Samaa Nasr, managing partner at Total Property Care
fmME: Can you start by sharing some information on your company and what it offers?
Samaa Nasr: Total Property Care (TPC) is a specialised maintenance company in Dubai, offering a wide range of services that cover electrical, plumbing, carpentry, masonry & painting services. The main specialty for our team is AC servicing & AC duct cleaning, along with the annual maintenance packages that includes preventive and corrective services. Deep and general cleaning is one of our strong competitive services as well.
fmME: How extensive is your company’s operation? How many projects are you actively involved with?
SN: TPC is mainly operating in medium-sized projects with specified experience in residential maintenance services. Our coverage scope is spread across Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi. We deliver our services to houses with a high level of response to emergencies and general maintenance needs, as well as moving in and out complementary services. Our 24/7 help desk and highly efficient customer service team and maintenance technicians assist in the expansion of the company.
fmME: Do you have any notable projects/contracts that you’re able to highlight?
SN: Our main focus is to operate within residential market, mainly in JBR, Dubai Marina, Downtown Burj Dubai, Emirates Hills, Meadows, The Springs, JVC, JVT, and DIP. We work closely with some famous real estate companies to provide a high quality pre and post-rental maintenance services like Elysian Real Estate. We also provide technical support and problem solving services to some restaurants and Chains such as Abou Rabie restaurant, as well as managing technical tasks related to construction, oil & gas and facilities management.
fmME: What are some of the ways that Total Property Care differentiates its service from its competitors?
SN: To be competitive and to earn the respect of the market, we were prepare our workforce for rapid response and being sensitive to any emergency. We are also flexible while dealing with our customers to ensure continuous providing of value for money service. Our friendly staff and efficient technicians aim to reduce lengthy processes, while also adopting a customer oriented mind set and transparency in reporting technical issues.
fmME: What would highlight as being some of the challenges in duct cleaning and how is your firm tackling these issues?
SN: Duct cleaning service is one of the most sensitive cleaning processes that is performed within houses, hotels, hospitals, and any area which relies heavily on the continuous operation of air conditioning units. In order to be performed efficiently, it requires highly advanced machineries and chemicals to be used by a well-trained staff. With monitoring system to allow our client to check their ducts before and after the service. Once the service is completed efficiently the quality of the air as well as the AC unit performance improves in a remarkable way.
fmME: How do you see your market segment evolving over 2016 and beyond, and what will be Total Property Care’s role in shaping it?
SN: With our sales and marketing techniques we are reaching our current objectives, however the market is growing especially in the residential units delivered every year which increase the potential and opportunities for us to further expand. Word of mouth is one of the strong marketing tools that helps building trust with customers and give strength to our TPC brand name by time. More diversified marketing campaigns will help us to capture a lot of opportunities in the near future with a vision double our market share. Taking a good care of our current internal/external customers will allow us to gain loyalty which will support our growth.
George Thomas, vice president at Epsco
fmME: Can you start by sharing some information on your company and what it offers?
George Thomas: 20 years after it was established to offer indoor environmental services, Epsco L.L.C (Environmental Protection Service Company), today, is a multinational company with operations in 12 countries offering specialised high-end cleaning, facility maintenance, disaster restoration, water treatment, chemical cleaning, rope access, environmental testing etc., to a segment that is highly conscious of quality and safety. Epsco pioneered the IAQ and the restoration business in the Middle East.
Performance driven and founded on strong, unique blend of corporate values and systems, Epsco’s vision to be the best service provider is guided by its belief that customer satisfaction is the key to success, and employee satisfaction an essential prerequisite to customer satisfaction. Epsco L.L.C is the first company in the Middle East to get certified to a joint management system in compliance with ISO 9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001. Epsco has professional memberships to several international industry organisations, a few among them being NADCA, IAQA, IICRC, NFPA, RIA, and BDM.
fmME: How extensive is your company’s operation in relation to duct cleaning?
GT: Air duct cleaning is one of our key services. Being part of the founding services, we have been offering air duct cleaning since establishing the company. Looking back, 20 years ago, it was greatly concept selling and creating awareness among residents, health authorities, consultants, and facility managers. We are happy that our efforts have made a significant all-round difference among all the interested parties. We have the largest capacity in the region in terms of trained and certified personnel, and equipment. We are capable of taking up project of any size at short notice.
Our all-round capability to work on different types of facilities, meeting varied and challenging situations. These include high rise buildings, shopping malls, health facilities, hotels, smoke and fire affected building systems, mould infected ducts, ducts with internal lining, duct made of duct boards and so on.
fmME: How is your company evolving its service to remain competitive?
GT: Growth and competition go hand in hand. The more you grow the stiffer the competition becomes. It took about five years from the time we established, for the first competition to set their business up. After that many companies have started duct cleaning.
We have adopted a number of strategies to remain competitive, the most important among them of course is staying put on with our focus on quality and safety. Our systems are designed and certified in conformance to the ISO standards 9001 and OHSAS 18001. We constantly are reminded that every penny we spend, we spend on behalf of our customers. This sense of accountability has helped us to keep our budget balanced and provide value for money to our customers.
We also constantly scan our external environment for opportunities and have been adding products and services to our existing portfolio. During the last few years, in addition to duct cleaning we provide add on services like anti corrosion coil coating and annual maintenance contract for HVAC maintenance. As a company we have been continuously expanding our services. The most recent addition to our range of services is rope access
cleaning services.
fmME: What would highlight as being some of the leading challenges in duct cleaning and how is your firm tackling these issues?
GT: Duct cleaning as an industry is still evolving and there is a long way to go. The local regulatory bodies have recognised the health and green aspects of the HVAC cleaning and have incorporated the need for duct cleaning in their guidelines. Regulatory inspections in the recent past have been vigorous and highly commendable.
The challenge of course is in making people aware the need for duct cleaning and making them understand the cost benefit advantage. As the contamination in the ducts is hidden inside, residents do not see it and moreover, many residents are ignorant of the health hazards of dirty and contaminated ducts. We have in the past had awareness campaigns and do plan to organise more of them.
