RESEARCH.
Currently, relationships have been established between the facilities management (FM) department and the users of the facilities services.[1] This relationship has been enhanced by means of multiple tools and methods. The usage of these tools and methods results in an outcome as they are designed to do so. This outcome should result in a satisfied customer of the facilities management department, based on their perception.
Question is, if this is actually the case. Is the customer satisfied with how the facilities management department works or does the approach of the facilities management department still create a gap with the true expectations of the customer? Is the facilities manager CREATING an experience in which the customer is used to react as he or she should based on their own frame of reference? So in other words, is the facility manager checking what the customers really likes or is he checking his own created experience while he is questioning the customers?
"A research amongst four countries and involving FMers working at different organisation types."
RESEARCH APPROACH
During the investigation, different parties will be questioned for their experience in the relationship between the facility management department and the customer.
In the first few weeks of the investigation, multiple Dutch facility managers will be questioned. The researcher will investigate what models are used at the moment and will try to look for the reasons why the Facility managers use these models.
During the second part of the investigation, international European Facility Managers will be interviewed to see if there are some international standards in Facility management which are important to build a strong relationship between the Facility Management department and the customer. Again, the researcher will try to discover how and why these methods are used.
In the last phase the customer will be interviewed to see what true values the customer relates to the Facility management department. This will be a more thoroughly approach. By means of a laddering method (influenced by the ZMET-method, thought of by G. Zaltman, a professor at the Harvard University) the real personal feelings and values will be probed and linked to the relationship with the facility management department.
Finally, after gathering all this information, and analyzing all these details, an outcome will arise. This will show if an ELA (experience level Agreement) could be a good alternative within the Facility management work field.