Making sure your lifts are in good working order is important; not only for safety reasons, but for smoother day to day. The last thing you want is lifts constantly breaking down or being out of service for extended periods of time, so making sure you use lift consultants to inspect and restore your lifts is important. But how do you choose a lift consultant? This article will provide you with 7 top tips of what to look for when choosing a lift consultancy provider.
Lift Consultancy Providers
Because building owners have a duty of care to lift users, it is important to make sure that you keep your lifts in good working order. That is why you should use professional lift consultancy providers to inspect and service your lifts. Using a lift consultant to advise as to whether your lifts are safe, well maintained and meet the latest regulations means that you can be sure of having full information on the state of your lifts, as well as any work that may be required.
How to Choose A Lift Consultant
Generally, before you choose a lift consultancy provider, you should know what you want from your provider, so doing some initial research is important. Determining how long you want the partnership to last, how frequently you would like their service visits (not including emergency ones) to be, and how many lifts you want them to service per visit is important information you need to know before you undertake any sort of contact with any companies. There are many lift consultancy providers in the UK, so choosing the one that best fits what you need will be far more of a benefit to you than choosing a one-time service.
Choosing the Right Lift Consultants: Our Top Tips
We know that choosing the right lift consultants can be an overwhelming task, especially if this is the first time you have had to deal with the service, or your first building with lifts, so we have compiled a list of our top 7 tips on how to successfully choose the right lift consultant for your needs.
Research Different Providers
As well as compiling your research to determine what services you need, you will also need to research different providers. This is especially important when you are starting to narrow down your choices to your top 2 or 3, because there are things in there that can make all the difference.
Make sure to check their testimonials, case studies and references, as well as looking at their website to see how long the company has been established and whether they are a reputable company. Performing this due diligence can help you to make the right decision, and ultimately choose the best lift consultants.
Check What Type of Maintenance the Company Provides
When you have narrowed down your choices of providers, the next thing we would recommend is that you check what type of maintenance they provide. Traditional maintenance increases the lifespan of units, reduces the frequency of call outs needed, and ultimately reduces the downtime of your lifts. Modern maintenance covers visual checks of the lift’s operation and relies on the owner to spot problems.
We would recommend a provider that covers traditional maintenance, as this will be a more thorough inspection of your lifts. However, modern maintenance can also be useful for lifts that don’t need thorough inspection.
Ask If They Have Experience of Working Across A Range of Lift Products
You will need to find out whether the lift consultancy provider has experience with a variety of lift products to figure out if they are experts. A competent lift provider will have experience and expertise on working with a range of lift products. This includes inspection and maintenance.
It’s also beneficial if the company hasd experience using a range of different systems. From servicing a single lift or a mix of passenger and platform lifts, dumbwaiters and goods lifts, to escalators and moving walkways; an experienced lift provider is able to manage your portfolio, regardless of its size, the make or model of your lifting equipment.
If the company has experience working with various types of lifts and systems, they will be able to quickly diagnose problems and maintenance, making their visits shorter, more efficient, and hopefully less frequent.
Determine Whether The Company Offers True Value For Money
As well as knowing what type of services a company provides, you can also look a bit deeper to establish whether the company offers true value for money. You can look at a company’s accreditations to do this, but you should also look for companies that are 3rd party capable, quality assured, safety accredited, and proficient in the environment systems they have in place. This can help you see the added extras that can push a company over the line.
Another good thing to determine is whether the company has easy access to spare parts. This will be helpful in showing you how quickly they will be able to undertake any emergency repairs. If a company has easy access to stock via a local warehouse, or a quick supply chain, they will ultimately be able to repair lifts quicker than a company that has to go through a long process to order any parts.
Find out Information About Their Engineers
The next thing you need to ask questions about are the engineers that actually undertake the consultancy work. It is best to find out whether the engineers are directly employed by the company or whether they use contractors. This can help you determine their expertise and quality of work.
You should also determine how much experience their engineers have, if they have any personal accreditations or extra qualifications, and whether the engineers specialise in working with lifts.
Compare the Terms & Conditions
When you have narrowed down your service providers, our next tip would be to compare their terms and conditions. When doing this, you can look for their terms around frequency and depth of service visits, whether they include replacement parts in their price or charge extra for them, exclusion clauses, after-hours calls, and more.
Finding out in detail what’s included in the lift maintenance contract cost can save you awkward or uncomfortable conversations down the line, so you should ensure you know your chosen provider’s policy inside out to get the best choice for you and your needs.
Establish What Their Customer Care is Like
Our final tip is to find out what the lift company’s customer support is like. Do they have 24-hour contact access? What is their response time like? Do they offer different levels of aftercare based on the price you pay? Do they offer bespoke customer care? These questions are all important as you will likely need lift maintenance in the future, so using a provider that you can trust and reuse is important.
For example, RJ Lifts offers our customers an emergency call-out service that is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, so you can be sure that you are able to contact us, and our nationwide network of engineers will be able to assist no matter where you are based.
Lift Consultancy Services from RJ Lifts
The experienced Lift Consultants at R J Lift Services provide impartial advice on all types of lifts and escalators throughout the UK. Whether you’re starting a new construction project or looking to re-develop an existing site, we can provide an expert lift consultant to give you transparent, accurate and reliable advice. Working with a qualified lift consultant in the early stages of development can save you a lot of effort, money and time in the future, ensuring that everything is up to top regulatory standards.
Contact us today to start a conversation about your lift consultancy needs!
