By Andrew P. McCoy and Fred Sargent
Published On FebruaryApril 15, 2025
Three years ago, the National Fire Protection Association published a revised and updated version of its 70B document, elevating its rules about the maintenance of electrical equipment from mere recommendations to mandated standards.
Because of the compulsory requirements spelled out in this new edition, some electrical service and maintenance contractors might have naively imagined that customers with large commercial and industrial facilities would automatically begin to flock to them for help in complying with the new NFPA 70B mandates.
That tidal wave of demand for electrical maintenance has never materialized. Electrical maintenance programs—just like everything else in business—require marketing and sales efforts to educate customers and move them to action.
In ELECTRI International’s new publication, “Electrical Service and Maintenance Guide to NFPA 70 B&E,” its task force has identified six steps electrical contractors can follow in a process to help their customers successfully meet the mandates of NFPA 70B.
The first in ELECTRI’s six-step guidance concerns establishing a market presence.
24/7 coverage and responsiveness
New business opportunities in service and maintenance are most likely to begin with customers calling for help. Today, customers expect to be able to call, and hear back, at any hour of the day, seven days a week. That’s why it’s a priority for a contractor to have a consistent solution to responding to inbound service requests, dispatching technicians and creating “customers for life.”
Ongoing education and training
Contractors who want to develop and grow a successful NFPA 70B maintenance business must take charge of educating and training their entire staff. Otherwise, by default, someone else will. Either way, the contractors will end up paying.
While it is necessary for electricians to learn the technical aspects of NFPA 70B, it is even more important for them to understand the nature of their frontline role in creating a successful customer experience.
They are the face of their company. They are the ones customers trust the most and are in the best position to understand their customers’ concerns. Investing in their ongoing education and training will yield a strong return on investment.
Existing customer relationships
Contractors with customers who repeatedly turn to them for their competence in new construction may be surprised to learn that those same customers did not know their favorite contractors had highly qualified service and maintenance organizations, too.
Contractors with both kinds of businesses must establish routines to cross-sell their capabilities. Over the lifetime of a facility, service-related expenditure may be four times the value of the original electrical construction contract.
Tiered service offerings
In establishing market presence, electrical contractors pursuing NFPA 70B maintenance opportunities will bolster their customers’ perceptions of their capabilities by offering multiple levels of maintenance.
Embracing the electrical safety circle
Capping proof of their total capabilities, contractors’ commitment to the “electrical safety circle” will symbolically top the effort toward establishing market presence.
NFPA 70, demanding the integrity of the installation work; NFPA 70E, governing the safety of everyone involved in the installation process; and NFPA 70B, assuring the long-term maintenance of operating facilities—all of these connected to form the electrical safety circle will provide complete assurance to current and prospective customers of their chosen contractors’ consummate professionalism.
Next month’s article will continue to look into this new guide from ELECTRI on service and maintenance based on the NFPA 70 series, and we’ll move on to the second step in the process as we explore opportunity for agreement.