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This paper aims to review FM research in Switzerland with a focus on recent research projects at the Institute of Facility Management of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

The paper provides a summary and review of research projects.

FM research in Switzerland has grown in the past few years and is now well rooted in the Swiss FM industry. The focus is on service management, workplace management and FM in health care. FM research in Switzerland has been driven collaboratively by the Institute of FM and the industry.

Research at the IFM is very much oriented towards application and many collaborative projects between industry, public administration and universities have been conducted. However, some fields of FM have received little attention yet.

FM research in Switzerland has been driven collaboratively by the Institute of FM and the industry. The focus is on application, e.g. management tools, benchmarking systems or the relationship of FM services, organisational outcomes, and customer satisfaction. Many research results contribute to the development of Swiss FM industry.

In this article the authors summarize FM research in Switzerland and their research approach. With this they contribute to transparency and further development of FM research.

In the past, FM performance was mostly monitored by technical and cost‐related KPIs, whereas the measurement of perceived internal service quality was widely neglected. Thus, the purpose of this paper is two‐fold: first, to develop an adequate model to capture the relationships between internal service quality, internal customer satisfaction and internal customer retention; and second, provide an instrument for the identification of areas of improvement for customer orientation in FM.

This research gives an insight into the relevance of customer orientation in FM. Following this, it introduces the concept of a FM Servicebarometer, highlighting an application of this model by presenting the results of an extensive quantitative survey that was conducted within a healthcare setting. Based on this model, various indices are calculated for the internal service quality, customer satisfaction and customer retention, resulting in the FM Quality Index.

Detailed analyses show insights into the interdependencies between various aspects of internal customer orientation in FM. In addition, driving forces of internal service quality, internal customer satisfaction and internal customer retention are presented.

The FM Quality Index (FMQI) allows both a longitudinal research and cross‐sectional comparison within FM. Thus, the FMQI may be applied as a tool for monitoring and managing internal customer orientation in FM.

FM Servicebarometer is a unique application of the service barometer approach within FM. Thus, it presents an innovative attempt to measure and control perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer retention.

The purpose of this article is to provide a service-oriented understanding of the field of facility management (FM) and describe the role that services management plays in successful FM. Even though the definitions for FM by European Committee for Standardisation include the term “service” several times, there remains a need for an established management understanding that reflects the service character of FM, while also accounting for its multidimensional management challenges.

This goal is achieved by applying the main characteristics of services management to FM, describing the service-specific perspectives of FM, analyzing the specific quality attributes of FM as a service management discipline and introducing important services management implications for FM.

The article describes in detail how FM can benefit from taking a services management perspective and gives useful implications for managers in the following key fields of action: process management, tangibility management, personnel management and relationship management.

Services management knowledge and expertise have the potential to position FM as an even more professional business discipline.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the specifics of facilities management (FM) process modelling and the application of the service blueprinting technique within the field of FM. The paper aims to develop a visualisation method for optimised management of process interfaces to better integrate core and support processes and increase effectiveness and efficiency.

Based on an extensive overview of general management literature about process management issues in FM, certain challenges and requirements of FM process modelling are presented and discussed. Service blueprinting, a technique known from services marketing, is introduced and characterised in detail. Subsequently, the application of blueprinting within the FM sector is discussed and the specifics of FM blueprinting are presented. A qualitative case‐based research in the health‐care sector was conducted to provide a practical insight into this technique.

The paper argues that the implementation of FM blueprinting gives management the opportunity of improving process steps and dependent interrelationships between core and support processes. The insights not only apply to the field of management, but can also readily be used for operations.

The paper presents a new process modelling method that supports the customer‐oriented perspective within FM and facilitates the visualisation of simultaneous complex process networks within core and support businesses. The paper introduces the possibility of including measures to achieve effectiveness and efficiency within one single process visualisation.

The purpose of this paper is to create a deeper understanding of the importance of monitoring key aspects of facility management (FM), right from the planning stage of a building's lifecycle.

This paper is based on literature review and qualitative research. Empirical interviews were conducted with various executives and academics to identify FM‐related aspects that should be considered during the planning, design and construction of buildings. These insights are the foundation of a newly developed monitoring tool which can be applied to different settings.

When analyzing relevant aspects of FM, ten main categories were identified, together with corresponding sub‐categories. These were used as input for a quality assurance tool designed to analyze the degree to which FM is taken into consideration in the early stages of planning. Respondents fill out an item battery, using a five‐point scale. The questions refer to the completeness and plausibility of the respective (sub‐)category. This newly developed monitoring‐tool has been applied to a construction project in the city center of Zurich/Switzerland.

The monitoring tool presented here is only a first attempt to structure and analyze important aspects of FM during the early stages of building construction. It will be further developed over time to include various building types and more project phases within the life cycle of buildings.

FM dashboard can be used as an analytical tool to support the structured monitoring of FM relevant aspects during planning, design and construction.

Corporate facility managers need better methods and tools for demonstrating the importance of early consideration of FM‐relevant aspects to various parties involved in construction (e.g. architectural and planning offices, owners, construction companies, etc.). This paper provides an insight into a tool designed for this purpose and offers practical assistance and guidance for its use.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an empirically tested framework for public awareness and reputation of facilities management (FM) as a business sector.

A national survey of representative sections of the population was designed and carried out to determine the level of public awareness and the reputation of FM. This survey was based on image/reputation categories from the international European Performance Satisfaction Index studies.

The findings provide a highly differentiated picture and give an interesting insight into the varied understanding of FM. Only a small fraction of the population has a realistic understanding of what the term FM means. The additional information collected about selected features of the respondents (age, gender, occupation, education, household income, etc.) facilitates interesting cross‐references to the level of public awareness and reputation of FM thus allowing an illuminating analysis of the findings.

A framework for measuring public awareness and reputation of FM is presented and tested. It can be used in the development of a cross‐national survey. In this study, the measurement of public FM awareness and reputation is applied only to one pilot country and further international research is needed to validate this tool within other geographical settings.

This survey represents the first quantification of public awareness and reputation of FM and is planned to be repeated on an international level at a two‐year interval, thus enabling comparisons between countries and corporations.

This article aims to present and compare research perspectives and theoretical reflections from a variety of academic fields on the concept of added value of facilities management.

The starting point is the so‐called FM Value Map, which was presented in a recent article in Facilities by Per Anker Jensen in 2010. The article is a first result of the work in the EuroFM research collaboration group and is based on literature reviews of the most influential journals within the academic fields of facilities management (FM), corporate real estate management and business‐to‐business marketing.

Good relationship management and building on trust is shown to be equally important as delivering the agreed services.

Usually the concept of added value is discussed from a monodisciplinary point‐of‐view. The different backgrounds of the authors add value to an increased understanding of the added value of FM by comparing and testing different ways of conceptualising this issue. This is of great importance to FM research and evidence‐based FM as a sound basis for the long‐term recognition of FM.