This article is brought to you by Vixxo.

Today, most corporate c-store operators have in-house technicians as part of their facilities model. This model is believed to help manage costs, improve customer experience and provide better control over repair and maintenance.

But that’s not always the case, according to David Lambert, president of Vixxo, a facilities solution provider. “We’re seeing organizations primarily focus on the percentage of work orders internal technicians complete. They are not always looking at efficiency or the right balance between external providers and internal teams, leading to higher costs and more equipment downtime.”

Lambert shared that these retailers may need to reckon with low utilization overall. An effective technician team, he said, should be spending more than 60% of its hours on-site. He’s seen operators with numbers below 50% … who still pay a lot of overtime.

The causes could be unsophisticated routing and scheduling technology (meaning driving and down time instead of time on-site); a lack of knowledge, causing long repair times; poor first-time fix rates, meaning technicians have to return to the site more than once to make a fix; lack of parts; and overall lack of efficient processes.

“What is your cost per hour for your internal technicians?” asked Lambert. “At Vixxo, one of the tools we offer is the ability to benchmark your teams against industry standards and competitors.”

Finding experienced technicians isn’t getting any easier. Lambert says there is expected to be an estimated two million job gap in the maintenance industry by 2025. He shared that the average time to recruit for a maintenance role is now more than 50 days, and that the average training time is six weeks. With the turnover rate at 20%—and much higher than that for employees in their first year—employers are spending a lot upfront.

“The convenience retailing industry does pretty well when it comes to HVAC and refrigeration maintenance, according to a Vixxo study. But looking just at revenue-generating foodservice equipment, whether that’s a pizza maker or a beverage dispenser or something else, it’s a different story. When you combine availability—is your equipment operating—with efficiency—the cost to fix a problem—we see room for improvement,” Lambert said.

“We’re happy to talk with retailers wherever they are on this journey,” Lambert said.

“We want the solution to match the problem and maximize customer experience. That could mean, for example, implementing technology solutions to help your technician team and rebalancing your model with outside technicians to supplement internal technicians. We’ve seen when you go beyond 70% of work orders done by internal teams, there are diminishing returns.”

“Even retailers that are happy with their facilities team should be asking questions about efficiency,” said Lambert. “Is there a better solution? And what happens when some of your best technicians leave or retire?”

This is the second of a two-part series on how operators can rethink their maintenance process. Read the first article, which looked at the impact of downtime. Learn more about Vixxo, a facilities solutions provider.