It is essential for retail stores and outlets to provide their visitors with an inviting climate that will tempt them to stay and shop and return to your store often. A temperature controlled environment is equally important to maintain credibility, as is proper cleanliness and hygiene. A faulty air conditioning system will discourage them to stay and shop for a longer period of time. A sweating customer in a hot and stuffy retail store is a disaster for business. Retail store maintenance in all aspects is essential for success. Let’s have a detailed look on how your business would benefit from commercial HVAC preventive maintenance.
Air conditioning means cool environment meaning comfortable shopping conditions for your customers. Therefore, poor air conditioning is something that you don’t want when you’re trying to make customers feel comfortable in your store. A poorly performing HVAC system will cause you to loose revenues from sales. It also has other negative effects on your business and attracting customers.
Effects of negligence towards commercial HVAC preventive maintenance
Below are a few to name, the consequences of neglecting commercial HVAC preventive maintenance, causing to drive customers away and reduce revenues and profits.
Poor Temperature Control
Let’s look at things from the customer’s perspective. Imagine, that on a hot summer day, you visited a restaurant and wondered what’s wrong with the air conditioning? You probably would have crossed out that restaurant from your dine in spots. Not just a hot day in summer, but also extremely cold temperatures in winters will also cause the same effect. Customers are the lifeline of every business. No business owner wants to discourage a customer from visiting again. Providing a pleasing temperature to shop around is the foremost facility to provide to your customers. Not only your customers, but also your employees who are tasked to assist your customers and provide proper service to boost value. A comfortable environment will help your employees to better serve your customers and be more productive. Since maintaining a complex HVAC system is not a job to be handled by a rookie. So you need a commercial HVAC preventive maintenance agreement with a professional company to look after and maintain the environment in your store.Breakdowns
Poor temperatures are one side of a malfunctioning system. What if, due to lack of maintenance, the entire system breaks down? In hot summer days, breakdowns are common and they always seem to happen on the most scorching hot days. You can easily avoid such situation by having a commercial HVAC preventive maintenance contract in place. When going for a preventive maintenance agreement you can opt for regular visits all-round the year. In case of sudden breakdowns the experts will be just a call away.Foul Odors
What happens next, when HVAC systems are down or not functioning normally? In no time, in a crowded store, there will be unpleasant and foul odor everywhere. The reason is that when the HVAC system goes down, it takes away the fresh air ventilation as well. On the other hand a working and functional HVAC system can also start to blow out foul air. Ever notice that you enter your home with AC systems shut off, you sense an offensive smell, which you try to mask it with an air freshener. The same goes for stores, restaurants and retail outlets. Not realizing that the source of this bad smell is the HVAC system. HVAC systems are responsible for air circulation across the space. Heating and air conditioning systems push air in, while ventilation and exhaust systems suck the air out. When proper maintenance is not set in place, it not only makes your place smelly but also gives rise to allergens and other bacteria & viruses like Covid-19. Cleaning, maintaining & disinfecting your ventilation is an essential part of commercial HVAC preventive maintenance.Moisture Control
Moisture in the air is another serious concern. Moisture needs to be controlled moderately. If this goes beyond the recommended levels then it can cause discomfort for customers and employees and can cause damage to your stocked goods. Water seepage marks on roofs and walls caused by water leaks from an HVAC system gives a bad impression about the cleanliness and hygiene conditions. Too much humidity can lead to growth of mold and can also contribute to the nasty smells around your space.Food Safety Issues
When running a restaurant or a retail store where you have food items like vegetables, fruits, breads and cereals etc, you need to be very much careful about the effects of the HVAC system on your products. Vegetables, fruits etc are all perishable items and in a humid environment their shelf life is cut half. Moisture condensing on the surface of food can also provide an environment for bacterial growth. Therefore, when running such businesses, a commercial HVAC PPM contract becomes even more important. Other than food service industry, there are other types of businesses that can badly suffer if their HVAC system isn’t functioning at optimum levels. Here are just a few to name:- Garments & Apparel Shops
- Furniture Stores
- Technology Products Retailer
- Stationery and Book Sellers
- All in One Hypermarkets (like Carrefour, Lulu, Spinneys etc)
Benefits of a commercial HVAC preventive maintenance contract
Having a commercial HVAC preventive maintenance contract in place may seem expensive in the short term but it will save you from a lot of trouble, revenue losses and cost on the long term. In the hour of desperate need it will prove to be true value for money.- Most importantly it will save you a lot of cost in terms of repairs. The routine maintenance will prevent a major repair cost by timely addressing the small issues before they turn big.
- Regular HVAC preventive maintenance will ensure customer comfort, which will add towards business growth, profits and customer retention.
- It will boost productivity of your employees, thus better serving your customers.
- Timely addressing and repairing smaller issues will prevent heavy breakdowns which are highly damaging for your business.
- Regular maintenance shrinks system wear and tear and in turn extending the overall life span of your system.
- Preventive maintenance will ensure to keep the system running on optimum levels, which will improve system efficiency thus consuming less energy resources and minimizing your costs towards electricity bills.
