There’s a lot to be said for specialized vendors capable of getting your most specialized, niche equipment back up and running in no time flat – but there are also repairs and maintenance challenges facilities managers face that are much more straightforward.

For these tasks, it can pay to find a valuable, professional and capable handyman. They can solve straightforward challenges and likely save facilities managers money. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t best practices for fitting them into a facilities management budget and navigate this unique “vendor” relationship.

To provide more insight, host Daniel Litwin welcomed Vixxo Director of Operations Ryan Reese to Get Your Fix.

The duo explored fitting handyman services into the larger facilities management ecosystem, the understood definition of handyman work in today’s landscape, a need for clearly defined expectations in a realm that can lack standardization, and measuring success in these relationships.

“Handyman is one of those terms that is very general. You tend to think of just a guy with a hammer kind of wandering around and doing very general things,” Reese said. “The truth is ‘handyman’ can encompass a wide variety of fixes in retail, grocery and convenience environments.”

There are also several key questions the facilities managers can ask about any potential vendor relationship, including with a handyman. They include:
-       "What business critical repairs have to happen to continue business?"
-       "Do we have an existing program in place?"
-       "What is our budget? Where are we currently overspending?"
-       "What can we handle internally?"
-       "What items can we address over time or bundle with others to cut down costs?
-       “What items can we schedule in advance?"