From power production plants to small businesses, electrical power engineering service providers supply numerous services to various entities. Not every service provider offers the same services and overall quality, making it crucial to investigate it before selecting it. Below, we list five tips to help identify an electrical engineering service provider that meet your company's needs and expectations.
1. Consider the Range of Equipment Offered
If you need new electrical equipment, the first question to ask is whether a power service provider supplies the equipment you ideally need. Some service providers specialize in generators, or equipment for electrical substations, while others offer a range of equipment, such as: uninterruptible power suppleies (UPS), standby generators, emergency lighting systems, power transfer switches, power distribution units (PDU), and stationary batteries.
2. Consider the Range of Maintenance Offered
As with other types of equipment, the key to getting the most out of electrical equipment is keeping it properly maintained, which can involve hiring specialized technicians to service it. Many service providers that install power equipment also specialize in maintaining it. The key is to choose one that has a verifiable history of maintaining your type(s) of equipment, as opposed to knowledge of how to maintain it but not much experience doing so.
3. Consider a Company's Core Practice
Many service provider offer a broad range of solutions, but they often have more experience providing certain solutions than others. For example, it isn't uncommon to find companies that supply the power equipment and service needs of hospitals, data centers, and residential R1 buildings spend more time with one type of client than the others. In terms of experience and depth of expertise, finding a service provider that specializes in your type of company is the best choice.
4. Ask for an Extended set of Recent References
Part of evaluating a company's level of service involves speaking with its previous customers. However, to get a true picture of its customer service, you may have to speak with more of its customers than it initially supplies references for. By speaking with 8-12 references as opposed to 2-4, you'll get a better idea of how customers' feel about a company's level of service and customer friendliness. Just make sure the references are recent, as changes in a company's management can affect how its services are carried out.
5. Check a Company's Record at the Better Business Bureau (BBB)
The BBB gives companies a rating of A through F. But from a customer perspective, the thing to look for is unresolved customer complaints, which are exactly what they sound like: complaints made by customers that, for some reason, a company didn't resolve. Companies that care about their customers, as well as their business image, resolve such complaints quickly, regardless of their nature. If a company has unresolved complaints on its record, it's best to find one that doesn't.
