Cost-Saving Tactics Every Facility Manager Should Know

In today’s economic climate, facilities leaders are under pressure to deliver more with less. But cutting costs doesn’t have to mean sacrificing quality or putting operations at risk. At a recent panel of experienced facilities management professionals hosted by Fexa, leaders shared how thoughtful strategies—not knee-jerk cuts—are key to controlling spend while supporting business goals.

From unplanned repairs to vendor inefficiencies, hidden cost drivers can quietly drain a budget. The panel featured facilities leaders from national brands and service providers who shared hard-won lessons on reducing waste, strengthening vendor partnerships, and aligning spend with business priorities.

Here are some key highlights of cost-saving tactics every facilities manager should know, based on real-world insights from the field.

Hidden Cost Drivers: How Unseen Issues Drain Your Budget

Not all costs in facilities management are obvious. While major capital expenses or large-scale repairs stand out on a budget sheet, it’s the quieter, hidden costs that often do the most damage over time. Unplanned repairs, unclear work scopes, and misaligned vendor assignments frequently lead to unnecessary spend that accumulates across a portfolio.

Donnie Geyer, who leads facilities operations at Bath & Body Works, highlighted how expectation-setting is essential to controlling these hidden costs:

“Communicating with the C-suite and store operations teams is really about expectation-setting.”

He noted that when expectations aren’t clear, minor misunderstandings can snowball into repeat dispatches, delays, and added expenses.

These hidden cost drivers often stem from upstream breakdowns. When work orders are written without sufficient detail—or when the wrong trade is selected—vendors may arrive on-site unable to perform the job, triggering repeat visits and wasted technician time. Similarly, misaligned vendor assignments can cause delays as providers scramble to fill gaps or return with proper resources.

Steve Vollrath, a senior leader at Adeline Group, noted that these issues are magnified without proactive engagement:

“Communication is the reason things succeed or fail. And we’ve realized 90% of that communication falls on us. With all our key clients, we hold monthly 15- to 20-minute calls—just to touch base. It keeps things from unraveling. We talk about open work orders, closed work orders, cost anomalies, delays—whatever's happening, we keep it visible.”

Vendor Strategy: Why the Right Partners Make All the Difference

Your vendor strategy can either support cost savings or quietly undermine them. The panelists emphasized that working with the right vendors—and treating them as partners rather than just service providers—has a direct impact on costs, operational efficiency, and overall service quality.

Catherine Barnes, a senior facilities management leader, shared why simply going out to bid isn’t always the right path:

“I think there's a misconception that going out to RFP always leads to savings. I’d actually argue it’s often the opposite. If you haven’t gone to market in a few years, pricing has likely shifted significantly. So you have to be strategic—how are you approaching the RFP? Are you bundling services? Are you engaging providers who can handle multiple trades? Because that helps reduce costs more than going to niche providers who only handle, say, plumbing or HVAC.”

She added that managing a smaller, more capable supplier base can drive meaningful savings:

“When your facilities team is small, you need a tighter supplier base. And those suppliers have to do more—they almost become an extension of your internal team.”

Jeff Yates, an executive at MyView, described how one of his clients strengthened vendor oversight by embedding accountability into their process:

“One of our largest customers actually baked us into the RFP process. They specified that I View It would be onsite at their facilities at least three to four times per year, with surprise visits sprinkled in. That cost would be shared between them and their vendor partners. What that gave them was proactive visibility. They also gathered tons of data to help them score their vendors. They started with eight—regional and national—and used that data to narrow down to four. Now, those four strategic partners have visibility into what's happening at the stores. The client does too. And the result? Lower work order volume, better customer and employee experiences, and tighter operations.”

Vollrath underscored the importance of moving beyond transactional relationships to true partnerships built on communication:

“Honestly, RFPs make me cringe. I don’t want to be a ‘vendor.’ I want to be a partner. And that means delivering even the tough news—sharing the information the client might not want to hear, because that transparency is what builds trust.”

Store-Level Behavior: The Front Line of Cost Control

Facilities managers can set the best strategy, but day-to-day choices at the store level often determine the final invoice. Small decisions—whether it’s submitting a work order, choosing a trade, or performing basic cleaning—can drive up or reduce costs in meaningful ways.

Barnes shared a striking example from her team’s experience:

“Honestly, I was surprised by how robust our floor care program was. It seemed to be based on this assumption that the supplier was fully responsible for store appearance. Like, ‘They come in twice a week—so they’re handling it.’ But what about the rest of the week? Turns out, some stores weren’t cleaning their floors at all between visits.”

To identify and address this, she encouraged a simple, practical check:

“I asked the regionals, ‘When you go into a store, check the mop bucket. If it’s dusty, they’re not using it.’ You can say you’re doing the daily cleaning, but that tells a different story.”

The result of tackling this store-level behavior? Significant savings and smarter reinvestment:

“If I can get operations to buy in and maintain their floors, we can save $7 million. That’s $7 million we could reinvest in HVAC replacements or other critical assets—not floor shine.”

Barnes emphasized how these day-to-day choices can either waste or protect precious budget resources:

“It became this easy scapegoat: ‘My store doesn’t look good? Must be the vendor’s fault.’ But it really came down to ownership on the operations side. Be ready for your customers and your patients every single day.”

Cost-Optimizing: Reallocating Spend for Greater Impact

Cost-cutting doesn’t mean slashing indiscriminately. The most effective facilities leaders look for ways to redirect dollars to where they’ll have the greatest operational impact—turning cuts into strategic optimizations.

Geyer described this approach as focusing on business-critical priorities:

“We looked at where we were overspending—like in floor care—and shifted that budget toward things like HVAC upgrades that actually improve the store environment and the customer experience. We didn’t spend more overall; we just spent smarter.”

He explained how reframing cost containment as cost optimization helped align budget decisions with what mattered most to the business:

“I try to keep the team focused on what they can control. The quality of service. Their communication. Their responsiveness... They can’t control if a vendor needs to increase costs because of tariffs. But they can control how quickly we respond to a broken HVAC unit or a plumbing issue.”

Communication: The Overlooked Cost-Saver

Several panelists pointed to communication as one of the most powerful, yet underappreciated, cost-saving tools in facilities management. Without proactive, transparent conversations, assumptions fill the gaps—and that’s when costs start to spiral.

Vollrath underscored this point:

“Communication is the reason things succeed or fail. And we’ve realized 90% of that communication falls on us. With all our key clients, we hold monthly 15- to 20-minute calls—just to touch base. It keeps things from unraveling. We talk about open work orders, closed work orders, cost anomalies, delays—whatever's happening, we keep it visible.”

He added that clear, honest dialogue—including delivering hard truths when necessary—is key to building trust and controlling costs.

Yates highlighted how unbiased, third-party visibility can reinforce communication and accountability:

“One of our largest customers actually baked us into the RFP process. They specified that I View It would be onsite at their facilities at least three to four times per year, with surprise visits sprinkled in. That cost would be shared between them and their vendor partners. What that gave them was proactive visibility... They started with eight—regional and national—and used that data to narrow down to four. Now, those four strategic partners have visibility into what's happening at the stores. The client does too. And the result? Lower work order volume, better customer and employee experiences, and tighter operations.”

Smarter Savings Start Here

Every facilities team is being asked to do more with less. But with the right strategies—focusing on vendor partnerships, empowering store teams, optimizing spend, and communicating clearly—cost savings don’t have to come at the expense of service.Request a demo: https://info.fexa.io/lp/fexa-request-a-demo