When you think of a commercial building, elevators and escalators are arguably amongst the most important systems for moving impenetrable objects, and or ensuring safe and secure access. It doesn’t matter the type of commercial property or commercial real estate you own, whether it’s an office that has people continually taking the stairs, an office that has people consistently using the elevators, a shopping mall that has thousands of customers walking through each day, or a hotel that is serving guests – the elevators and escalators factor into the daily business continuity when they are used consistently.
To help ensure the operational end user usages of the escalators and elevators for continual safety and business continuity, you can take elevated action to help promote, plan, ensure, and follow a maintenance schedule with competent safety and health. Failing to implement structured maintenance may put you in a situation of unexpected and unwanted emotional distress regarding your escalators, service elevators, or leased equipment. Here are some reasons why you should prioritize your elevator and escalator maintenance in your business.
1. Safety, to protect your people and business
Your customers, employees, or others in your facility utilize your elevators and escalators on a daily basis. To ensure safety, they must be kept in a condition to perform as intended. If an elevator does not function correctly, passengers may become trapped or the elevator may not adequately lift a load. Escalators may also create serious injury if they fail. It is important for your facility to implement elevator and escalator preventive maintenance, maintenance of testing in a manner as to have on a scheduled sort of thing, so that all safety features (emergency brakes, sensors, alarms, etc) are functioning and limiting the possibility of something unsafe happening, if not eliminating it. In fact, safety standards and regulations require that businesses maintain these systems and inspect them at established intervals. If an issue arises, and your systems are found to be non-compliant, your business could face fines or, worse, face legal action. Regular maintenance will help your business remain compliant with the required regulations and help your business avoid painful liability later.
2. Keep operations moving: avoid downtimes
What would happen if your escalator stopped working in a shopping mall or your elevator became inoperative in a busy office building? The answer is not good: angry customers, angry employees, and lost revenue. Regular maintenance and inspections will find small problems at the initial stage before they become major problems. If you can stay ahead of minor breakdowns, then you can control how people move around in your building. In addition, you would minimize the disruption to operations, keeping everything running smoothly and minimizing delays to a minimum.
3. Save money: Maintenance is cheaper than making repairs
You may think regular maintenance for your elevators and escalators is an unnecessary expense, but in actuality, it is an investment that will save you money in the future. By having regular scheduled inspections and maintenance performed, you keep repairs small. Consider this: replacing a small issue like a broken part is much cheaper than replacing an entire escalator or elevator system once it is broken. Preventative maintenance, as part of your more proactive process, means there is less chance of an emergency repair, and we all know, emergency repairs are seldom good, and always more expensive. In addition to people emergencies due to inadequate maintenance, if the equipment is maintained appropriately, it can perform more efficiently, which equates to energy savings and less utility bills over time. Cost-effective maintenance can help to plan a business’s annual maintenance scheduling and also budget for repairs, rather than finding unexpected funds
4. Prolong the Usefulness of your Equipment
Your elevators and escalators are a big investment, and like any other investment, they require care to last. By keeping up with maintenance, you can operate your systems in the best possible manner, for the longest period of time, and protect your investment as much as possible. When maintenance is bypassed, even the smallest issue can turn into a bigger, costlier problem. If maintenance is kept up with, repairs, replacements, and routine maintenance will help you keep your elevators and escalators for their full useful life and push out the replacement. In simple terms, you are getting more of what your money originally bought you.
5. Enhance Customer and Employee Experience
No one likes to be seen waiting for a functioning elevator, or worse, deal with the pain of trekking up and down stairs because the escalator isn’t functioning. Having an elevator or escalator working is a huge improvement for any of the customers you see when they walk into your entrance. For consumers, not having a working elevator or escalator is a terrible experience that can give them a negative impression of your operational efficiency. In many cases, if they have to wait, they won’t come back and shop at your store. For employees, waiting for an elevator or escalator is lost time, and time is inefficiently spent, which effectively stops their workday from proceeding further. In commercial lease agreements, this can even add up across multiple employees’ work schedules. Regular maintenance of elevators and escalators is key in helping give you the best chance at being operational at all times, which will only enhance the speed and experience for your staff or customers using the consumer side elevator or escalator operations. Providing a functional system benefits your business with happy people, as well as potential damages, customer satisfaction and loyalty.
6. Increase Energy Efficiency and Sustainability
Sustainability is an important concept in the world of business today. Scheduling a service and maintenance visit on your elevator and escalator system is a good way to enhance energy efficiency in your building and minimize your facility’s carbon footprint. An energy-efficient elevator and escalator system will use less energy, which not only pays off in terms of lower energy expenses but also benefits the environment. If your business is looking to be more energy-efficient, service and maintenance for your elevator and escalator system is a great first place to start. When your elevator and escalator equipment is running efficiently, you are saving energy while contributing to your business’s green credentials. Other stakeholders and customers are increasingly concerned about that.
7. Remain Regulatory Compliant
Finally, regular elevator and escalator maintenance is crucial to proving your business is compliant with local continued safety regulations. Depending on the region you live in different codes or legislation indicate elevators and escalators must be inspected by vendor certified by the municipality at certain time intervals. If you choose to ignore compliance or regulation, you are liable to considerable fines or even other legal claims.
By having maintenance regularly provided, you guarantee that the equipment is in compliance with performance safety levels for your employees and customers. You are also taking responsibility for the welfare of those people using your systems.
Conclusion: Maintenance is key!
Elevators and escalators enable daily operations in your organization, and staying on top of maintenance is essential to help ensure a safe, efficient, and optimal operation. Regular appliance servicing is not just about attending to issues when they happen; it means attending to issues before they happen.
Clearly, there are advantages to maintaining your systems.
From safety to savings to improved customer and employee engagement, there are many reasons to keep your elevators and escalators in a state of excellence. By maintaining your systems with regular maintenance services, you will enjoy having your systems operational, and so will your customers or employees.
Don’t wait to have the next breakdown. Engage a regular maintenance schedule today in order to adequately address your elevators and escalators, and give everyone who passes through your doors a safe, efficient, and pleasing environment.
