How FM Lost Client Trust and How We Earn it Back
Carlo Alloni from Bellrock outlines why client trust in FM has eroded and the concrete steps providers must take to earn it back.
Carlo Alloni is Chief Executive Officer of Bellrock, a technology-led, insight driven property services disruptor. His background spans more than 20 years across telecoms and service industries, with a track record of transforming complex, multi‑country operations into successful, scalable businesses. Before joining Bellrock in August 2024, Carlo advised clients on technology‑led transformation, business development, product strategy and M&A, including a Smart City “Roma 5G” programme ahead of the Pope’s Jubilee in 2025. Earlier roles include Managing Director of a London‑based multibillion-pound facilities management business; EVP, Chief Technology & Information Officer at Cable & Wireless; and COO of Middle East region at Ericsson. He began his career in investment banking.
A Race to the Bottom on Service?
Facilities management promises simplicity. But too often, it delivers frustration, opacity and unmet expectations.
Many times, I’ve sat in enough meetings and networking events that I hear the same industry gripes again and again: missed SLAs; opaque invoices; endless variations; a help desk that raises tickets but rarely solves problems.
It would be easy to blame unrealistic clients or margin-squeezing procurement. And there might be some truth in that. A race to the bottom on price often becomes a race to the bottom on service. But the full story runs deeper.
The uncomfortable truth is that our industry has trained clients to distrust us. Until we change the incentives and the operating model, that scepticism will remain justified.
Why the Frustration Makes Sense
Number 1: We Sell Certainty, Then Manage Probability
In bids and presentations, we promise seamless uptime and full accountability. But the reality is different. Assets fail; demand changes and response times vary. When we oversimplify risk instead of being honest about it, clients feel misled. Complexity is monetised, not mastered.
Most estates are inherently complex: from old plant and inconsistent compliance to disconnected data. The problem is that some providers treat that complexity as a business model, not a challenge to solve. If failure drives revenue, trust will always suffer.
Number 2: Data Exists, Insight Doesn’t
We capture mountains of information through work orders, asset registers and condition surveys, but rarely turn it into meaningful decisions. Clients don’t just want dashboards. They want fewer breakdowns, safer estates and proof that insight leads to action.
Number 3: Contracts Reward Activity, Not Outcomes
Traditional FM contracts measure performance by tasks completed or tickets closed. But that’s not what boards really care about. They want fewer failures, predictable costs, happier occupants and lower carbon impact. When payment is tied to activity instead of improvement, we end up proving effort, not progress.
Number 4: Governance Happens After the Fact
Too many issues only surface at the monthly account management meeting. Root cause analysis comes long after the next failure. Clients see a system that reacts, not one that learns.
Number 5: The Hidden Cost of the Status Quo
The visible costs like waste, rework and management time are easy to see. The hidden costs bite harder.
Asset life shortens when maintenance is inconsistent. Capital planning becomes guesswork when data is untrusted. Sustainability targets drift when maintenance isn’t linked to energy performance.
And the people on the front line, the ones our clients see, burn out because the system makes it hard to do good work.
What Good Looks Like
Fixing FM doesn’t start with another portal or a thicker contract. It starts with honesty and aligned incentives. The new rules of the FM game seem clear to me:
Number 1: Start With Truth, Not Theatre
Be transparent about what can and can’t be guaranteed. Publish baseline asset health and backlog risk within 90 days. Co-author a three-year improvement plan with visible progress that anyone in the client’s business can track. Credibility compounds.
Number 2: Flip the Incentives
Move away from activity-based fees. Link payment to outcomes that matter: risk-weighted uptime, verified compliance, predictable cost to serve, user satisfaction and energy savings. At Bellrock, we’ve embedded this through our integrator pricing model. When both sides win when the estate improves, behaviour changes fast.
Number 3: Make Data Operational
An asset register that doesn’t reflect reality is a liability. Clean it, tag it and govern it like a financial ledger. Use condition-based maintenance where it genuinely reduces failures, and prove it with before-and-after results, not algorithms. In one estate we recently transformed, mobile-first data capture and integrated reporting cut survey time in half and removed manual write-ups entirely. That’s what happens when Mobiess and Concerto work together to deliver live, reliable data.
Number 4: Design for Frontline Excellence
If an engineer needs three screens and five logins to close a job, we’ve already failed. Standardise job plans, pre-stage parts and give teams the tools and authority to fix small issues without raising variations. The client experience is built on those micro-moments. That’s why I have made our tech stack interoperable and seamless for clients, no matter what service or product they are purchasing.
Number 5: Govern in Real Time
Replace retrospective reviews with live controls. Use exception alerts, daily risk heatmaps and 12-week lookahead plans for maintenance and projects. Boards don’t need more data; they need faster truth.
Number 6: Tie FM to the Enterprise Agenda
FM doesn’t sit apart from business strategy. It shapes employee experience, carbon performance and financial predictability. When maintenance connects directly to outcomes like retention, risk and net-zero progress, FM becomes a value lever, not a cost centre.
What Clients Can Do
Outcome-based FM only works in partnership. Clients have a crucial role to play.
- Fund the baseline. If the asset register is wrong and the backlog is unknown, start with discovery and stabilisation. You can’t optimise a mystery. Our Consultancy Team works with organisations to make sure the foundations are in place.
- Pick fewer metrics. Ten KPIs that change behaviour are better than 50 that don’t. Focus on what matters and put real value behind it.
- Hold us to transparency and reciprocate. Share your real estate strategy, capital constraints and change roadmap. We’ll share performance and margin openly. That’s how trust is built.
The Industry We Want
Imagine an FM sector paid to remove complexity, not manage it. One that earns more when your assets fail less. One that tells the truth upfront and measures what matters.
That’s not a dream. It’s a design challenge.
Technology’s helping us get there, but the real lever is alignment between incentives, culture and purpose.
If you’re a client, demand better.
If you’re a provider, build differently.
Together, we can make FM a discipline that earns trust, not tests it.
Also published in: TWinFm
