Business as “UN” usual—24/7 service delivery provides the foundation during extraordinary situations

Blog Series 1 of 4
Be sure to read all 4 entries of our blog series “Business As Unusual”. Our team of real estate professionals gathered some of their observations about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on commercial real estate. Their words provide an interesting perspective on how to exceed client expectations during this challenging time.

The COVID-19 crisis has certainly presented us all with challenges, both professional and personal. At Ciminelli, our Property Management Service Team faces unique challenges every day. Our 24-hour service, 7 days a week service model is time-tested and has helped our team create an infrastructure and process that supports the work we do, allowing us to easily perform under less-than-ideal circumstances. That service model, coupled with extensive experience in critical situations of all shapes and sizes, has proven most useful to our clients in recent weeks.

While crises on the scale of COVID-19 are fortunately rare, our Property Management Service Team deals with emergencies of significance to our clients with regularity. The same skills that make us pros at dealing with fires, pipes that have burst, or vaults that won’t open, have helped make us ready for the current situation. A level-headed, measured and proven response to rapidly evolving situations doesn’t just happen; it is part of an overall, process-driven strategy.

Dealing With Worst Case Scenarios

While no situation in recent history is comparable to the current COVID-19 pandemic we are currently dealing with, our team has faced natural disasters, client emergencies, and events with large scale consequences, all of which have helped shape our process and our response. For example, we have successfully deployed service teams to assist our clients with:

  • snowfall totals exceeding 6 feet in 24 hours as part of a powerful storm in 2014, crippling areas of the northeast; 
  • record flooding associated with Hurricane Sandy’s encounter with the East Coast in 2012;
  • the onboarding of over 400 bank branches in two days as the result of a large acquisition.

While we would be remiss to say that it’s “business as usual” right now, we do know that our Property Management Service Team has the systems, experience and expertise needed to keep our buildings and their occupants safe, operational and moving forward.

A Proven Response

At Ciminelli, we can count on our people and our systems, and our clients know they can count on us. Every year, we process over 70,000 work orders, ranging from small fixes to large repairs. The software systems we use to manage those requests rely on cloud-computing technologies, which allowed us to operate remotely immediately upon being directed to do so. We are not limited by office closures. We also have 60 team members who can deliver service from their fully-stocked service vehicles, making necessary repairs to client buildings on a daily basis. We’re using management software to make sure those vans have all the tools and supplies they need to communicate with clients and our team, and that they are ready to respond to whatever requests our clients have.

What’s Happening Now

Our Property Management Service Team is working very closely with clients in the medical field to ensure that patients can continue to safely access these buildings at a time when medical services are in particularly high demand. This work has included increasing and expanding cleaning and sanitizing processes and procedures, and implementing additional safety measures for their staff, including the installation of protective barriers in high traffic areas. We’re also doing everything we can to make sure our own employees stay safe and healthy, so that they can continue to provide facilities management services without interruption.

Going Forward

At Ciminelli, we know that right now—more than ever—dedication to communication and an understanding of our clients’ challenges and the current work environment will go a long way to support their needs. We rely on the lessons we’ve learned over several decades to stop, pause, and plan, so that we can continue to deliver service that is not reactionary.

We’re here to help. If you have questions please contact us.

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