Facilities management is often seen as a back-office function, focused on keeping assets running and controlling costs. The reality is that leading facilities programs do far more. They protect margins, enable consistent customer experiences, and create resilience in an environment where costs are rising faster than revenues. The difference between average and leading programs is not a matter of size. It is a matter of strategy, data, and accountability.
The Pain Points Facilities Leaders Face
Across industries, costs are climbing. Direct store operating expenses rose 12.7 percent from 2022 to 2024, while repairs and maintenance costs increased 17.3 percent over the same period. Utility costs are also surging. In the convenience channel, utilities rose 16 percent in 2022 and another 6.4 percent in 2023.
Facilities leaders are also battling inefficiency. Nearly 19 percent of work orders recur within 30 days of the initial repair. These callbacks signal workmanship issues or poor oversight and force directors to pay multiple times for the same problem. One grocery site incurred $22,687 in repeat repairs across trades in a single year, a figure that illustrates how quickly waste compounds.
Invoices add another layer of pain. Industry studies show that 10 to 15 percent of invoice value is often inflated through hidden surcharges, duplicate charges, or inflated parts pricing. Without systematic validation, directors are left absorbing costs they should not be paying.
Against this backdrop, what separates leading facilities programs from reactive ones is their ability to reduce these pain points systematically.
- They Prioritize Preventive Maintenance
Average programs continue to operate in break-fix mode. The problem is that unplanned maintenance costs three to nine times more than preventive maintenance. It also inflates utility costs and accelerates asset failure.
Leading programs implement consistent preventive maintenance cycles. The results are measurable:
- Repair volumes decline by 35 to 40 percent within three years of consistent PM.
- Sites with HVAC preventive maintenance programs see 12 to 18 percent annual energy savings.
- Energy spend at PM locations fell 16.7 percent in the first year compared to sites without preventive programs.
Facilities directors who cut PM to save in the short term often face ballooning costs within months. Leaders who protect PM budgets stabilize spend, reduce volatility, and avoid costly emergencies.
- They Use Technology to Audit and Validate
Invoices remain one of the most significant sources of budget leakage. Relying on manual review is nearly impossible at scale, especially for portfolios with thousands of work orders each year.
Leading programs use automated auditing tools like Vixxo Verify. This technology benchmarks labor hours, parts costs, and travel charges against decades of historical data. It also validates technician check-in and check-out times through geo-fencing. The impact is substantial. One portfolio using this approach uncovered $2.6 million in savings in 12 months by rejecting inflated invoices before approval.
For facilities leaders, this is not just about reducing waste. It is about building credibility with finance by demonstrating rigorous cost control.
- They Hold Vendors Accountable with Data
Vendor sprawl is a common pain point. Many portfolios rely on dozens of local providers, each with different pricing, SLAs, and performance standards. Without oversight, costs rise and accountability disappears.
Leading programs consolidate providers where possible and measure them with performance dashboards. Metrics such as time-to-site, first-time fix rates, average days to complete, and IVR compliance are tracked consistently. Vendors that underperform see their workload reduced, while high performers earn more business.
This creates a cycle of improvement and accountability. Instead of hoping for consistency, directors enforce it with data.
- They Leverage AI to Reduce Downtime
Downtime is one of the most visible pain points for customers. A coffee machine outage during the morning rush, a fryer failure during dinner, or a refrigeration breakdown before a holiday directly erodes revenue.
Leading programs are beginning to use artificial intelligence to reduce these failures. Vixxo’s VITA (Vixxo Intelligent Tech Assistant) provides technicians with instant access to thousands of manuals, error codes, and schematics. This eliminates “lookup labor,” the wasted time spent searching for documentation instead of fixing the issue.
Early results show job completion times improved by 1.4 percent, technician confidence increased, and callback rates declined. For directors managing portfolios where every hour of uptime matters, these improvements directly protect both revenue and customer experience.
- They Align Facilities with Brand Experience
Facilities programs that focus only on cost miss the bigger picture. Customers notice the physical environment long before they notice marketing promotions.
- 82 percent of customers say store design and upkeep influence their decision to enter a c-store.
- Businesses report a 10 percent sales increase after updating signage.
- Poor lighting reduces evening traffic, while upgraded lighting programs have driven 6 to 12 percent sales lifts in retail environments.
Leading facilities programs connect their initiatives directly to customer perception. They recognize that every dark aisle, malfunctioning cooler, or broken sign is not just a maintenance issue. It is a brand issue.
The Strategic Payoff
What leading facilities programs do differently is not magic. They prioritize preventive maintenance, validate invoices with technology, hold vendors accountable with data, leverage AI to reduce downtime, and align facilities with brand experience.
The payoff is clear:
- 5 to 10 percent invoice savings per work order through validation.
- 15 to 20 percent fewer callbacks within the first year of structured PM programs.
- Energy savings of 12 to 18 percent annually from HVAC optimization.
- Reduced repair volume by 35 to 40 percent within three years of consistent PM.
- Stronger brand consistency and measurable sales lifts from signage and lighting improvements.
For facilities directors, the lesson is that average programs keep firefighting while costs rise. Leading programs break the cycle. They treat facilities as a strategic lever for cost control, customer experience, and margin protection. In an environment where every dollar and every customer matters, that difference is what sets leaders apart.
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