Over
the last year we have been hearing from building owners and managers about
their issues with their current elevator company. The concerns may be that they never come,
they come for 6 minutes, they come irregularly, the office never gets back to
them, etc. After seeing some good and bad parts or larger companies and good
and bad parts of smaller companies on sales calls I thought this would be a
good topic to touch on.
A
very important item for a building owner or manager to look at is finding an
appropriate sized elevator service provider with the correct competency for
your building. Some important items to
ask yourself is how much communication do you want with the office, how often
do you want an elevator technician at your building, what is their
competency[traction elevators, hydraulic elevators, escalators, residential
lifts, etc] and if you had a catastrophic issue would the elevator company be
able to respond adequately[or your interpretation of adequately]. Full disclosure I work for a small to
mid-sized independent elevator company which services low to mid rise
commercial elevators.
Large Accounts – This would be
campuses of 12-100+ elevators; which could include condominiums, apartment
buildings, office buildings, colleges, hospitals, etc. Both independent and OEMs[Otis, Schindler,
Thyssen, Kone] are able to take care of these accounts. The most important item for building owners
and managers to consider is a elevator service provider is the staff that will
be working with you at your buildings.
You will want to interview both the office staff that will be working
with you as well as the mechanic(s) that will be your primary point of
contact. You can have a fabulous
elevator technician and a horrible office point of contact that changes every
six months or the reverse a terrible technician and a great office point of
contact. Larger accounts typically have
a larger mix of equipment, this is also something that needs to be discussed,
what is the replacement parts availability [will take a day or two to get, will
be available onsite, in the office ready for delivery, etc]. If you have all proprietary equipment and are
considering an independent company for a cost savings option, make sure they
have a competent mechanic and the equipment to troubleshoot and maintain the elevator
equipment. Also, when drafting your
contract if you have 50 elevators and want each elevator to be visited each
month[every other month, quarterly, etc], make sure you include how much time
you want the company to spend on the elevator.
There is a huge difference between a 6 minute visit and a 30-45 minute
visit. The dynamics of elevator maintenance
is changing and as a elevator industry most companies are reducing time that
the technician is allowed to spend on the elevator to give a competitive price.
Case – A building owner
with about 60 elevators wanted to have a mechanic at each elevator for 30-45
minutes each month, wanted testing of fireman’s recall each month, wanted the
contract to cover the once a year fire testing with the fire panel company and
a few other requirements that required a mechanic to be onsite performing a
function. The building owner also did
not want to pay for travel time on overtime calls. The building owner eventually got a
maintenance contractor to give them what they wanted for $130.00 per elevator
per month. That is a very competitive
price for the services they are requesting.
While the company may agree to the price and the scope of work, I would
be surprised to see that the service provider was following through with the
scope the building owner requested. If
you want to have a service scope that demands X time in a building, you will
need to expect to pay more and should not shop solely based on looking for the “best
deal”.
Responding to significant
issues
- I was at a building where a smaller service provider had an elevator out of
service for 6 months and I found that they had delivered an elevator door
operator and just set it on top of the elevator and it had been there for a sometime
because they did have the man power to complete the installation. If you want quick responses to equipment failures make sure the company has adequate personnel for remedying the issues.
Smaller Accounts – A smaller account would
be buildings with 1-12 elevators. Both
OEMs and independent contractors can take care of these buildings. Typically the smaller accounts would like
more communication and have different expectations as they have a closer
connection to the dollars that are leaving their account than larger
portfolios. In my experience you will
have a better experience with an independent firm as there is typically more
clarity with their product offering. In
the Chicago area there has been a good amount of consolidation where the independent
firms have been purchased by OEMs. We
hear “I like the way XYZ operated but after they were purchased we lost the
feel that they cared and never see the maintenance technician”. The question a building owner/manager should
ask is do you want to be a small fish in a large pond or a large fish in a
small pond. Independent contractors should
be more responsive and personal than a larger company. This is not saying that all independent
contractors are responsible, you should have the same questions as a larger customer;
who is my maintenance person, what experience does he have, who is my point of
contact at the office level, what is the companies resources, have a I received
a commitment from the company that they understand our needs and what we want.
[A larger companies response to a ongoing oil leakage issue - small fish in a big pond]
There
are pros and cons of going with a smaller or larger contractor, my
recommendation for building owners is to work with a company who understands
what you want from a service provider. The most important part of the
relationship is to be comfortable with the company, if you are not, do not know
who you are dealing with or generally get the run around, that probably is not
a good fit. Remember not all elevator companies
are equipped for every portfolio or every customer.
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