August 30, 2023
As a property manager, choosing the right suppliers for your business is essential, especially in terms of improving supplier relationship management.
In a recent poll that we conducted, we found that 78% of respondents rely on third party suppliers for their business; but finding ones that are reliable and certified can be tricky.
Property managers have many conflicting priorities and responsibilities to contend with on a day-to-day basis.
There are so many daily tasks to undertake, including: maintaining your properties, dealing with tenants, managing finances, and communicating with stakeholders and investors.
So, finding time to select the right suppliers can be challenging…
However, it’s of the utmost importance if you want to maintain the integrity and reputation of your business.
Choosing the right suppliers ensures that you save time, maximise efficiency, and reduce risk to your business.
But how do you choose?
In this article, we’ll explore why it’s important to choose the right suppliers, what you should consider when selecting suppliers and how bespoke questions in Prosure360 can make this process easier.
- Why is choosing the right suppliers important?
- What should you consider when selecting suppliers?
- What are bespoke questions in Prosure360?
- What are the benefits of bespoke questions?
- What are some key examples of bespoke questions?
Why is choosing the right suppliers important?
Ultimately, having the right suppliers in place sets the tone for your entire business.
If you don’t take this task seriously, it could ruin your business’ reputation and cost you more time and money in the long run.
In a recent poll we carried out on LinkedIn, 90% of respondents claimed to have felt a negative impact on their business because of a supplier or contractor’s actions.
By rushing the selection process, you could end up with unreliable suppliers who don’t complete jobs to a high standard and don’t align to your business values and goals.
Maintaining strong relationships with your tenants, stakeholders and investors is half the battle when it comes to running a property management business.
So, if you have a bad supplier, you put these relationships at risk meaning you’ll lose money and reduce the quality of your services.
Not to mention, after having a bad experience with a supplier, you may have to pay out on getting maintenance jobs redone.
To run an effective and respected business and streamline supplier relationship management, you need to choose suppliers who are well qualified, work to a high standard, turn up on time and meet your specific needs.
What should you consider when selecting suppliers?
There are many different things you should consider when going through the supplier selection process; this will vary from business to business as it will depend on your precise goals and priorities.
In our experience, some of the most important considerations when choosing suppliers include:
Reliability
Businesses are all about relationships.
Whoever you choose to work with becomes an extension of your team, meaning their behaviour reflects on your business. Reliability an important trait for anyone working within your team, but it’s essential for your suppliers.
You need suppliers who are punctual, efficient, and complete jobs on time. Property managers generally have tight schedules to keep to, and if your suppliers aren’t turning up or completing tasks on time, it can set you back and damage relationships with tenants and other stakeholders.
The best way to find out whether a supplier is reliable is to use Prosure360 which allows you to define the criteria for your suppliers and contractors through the onboarding process. Prosure360 can provide a pre-qualified assessment giving you the knowledge needed to find the right suppliers for your business.
This gives you invaluable insight into whether a supplier is going to be the right fit for your business.
Communication
Communication with your employees, investors and stakeholders ensures that everyone is kept in the loop and business actions and goals are aligned across the board.
All the suppliers that you work with should be able to communicate clearly about their capabilities, their availability, and their challenges.
If anything out of the ordinary occurs whilst suppliers are on a job, it’s important that they inform you and ensure you are up to date with all the goings on of that property.
Being open and honest are qualities that you should look for in a supplier; this is because these traits help to build professional relationships where everyone is on the same page, ensuring that your business can run smoothly and effectively.
ESG Requirements
ESG is becoming more and more important in the property management industry.
This means that property managers need to be mindful of choosing suppliers who align with their ESG goals.
It’s crucial that you check whether your suppliers and contractors are certified and committed to sustainability; this means you may need conduct due diligence to evaluate potential partners’ ESG practices.
However, this can be a tedious and time-consuming task which makes it difficult keep on top of your other priorities.
That’s why Prosure360 allows you to define the criteria for your suppliers and contractors through the onboarding process, meaning you can set your exact requirements regarding to ESG and net zero.
Having these processes in place means that you can work with suppliers who will support you in meeting your ESG requirements.
Quality
Quality should always be a top priority when it comes to managing your properties, and suppliers play a huge role in this.
Finding suppliers who deliver quality service on every job means that your buildings will be well maintained, and you won’t have to constantly spend money on replacements.
Consistency is also a must; you need to ensure your suppliers can do a good job every time, keeping your tenants and stakeholders satisfied.
Quality doesn’t just refer to the service your supplier provides, but also the materials they use and the way they work.
Although every business works to a different budget, quality should always be prioritised despite the cost. Investing in quality suppliers at the start will save you time and money further down the line.
That’s why Prosure360 provide pre-qualified assessments; these are a set of questions that have been developed, representing a common minimum standard that is recommended by the British Standards Institute.
This makes sure that all your suppliers and contractors are qualified, trustworthy, and of course, deliver high quality work.
Flexibility
In the world of property management, you come to expect the unexpected.
With so many properties to manage and maintain, there are always urgent issues that arise and crises to address.
As a responsible property manager, it’s your job to make sure that tenants’ problems are dealt with efficiently and effectively.
One of the key components of this is having flexible suppliers that can quickly adapt to changing circumstances.
If one of your properties is subject to an emergency like a gas or water leak, you need your suppliers to fix the problem as soon as possible.
Specific Requirements
Every business is unique, meaning they all have different needs and priorities.
Whichever suppliers you choose need to be able to meet your specific business requirements, otherwise they won’t be able to deliver what you need.
With Prosure360, you can set your business’ standards and requirements and then, you can actively choose suppliers and contractors based on these criteria.
What are Bespoke Questions in Prosure360?
Now that you understand what to consider when selecting suppliers, it’s time to find a method that simplifies this process, making it easy for you to manage your supply chain.
With Prosure360, you can set bespoke questions with our pre-qualified assessment, set with SSIP, giving you the background knowledge needed to make an informed choice about who you work with.
By understanding what’s important to your business, we build these bespoke questions into Prosure360 platform; we set this as a requirement that all associated contractors and suppliers must complete, giving you peace of mind that all your suppliers meet your standards.
What are the Benefits of Bespoke questions?
Our bespoke questions offer a level of flexibility which allows you to take full control of your supply chain.
Given that these questions can be tailored to your exact requirements, you can find suppliers and contractors who are perfectly aligned with your business goals.
Using this tool to ensure you’re choosing the right suppliers shows investors and stakeholders that you’re managing your business responsibly.
Instead of spending hours trawling through paperwork and trying to find out whether a supplier has the right qualifications, our bespoke questions do all the heavy lifting for you.
This feature will save you time and money by streamlining the supplier selection process and ensuring quality and compliance.
We also integrated Prosure360 with Elogs CAFM System, so you can share key supply chain data. This integration reduces the risk when assigning a service provider to a specific job or site, and simplifies the process for our clients.
What are some Key Examples of Bespoke Questions?
The whole point of our bespoke questions is that you can customise them to suit your business, so they can be whatever you need them to be.
But here’s a few examples of the types of bespoke questions that our clients set:
- Do you have or are you working towards a net zero plan?
- Is your business carbon neutral?
- What is the completed or target date to achieve a net zero plan?
- If based outside the UK, are you working to the appropriate health & safety standards within your area?
Remember, these are just a few examples of what you could ask your suppliers; of course, you can ask them whatever you want to ensure you find the right contractors for the job.
Having full control and visibility of your supply chain can be challenging, but it’s vital if you want to run a successful property management business.
The aim of Prosure360 is to make your life easier and to check that you’ve got the right suppliers and contractors in place.
Choosing the right suppliers for your business is essential for effective facilities management. Prosure360 makes supplier relationship management easy, so what are you waiting for?
Get in touch with us today to transform your business and find suppliers that align with your goals.
