Running a successful food equipment repair business in today’s labor market is tricky. Many companies, especially owner-operator repair businesses, have resorted to turning customers and additional revenue away because they’re at capacity or lack the resources and tools to support customer demand. Whether you lead a small team or operate a solo kitchen equipment repair business, staying up-to-date on a wide range of appliances gets more and more challenging as equipment becomes increasingly complex and as the labor shortage continues to burnout the workforce.
This is why we expanded our Service Hero™ product line. The aim is to enable food service technicians to resolve commercial kitchen appliance issues in real-time, while becoming experts in all major commercial kitchen appliances and brands. Similar to Service Hero for Home Appliances, Service Hero for Food Equipment helps users instantly troubleshoot models to increase first-time fix rates, complete more jobs per day, and make every team member a seasoned pro, no matter how long they’ve been in the industry.
“Restaurant owners need service technicians they can rely on and Service Hero™ for Food Equipment gives techs the knowledge they need to solve service encounters on the first try.”
— Edwin Pahk, Aquant’s VP of Product Marketing and Business Development.
What is driving the need for this technology?
Although the pandemic and recent supply and labor shortages have accelerated the adoption of tech for various needs like mobile ordering and contactless payments, the restaurant and food service industry remains hesitant to adopt technology to help modernize repair and maintenance (R&M) operations. The majority of restaurant operators (81%) report lack of adoption stems from perceived difficulties in setting this technology up and using it, according to the 2022 State of Despair report.
As inflation continues to rise, it’s critical for restaurant owners and other food service companies to understand profits and losses and find innovative ways to increase profitability. But, as restaurants and food service organizations prioritize supply and labor challenges, they lack the time or capacity to focus on streamlining the R&M process. This is why technicians and small repair companies need to implement the right resources and technology to help maximize productivity.
How does Service Hero work?
Using expert crowdsourcing, Aquant’s algorithm offers a diagnosis and suggests the most likely repair and required parts to help incoming technicians instantly troubleshoot nearly every piece of equipment they encounter and augment any knowledge gaps they may have as they enter the service industry. The app provides technicians with the on-demand tools they need to fix commercial equipment commonly found in restaurants, including hotline and coldline appliances. By accessing the data stored in the app, technicians can get to the root of the problem more quickly, find the appropriate parts, and have a fix within a shorter time window.
This technology also allows technicians to manage customer expectations in a proactive manner – whether that’s via accurate diagnostics and repairs or client-focused communication. The Service Hero™ app for Food Equipment is available for repair technicians, service managers or entire service organizations. Service Hero™ is $50 per month and new users can sign up for a one-month free trial at www.servicehero.ai. If you’d like to learn more, a product demo is available here.