-so-well.
Your goal is to get an objective viewpoint so you can make a fair assessment of the vendor’s strengths and weaknesses and whether you’d like to work with them.
2. Go Through a Trade Association
Vendors affiliated with trade associations are likely to have been vetted either by the association itself or its members.
While using this strategy is not an absolute guarantee that you’ll find a fantastic vendor, if a company is a member of groups like Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) or International Facility Management Association, there’s a good chance they’re a trustworthy company.
Researching a company that’s already been vetted by a trade association adds a level of assurance to your process. The trade association has vouched for that vendor and, in effect, said “Hey, this company does good work. You can trust them.”
While you should still perform your own research on any vendor you intend to work with, having a stamp of approval from a trade association can give you a base level of confidence that you’ve found a reputable company.
3. Talk to People You Know and Trust
The best recommendations come from people we know and trust. Not only is this method likely to help you find the best vendor, it’s the quickest and simplest as well.
Here’s why.
All you have to do is to reach out to other Facilities Managers and ask which vendors they recommend for specific services and why.
Not only will you get a list of vendors, but you’ll also get an honest assessment of them—the good, the bad, and everything in-between. Beyond that, you’ve already validated the source of the information, so you know the assessment they’re giving is trustworthy.
If one of the vendor services you’re looking for is carpet cleaning—you’ve come to the right place. But don’t just take our word for it. Scroll to the bottom of this page, check out what our customers are saying, and click here to contact us and learn more about how we can help.