Meet the team: Going beyond simply ‘fixing things’

Louise Wells, Operations Manager at Precision FM, talks about her role and what drives her in the first in our ‘Meet the Team’ series.

In the first of our new Meet the Team blog series, introducing you to members of the Precision FM team, here we speak to Louise, our amazing Ops Manager.

Read on to find out more about her role within the company.

How long have you worked for Precision FM?

I joined Precision FM in 2016 having previously worked for another facilities management company for over 15 years. At Precision, I am the Operations Manager, where I am primarily responsible for looking after our busy helpdesk team.

As Operations Manager, what does your role entail on a day-to-day basis?

My role is very broad. I deal with a wide variety of tasks from company HR, back and front office management, to ensuring the clients are supported in their day-to-day needs via our helpdesk.

We pride ourselves at Precision FM on our customer focussed approach and, for most of our clients, contact through the helpdesk is the most common way for them to liaise with us on the issues such as planned maintenance, quotes for new jobs, and general account management.

I oversee a team of 7 who work on the helpdesk and on an average day, we would deal with approx. 200 emails and 100 calls.  We have set our KPIs to ensure that all calls are answered within five rings and have set response times in all our client SLAs.

It’s part of our company ethos to go beyond simply ‘fixing things’ for our clients, we want to be part of their operations and growth plans and, to do this, we know that providing exceptional customer service delivered by committed staff is the roadmap to this approach.

What’s the most common request you get from clients?

Aside from job/quote requests, it usually starts with “we have a challenge, can you help us!”

I am responsible for making sure that our client requirements are met and where issues are highlighted, ensuring we put solutions in place to resolve or manage these situations to our clients’ satisfaction.

As Operations Manager how do you measure success?

We monitor our client relationships with a series of KPIs as we are passionate about delivering first-class FM services.

Our KPIs include 98% client retention rate, 99% response time as per our service level agreements, and at least achieving 4.7 out of 5 on our customer satisfaction rates – but we are always aiming to get 5 out of 5!

As is often true with most things in life, we tend not to hear from our clients when things are going right, so maintaining a low level of customer complaints is a key objective for the helpdesk team.

How has the pandemic changed the ways in which you work with clients?

From a practical perspective, we put extra measures in place for our on-site operatives, for example, extra PPE, this provided reassurance for them, and also for our clients, that we took safety at work seriously.

From a client perspective, the pandemic has seen an increase in them requesting increased H&S measures, and for some, we have worked to ensure our solutions meet their needs. For example, this included meeting COVID protocols by installing thermal imaging cameras for a client that needed to perform temperature checks at their reception.

What do you enjoy most about your role and the company?

Precision is a great company to work for. It’s a small company but with a big heart!

The management team encourage personal growth and all staff members are given the opportunity to thrive in their role. There’s lots of scope to progress within the company too.

I personally love meeting the challenges my role sometimes presents and enjoy the chance to learn new things.

I think one of the things I love about Precision is how, even though working through a pandemic has been hard, Brij and our senior management team have been so supportive of the whole workforce, and have always put staff wellbeing first.  This was evidenced last September when the company permanently increased all employees’ holiday allowance by seven days in recognition of our hard work.

How would you describe the ethos of Precision FM?

I believe that positivity is definitely part of the company ethos plus getting things right first time and not letting down our customers is something I know we all strive for.

I think this is why we have so many happy clients as our positive company culture ensures that if we succeed, so will our clients!

Our success can be attributed to a simple ethos of total focus on our customers. We are always adapting to meet the changing needs of our building users and their environments.

If you are keen to learn more about how we can help to improve the functionality of your property, contact one of our team today on 0116 366 6508 or email info@precisionfm.co.uk

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