Are you providing your visitors with an inviting climate that will entice them to stay and shop and return to your store often? A hot or stuffy store can chase your customers from your shop even before they make it to the register.
Proper store maintenance in retail is essential for success. Let’s take a look at why your business would benefit from commercial HVAC preventive maintenance.
Poor comfort conditions are the last thing you want when you’re trying to make customers feel comfortable with in-store shopping again. Lack of attention to temperature and humidity may make customers wonder if you’re addressing air quality and safety in your store.
Besides losing revenues from sales, a poorly functioning HVAC system will put a cinch on your income potential in a number of other ways, too.
What happens when you neglect commercial HVAC preventive maintenance
Here are just a few of the consequences that happen from lack of attention to commercial HVAC preventive maintenance. Ultimately, all of these things drive customers away and reduce revenue and profits.
Poor temperature control
Did you ever eat at a restaurant during the dog days of summer and wonder what’s the matter with the air conditioning system? If you’re like most people, you probably crossed that eatery off your dining rotation list.
Cold temperatures can also be behind an unpleasant shopping experience and make you want to dart out of the store rather than taking your time and making some purchases that weren’t on your short list.
The customer is the lifeblood of any business, so why would you do anything that might discourage their return? A commercial HVAC preventive maintenance agreement with a professional HVAC company will help maintain consistent comfort.
Besides keeping the customer happy, consistent comfortable temperatures will keep another group of people happy, who are also vital to your business’ success: your employees. A comfortable climate will promote happy employees who will better serve your customers and be more productive.
Breakdowns
A commercial HVAC preventive maintenance contract will help prevent HVAC system breakdowns that interrupt your business. Don’t they always seem to happen on blistering hot and humid days of summer when people seek refuge in air conditioned environments?
By having a commercial HVAC preventive maintenance plan that provides for regular visits from a service technician, you will help prevent AC outages that cost you customers not only for the time the system is down, but possibly permanently.
Foul odors
Probably nothing will prompt a customer’s premature exit quicker than unpleasant odors.
When considering the necessity of commercial HVAC preventive maintenance, remember fresh air walks hand in hand with comfortable temperatures when it comes to customer contentment. Did you ever enter a home and wonder what the offensive smell was? Sometimes homeowners don’t recognize that their home doesn’t exactly smell like as fresh as daisies. The same can hold true for those in shops and restaurants.
Often when we can’t find the source of an odor, we try to remove the offensive smell with a disinfectant or mask it with air fresheners. The unpleasant scent might be something beyond our control when it’s coming from an HVAC system. A poorly maintained HVAC system could be spreading foul air throughout your space and could be hurting your business.
HVAC systems are responsible for air movement. Heating and air conditioning systems push air in, while ventilation and exhaust systems remove air from your space. Without properly balanced air flow, foul air can invade your space.
Good ventilation is key to indoor air quality, preventing allergy symptoms, and also helping to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and other illnesses in your space. Inspecting your ventilation is an essential part of commercial HVAC preventive maintenance.
Related article: What Is Ventilation & How Does It Impact Your HVAC Comfort
Excess moisture
A crucial ingredient in store maintenance in retail is maintaining an atmosphere where the air is not too moist. Besides the discomfort for customers and employees caused by humid air, it can also also have a negative financial impact on your business because of damaged goods.
Also, ceiling stains caused by water leaks from an HVAC system won’t give customers an air of confidence about the cleanliness of a dining or shopping establishment.
Too much humidity can be caused by an inefficient air conditioning system. Over time, humidity can lead to the growth of mold and mildew and be the culprit behind musty-smelling air.
Regular commercial HVAC preventive maintenance an help ensure humidity levels are properly regulated and stop mold and mildew before they can invade your system and your space.
Related article: HVAC Humidity Control: 5 Reasons Your AC Is Ineffective
Food safety issues
If you are the owner of a restaurant or food market, the last thing you want to do is serve food to a patron that will get them sick. Your perishable items such as fruits, vegetables and bread will have a shorter shelf life if your space is plagued with humidity problems.
According to foodsafety.com, food spoilage can occur when there’s even slight changes in humidity. Bread and cereal molds can result from excessive moisture. Moisture condensing on the surface of food can also provide an environment for bacteria and molds to grow and multiply.
As you can see, a commercial HVAC preventive maintenance contract is especially important when running a food service business where spoiled food can close your doors.
A properly maintained HVAC system is good for business
The food service industry is not the only type of business that relies on customer satisfaction and needs to be concerned if an HVAC system isn’t functioning at its best. Here’s just a few of the many types of businesses that would benefit by a commercial HVAC preventive maintenance agreement.
- Apparel shops. If your inventory is tightly packed in a damp area, your clothing could be damaged by mildew or develop a musty smell over time. A leaky air conditioning system could cause extensive inventory damage.
- Furniture boutiques. Mold can form on upholstered furniture exposed to humidity. Wooden furniture sitting in moist air for an extended period, can crack or warp. No one wants to buy a smelly sofa and no one wants purchase furniture that could fall apart.
- Technology retailer. Moisture is harsh on electronic devices such as stereos, TVs and monitors. Internal condensation can damage these items.
How a commercial HVAC preventive maintenance contract can benefit you
Securing a commercial HVAC preventive maintenance contract will save you headaches and money. Let’s review some of the benefits:
- Regular commercial HVAC preventive maintenance ensures customer comfort, which will promote business growth and retention
- Keeping to a preventative maintenance schedule results in a consistently comfortable climate for your employees, which will bolster productivity
- Routine maintenance is likely to save you money on repair costs
- Steady preventative maintenance helps prevent untimely and costly breakdowns, which could even close your shop
- Regular commercial HVAC preventive maintenance reduces system wear and tear and extend the life of your system
- Routine preventative maintenance fosters efficiency, which will decrease your energy costs
- A properly running system safeguards your inventory and prevents property damage
At first glance, you may have thought that you couldn’t afford a commercial HVAC preventive maintenance contract. Now that you’ve seen the benefits of having routine maintenance and the costly pitfalls that could result from not having one, doesn’t it make sense to hire professionals to regularly service your system? When your success depends on your reputation and customer satisfaction, can you really afford to go without a commercial HVAC preventive maintenance contract?
