“This is the thing about the service industry, you can get trained to be slick and hospitable in any situation and it serves you well the rest of your life. Once you figure out that everything is performance and you bow to that, learn to modulate, you can dissociate from the mothership of yourself like an astronaut floating in space.”… Merritt Tierce
Merritt Tierce is an American short story author, story editor, essayist, activist, and novelist. She used to teach also at Iowa university & presently has been settled in Los Angeles as a story writer. She may be a storyteller but the very fact she has made her career in Hollywood itself speaks to her credentials to comment on the service industry, which is my subject of sharing! Though building line (read as real estate) & service itself are two sides of the poles till very recently but the times are changing & so is real estate too. Recently my son (sorry for using personal reference which I avoid always yet this time the subject of focus got initiated by him, so used his reference) emailed me a questionnaire about his MBA project which deals with building maintenance service business startup! Well, I am no management expert or marketing guy or a business guru but a hardcore civil engineer & I have been maintenance engineer by myself in the start of my career & I kept that dept with me even when I become head of a real estate company’s technical head because I have understood the importance of this most neglected aspect of building industry! You ask any civil engineer & he will work on a construction site at half salary but won’t become a maintenance engineer & not that any civil engineer can become a good maintenance engineer, is also equally true! Reason is, its non-glamorous job & engineering don’t go hand in hand with service which is one more myth! And not just being a maintenance engineer of late you don’t get people or say skilled workmen for maintenance is also a red zone issue in building industry making this business or say start up very much blue-chip, which is the reason I not only replied his questioner but thought of penning down this aspect in a bit elaborate way!
Before sharing my views let me give you some background of the scene of building maintenance service industry. Barring Urban Clap named company which makes all servicemen such as plumber, electrician etc available via there app, right now there is no organized segment operating in this industry to my knowledge. At the same time there are few builders such as Panchashil, Magarpatta & Gera who offer (is what I know) maintenance service contracts to their customer only no builder provides such professional service rather many are not interested in providing such service pertaining to time involved in the process. This has made the post-possession scene in many housing projects miserable to such an extent that people are not ready to become office bearers of the society such as Chairman or Secretary as they have to follow these service providers for any civil maintenance work in the society! And when some individual flat holder tries to resolve his complaint of leaking tap or choked up bathroom or replace a broken tile & repair a short-circuited switch then right from getting a reliable plumber or electrician to settle his payment terms to make himself available at home at the price of bunking office, its miserable journey & on top of it risk of exposing your home to some unknown person is always a added risk which not many people are ready to take! And with thousands of new projects coming every year in Pune region with time being the main constraint for its residents, you can imagine the potential this industry has within! All such aspects are in a way boon for someone to enter into a building maintenance service startup who really is ready to work hard & understands the service industry.
Below are some pointers as I was supposed to comment on the role of an entrepreneur or a businessman who will think of building maintenance as a startup or say new business…
1. Entering New Markets
.. While entering in any new market what I look is at clientele and need of the service; presently all around the globe urbanization is a fact & that means more buildings , it may be homes is all forms such as flats, bungalows as well offices , IT Parks, Malls, public building and many such & all these buildings needs maintenance, this is why I choose maintenance service as new business as potential is already there!
2. Service Innovation
Service industry is ever innovating as building maintenance means people and this industry can’t run on a Work from Home basis but you need real hands to work on!! Innovation is needed for two things here, as in today's world time is money & more than that, time wasted is the main reason for stress too!! This is where innovation comes into picture as we need to innovate to reduce the time in service as well for right communication which again is cause of time wastage which means stress! This is where one has to use innovation to effectively use the man hours involved in this traditional profession of building maintenance.
3. Digital Transformation
Here, the main hurdle is the client is well versed with the digital world while the actual working team is not that tech-savvy rather illiterate in most cases as they are plumbers, tilers, carpenters & such who may not have been to basic schooling also. To breach this gap is the main challenge which can be also another business itself. but digitalization will help in a great way in building maintenance business as data is key & right from keeping complaints & their types data to clients records to labour force data, on so many fronts digitalization can be a boon which at present is not being used effectively.
4.Technology Adoption
Basic fact of any industry or business is people are afraid of change & this fear makes them reluctant to any change, not just technology. one has to understand this mindset & then introduce any technology especially when business is like building maintenance. But again if presented in right way where your team will realize that technology is good for their safety as well for money making, then they are faster than you to adopt it best example is use of WhatsApp and ever increasing sale of smartphones for payments, it’s the working class at ground level which are using it more frequently than the upper classes & is a classic example of adoption of technology. After all the workers or say team mates of building maintenance are street smart survivors as they may be uneducated study wise but they are not fools, every businessman must keep this aspect in mind.
5. Consumer Behaviour
This is something which has not been talked about much in the building industry & when it's post occupation services then the builder is long gone & already the client is frustrated while dealing with maintenance on his or her own!! Here again right & clear communication backed up with committed service time lines matters most & if you can do that then customer will be happy but one wrong step, & his boiling point is already nearby so it's a rope walk always when it's building maintenance! What in any maintenance complaint client needs most is, someone who will understand & feel his or her problem as a leaking tap or choked toilet or peeling paint or a faulty door bolt, may be just a building problem. But it's already giving nightmares to the building occupier hammering his daily routine, especially of the house-lady when it's a Home & it is deteriorating entire atmosphere of the Home, this the service provider must understand & then deal with the respective client... think of you being in his home or office & then it's easy to understand behaviour pattern of the client which indirectly saves you from future stresses as well makes strong business relations!
6. Key Aspect is Communication.
Lastly, focus on having right communication with your customers & be available to him or her when you commit you will be available, that's the most important key of building maintenance but any service, after all a best service is not defined by the service provider but by the customer!
There is one more aspect of building maintenance service industry which nobody has thought of as there are very less skilled women in this industry as how many of you have come across a lady plumber or electrician or a tiler or a woman carpenter, none is the answer for most of the people, right? This is because these are physical jobs & needed to be done at construction sites in adverse conditions & that’s why it is never considered as women’s job which is not right as most of these men has helper women which assists them in carrying their accessories or provide material but never women are allowed to do the job by themselves. Here in building maintenance a woman plumber or a water-proofer or a tiler can feel safer as the working site is the home or office of some family or an organization. At the same time the families will also be more comfortable if a lady plumber or electrician is entering into their home for maintenance, right? And again, this can be a biggest avenue for employment of millions of women especially girls from rural parts of the country & organizations like Jungle belles which works for wildlife conservation & women can be a bridge in doing so. Skill development programs for girls from villages near forests can be planned & this can be a major raw material force for building maintenance service industry! At the same time this industry can be employment for many youths who are ready to work hard (rare quality though) as not just skilled workers but there is going to be huge job potential for posts such as back-office people, marketing guys & data maintaining crew. In an era where most youth spend their budding years for entering into govt exams it's really a shame why they can’t look for such avenues for employment, just because one has to work hard & that’s the reason also for agitation over reservation in govt jobs! With growing urbanization building maintenance service is future of many startups, only problem is, this “work from home” is meant for somebody else’s home to work in (pardon me for the PJ) & the young civil engineers must come out of the so-called pride & dignity myths of considering maintenance as below par profession & opportunity here is like Cave of Alibaba waiting for someone to say the “Sim Sim” words, to open it up!
To conclude, real estate guys, you also think about it as indeed any product gets respect & recognition by its quality but service after sale of that product is also part of that quality & there lies future of that product & your buildings too are no exception to this “law of service’, mind it!
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Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
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https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345
Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying!
https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/01/choosing-your-home-along-with-future-of.html
http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html
Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345
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