Arcus Locks-Down Customer Support With Growing Proposition
‘Technology-led, people-driven’, Facilities Management company Arcus FM has grown over the years by listening to the needs of its customers and finding ways to self-deliver services that ensure their success. Their ever-growing Shutters, Gates, and Doors service is no exception and is now deployed across its’ expanding portfolio of customers.
Security and safe access is a top priority for all commercial estates and the first line of defence is ensuring your shutters, gates, and doors are performing efficiently, are presentable, and are maintained to the same standard as your wider asset base.
Traditionally, customers in this space would have a range of sub-contractors working across their estates – some with specialist skills, others offering handymen services with many being regional/local providers.
As a national provider, and operating as a Managing Agent for our customers, we saw a wide range of inconsistencies in service, safety, and compliance across the contracts we operated. Our first foray into the sector was to answer the needs of a specific part of a customer’s estate that was underserved by local skills available – installing our first engineer in Scotland to offer commercial shutters, gates, and door maintenance.
Since that time, and seeing the value that our customers placed on a high-quality service in this area, the team has continued to grow. We have evolved to provide installation, maintenance, and reactive services for shutters and gates across our growing portfolio of customers. The service includes 24/7 Helpdesk support to capture all reactive works, CAFM system integrations, and wider technology to enhance the services offered.
The expansion of this division is thanks to our strong growth trajectory and proactive approach to meeting customer needs.
With the division now boasting a truly national footprint, we achieve 98% self-delivery of the service with highly trained specialists who not only maintain but install Shutters, Manual and Auto Gates, Sectional-doors and auto-doors. As part of any repairs, our technicians also self-deliver signage, lighting, and fabric to provide a ‘one-stop’ solution. This is an integral part of providing a fully-integrated and cost-efficient service to customers.
Our expansion of this service goes beyond simply access and security and helps to support our customers’ wider goals, whether that is providing branded and high-quality experience solutions for high-footfall areas, employee access, noise pollution solutions or even becoming energy efficient with shutters acting as thermal insulators to reduce heat loss.
More than that, with our focus on upskilling and cross-skilling our colleagues, we, on average, see a 76% first‑time fix rate. This level of service sees our customers enjoy improved uptime and reliability whilst reducing costs (particularly when combined by a complementary Planned Preventative Maintenance offering).
This cross and upskilling is all made possible through the significant investment in our National Training Centre, located in Stevenage, in May 2023, where we provide specialist Shutters, Gates & Doors training to our engineers.
At 17,000 sqft, the complex is unique in the industry, three times the combined square footage of our previous practical training academies in Hartlebury and Dagenham. To date, the development at the site represents a £500,000 capital investment by the business – with more to come as training environments and curriculums are being developed to cater for emerging renewable energy technologies.
The building is set up in stations to offer a variety of training modules such as carpentry, plumbing, and masonry as part of our building fabric services. FGAS, C02, HVAC and BMS diagnostics and repairs, and more are also on offer and sit within the mechanical, electrical, and refrigeration disciplines.
Pete Nash, Head of Specialist Services at Arcus FM said, “As a people-led company, we always put our customers first and we introduced our shutters and gates team as our customers were requesting a more secure and reliable partner. Developing our own dedicated team has provided this and the feedback and further demand have been fantastic.
“Safety is a top priority at Arcus, and I’m pleased to be able to offer a service to our customers that helps keep their estates safe and secure.
“We are always looking to enhance our services and provide our customers with what they need to keep their estates running. With the opening of our National Training Centre, we’re able to provide our colleagues with the training and expertise to continue to provide an industry-leading service.”
To learn more about the Arcus service, and to speak to a member of their team, head to their website.
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