Case Study: How Lessen transformed an optical retailer's operations, resulting in happier doctors

A leading optical retailer faced several challenges related to centralizing facility maintenance across its multiple locations. There were recurring issues with landscaping, HVAC systems, roof leaks, and plumbing, which required prompt resolution to ensure uninterrupted operations and a pleasant experience for doctors and patients. The company also struggled with coordinating repairs and maintenance tasks, causing time-consuming management and delays.

To overcome these obstacles, the optical retailer partnered with Lessen to streamline its maintenance process.

Challenges

The retailer always made it a priority to keep its doctors happy and maintain the best operating experience possible. But to do that, facility issues needed to be resolved quickly and with minimal disruption to operations.

The retailer found it challenging to manage multiple trades for repair tasks such as roof leaks, ceiling tile replacement, and carpet cleaning or repairs. When the roof leaked, the retailer had to contact a service provider to fix the roof, and another to repair the ceiling, and yet another to clean the carpet. Coordinating these services proved disruptive to daily operations—and too much for the store to manage on its own.

Many HVAC units were past their usable life and started to fail. Their current vendors were conducting routine maintenance but not addressing long-term fixes. The company didn’t know which assets it had, when they were purchased, their utilization rate, or what repairs have been done. This highlighted another problem: the central office had limited involvement in managing individual locations. This lack of oversight created communication gaps between stores and vendors, leading to inefficiencies and delays.

Solutions

Lessen streamlined the company's facility maintenance processes and alleviate the burden on individual stores. The areas it addressed were:

• Comprehensive service: Lessen assumed responsibility for coordinating various trades and handling repairs, maintenance, and landscaping tasks.
• Hands-on management: By providing hands-on management, Lessen worked closely with stores to facilitate communication between stores and vendors, ensuring seamless collaboration.
• Asset data centralization: Implementing a data-driven approach by collecting and centralizing information about the retailer’s assets, including HVAC units, allowed for better decision-making regarding repairs, replacements, and preventive maintenance.
• Extended service hours: Lessen extended service hours to provide 24/7 support, reducing reactive time and ensuring immediate response to facility requests.
• Floor damage survey: Lessen conducted a survey to identify damaged floors, determine causes, and develop preventive measures to mitigate future damage.

Results

By leveraging Lessen's expertise and comprehensive facilities management solutions, the retailer successfully improved its operations, reduced reactive time, and enhanced overall service delivery. The partnership brought significant improvements to its business by centralizing facility maintenance operations, which helped:

• Reduce reactive time: A notable reduction in reactive time enabled prompt resolutions to facility issues. Lessen cut response times for normal maintenance requests in half to 24 hours from 48, and emergency requests to 4 fours from 8.
• Improve response time: With extended service hours and a streamlined process, Lessen ensured timely responses to facility requests.
• Create data-backed decision-making: Centralizing asset data empowered the retailer to make informed decisions regarding equipment repair, replacement, and preventive maintenance, enhancing the lifespan and performance of its HVAC units.
• Improve doctor satisfaction: By centralizing facility maintenance, the environment improved, giving doctors more time to focus on delivering exceptional patient care.

A well-functioning maintenance strategy is essential to the success of any modern-day facilities portfolio. To make sure your facilities maintenance strategy is meeting your needs, request a demo to learn more about how our programs can help you.