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Contractors play a key role in servicing, maintaining, and repairing the critical infrastructure, services, and technologies that keep forecourts running safely and smoothly.
But for some forecourt maintenance teams, measuring third-party contractor performance often extends no further than checking that contractors meet their agreed service levels. Of course, making sure contractors achieve those service levels is important to the operation of a fuel forecourt, but contractor performance goes far beyond this basic operational metric.
Safety and compliance first
Fuel forecourts are high-risk environments, with flammable liquids and vapours being the most obvious risks, while moving vehicles, heavy equipment and members of the public all add to the hazardous nature of the environment.
With third-party contractors having responsibility to repair and maintain critical assets, it is essential to ensure that they adhere to both regulatory compliance and company health and safety policies and procedures. It is also important to ensure that the agreed service levels allow contractors to complete their work without rushing or cutting corners. Failing to do so can result in accidents, potentially causing injury to staff or customers, equipment malfunctions, as well as environmental damage and financial penalties.
Regular audits, training, and clear guidelines for contractors will help ensure regulatory compliance and reduce risk, helping to keep everyone on a forecourt safe.
However, even the best managed and maintained forecourts can have an environmental impact. Contractors play a role in controlling the risk of incidents, such as leaks and spills, which can not only harm the environment but also lead to sizeable fines and negative publicity. By managing contractors effectively, forecourt operators can ensure that environmental risks are minimised and that contractors follow proper environment practices, such as proper waste disposal and spill prevention measures.
Operational excellence boosts revenue
So much of a forecourt’s ability to deliver fuel relies on interconnected systems, from the tanks, piping, and gauges, through the pumps & dispensers, to the POS system. Disruption to any of these systems can have a significant impact and affect the operational excellence that operators strive for.
Fuel retailers strive to minimise asset or forecourt equipment downtime, but when maintenance contractors take longer than anticipated, or budgeted for, to bring an asset back online then this will have a direct impact on sales, customer experience and brand reputation.
Putting in place, and crucially, tracking key performance indicators, such as response times, first time fix obligations, completion of planned preventative maintenance, and holding contractors to these KPIs, can reduce asset downtime, increase revenue, and improve the customer experience.
Focusing on comprehensive contractor management can also result in cost savings and benefit a fuel retailer’s P&L. Overbilling, unexpected or unexplained delays in the completion of work, and a poor first-time-fix metric are all symptoms of poor contractor management. By establishing and monitoring proper agreements with contractors, everyone involved in the work understands the pricing, expected performance and consequences for non-compliance and can work together with a goal of delivering high quality services to customers.
Fuel retailers can really improve revenue by paying close attention to contractor performance. For example, an Urgent customer focused on monitoring contractor SLA performance for pumps and dispensers, coffee machines, and car washes that were completely out of action and unable to make sales. By helping their contractors improve SLA performance for this small proportion of breakdowns by just 5%, the customer boosted their bottom line by over £285,000 per year.
Delivering exceptional customer experience
Good customer experience at fuel stations is not limited to reliably dispensing fuel and coffee. Forecourt and retail store appearance and cleanliness are also essential for delivering exceptional customer experience.
The PwC report “The Future of Customer Experience” says that 32% of your customers will abandon a brand they love after just one negative experience.
A fuel forecourt with a reputation for malfunctioning pumps, poor lighting, and dirty wash facilities is likely to drive customers away. As contractors are often responsible for deep cleaning, landscaping, and maintaining branding and signage, a lack of attention in these softer areas of facilities maintenance can negatively impact your customer’s experience at your forecourts, in the same way as a malfunctioning pay at pump payment terminal or finding the coffee machine broken when they stop for a morning caffeine fix.
Managing contractor performance is not just a matter of meeting service levels, it’s a business imperative. By ensuring that contractors meet their obligations, fuel retailers can be sure that they have a safe and welcoming environment that delivers exceptional customer experience.
Drive continual improvement
Urgent gives fuel retailers a single point-of-reference data source for contractor management. It enables retailers to plan and view which contractors are doing what, where, and to what level of service. Using performance data captured in Urgent, fuel retailers can drive continual improvement across the contractor workforce.
