For Eric Reisner, ignorance in this case has proven to be bliss. With all of his previous experience falling outside of the foodservice industry, the Ohio based executive has brought a fresh new approach to Hobart Service.
“With a national footprint and a team of over 1,200 technicians, I saw the unique opportunity to create a new vision for a brand that is truly a pillar of the commercial kitchen industry,” noted Reisner. “As part of an OEM, we are able to have actual design input on the lifecycles of ITW’s legendary line of foodservice equipment solutions.”
So in his role guiding Hobart Service, Reisner in an effort to provide greater value and convenience to users of Hobart products called upon his background in mechanical contracting to establish a new state of the industry initiative. Hobart Service announced last month that it is making service manuals for select products from ITW Food Equipment Group brands available for download to end users and other equipment servicers.
“Over the years we’ve had customers, often restaurant owners who are technically adept and do it all, reach out looking for information that would give them the flexibility of being able to handle simple maintenance tasks themselves,” said Reisner, Vice President and General Manager of Hobart Service. “We’ve heard them and want to be responsive, so we are now making service manuals for select equipment available online. These will be an invaluable resource for those who have technical expertise and need quick equipment repair or maintenance.”
With District Manager Ed Hughes at the helm of its Metro New York operation, Hobart Service has carved significant market share supporting major national chain including Starbucks and Costco. “With 71 service hubs nationally, we have the ability to service our national contracts and bring that same best in class service to local/regional independent operators,” noted Reisner. “We also want local foodservice operators in healthcare, corporate and school/university dining to look at us as a top quality resource to service their commercial kitchens.” Hughes brings an extensive background to his post in the Tri-State region as a former Regional Manager with Crothall Healthcare, and Director of Facilities with Sodexo.
“We see that customers in each of these segments want to be serviced in a certain way,” Reisner continued. “So this new service manual support program for 11 Hobart slicers, tenderizers, choppers and mixers is a significant step in providing that new lever of support and service.”
Operators can source the material online. Over the coming months, Hobart Service will add more service manuals to the library.
“We also wanted to make sure that we make downloading the manuals easy,” said Reisner. First-time visitors to the page will need to register, providing their name, email address and business name. Once registered, they can log in to the page where they will be able to choose among the available service manuals. Visitors can search for manuals by filtering by product category, entering a product name into the search box or by scrolling through available product names and model numbers. Clicking on the product name will take them to a PDF document of the service manual, which they can review online or download.
“We understand the foodservice customer has three choices. They can do the work in house, utilize and existing service provider or look to us for our unique and in depth knowledge of the ITW line-up,” Reisner concluded. “Our goal with the manual initiative as the next step is to make certain that no matter who is servicing the unit that our chef or restaurant customer is able to consistently serve food that reflects their passion to create a unique dining experience,” noted Reisner. “The trust they have put in Hobart and ITW by frankly investing a little more to buy established value means that its up to us to maker certain that the Hobart/ITW piece of equipment is performing at its full potential and meeting or exceeding the customers expectation when they bought the equipment.”
Each manual provides detailed instruction and photography that can help users maintain and repair their equipment. Also included in each service manual are electrical wiring diagrams, parts lists and part numbers that make ordering replacement parts easy. Genuine OEM parts for Hobart and the entire brand family of the ITW Food Equipment Group equipment (Baxter, Traulsen, Vulcan, Gaylord, Wolf, Wittco, Berkel) are available at the Hobart Service website.
