How A Proactive Approach Can Alleviate Common Commercial Lighting Maintenance Challenges

Simple as it may seem, maintaining lighting is not easy.

Every year around the holidays, millions of Americans experience the unpredictability of lighting maintenance when one of the bulbs on their Christmas string of lights burns out—often causing part of the string to go out. The timing of this is never convenient, and it usually takes more time to fix than you might think.

Unfortunately, this headache isn't unique to Christmas decorators. They happen all year round in professional lighting.

To make things even more challenging, lighting has become more complex and it has become more difficult to maintain consistency in commercial spaces.

1. Keep products in stock

The best way to increase the chance of a one-call resolution for maintenance requests—the holy grail of lighting maintenance—is to stock frequently used products at each location. A good lighting maintenance provider should recommend commonly used products to help their technicians succeed. While this does not result in 100% of maintenance calls being resolved in a single visit, our customers who implement this proactive step are almost always happy. It's also a step you can take, whether your lighting maintenance program is on-call or scheduled.

2. Attention to detail

Lighting maintenance involves managing a multitude of variables - from schedules, regional differences, product specifications to troubleshooting electrical systems. Good lighting maintenance providers make sure their technicians are well-trained when on call and know how to diagnose electrical system problems. They also established onboarding processes with clients and their labor providers to ensure many of these variables were discovered or discussed in advance.

3. Consider changing lights or retrofitting

This may seem like an escapist answer, but the reality is that using the right product in the right application will likely reduce maintenance. If you can move to more efficient, easier-to-maintain products, you'll benefit from lower maintenance costs, lower energy costs, and more consistent visuals across your organization.

Maintaining your lighting doesn't have to be as frustrating as hanging strings of Christmas lights. That's what we're here for - to keep your lights on and keep your headaches away.