Today’s restaurant and foodservice professional is more dependent than ever on the dependability of their kitchen equipment. The pressures of maintaining the growth that came with Takeout & Delivery during the Pandemic, and now the return of in-restaurant dining, the nation’s operators find themselves in need of service that consistently touches all the bases.
The process begins with the selection of the right service company to provide that peace of mind. Leaders in the commercial kitchen service space share many of the same common skill sets as they seek to deliver 24/7 quality. For many, the starting point is the unique support and platform of ServicePower.
“What has set us apart is that we understand that the service tech that is your employee needs to be treated and managed differently than someone who is independent,” noted ServicePower’s Chief Solutions Officer, Brad Hawkins. “From the very launch of this company with its ‘Service Scheduling’ in the ’90s, we understood that the optimization of employed workforces was crucial. That has evolved into the understanding and deployment of an algorithm that enables and manages today’s hybrid service techs.”
Hawkins, who has been with the Mclean, VA-based company for 28 years, sees the key to the company’s proprietary technology in a simple light. “From the very beginning, this has been all about tearing up what is in that schedule and then transforming it with several iterations of that schedule and finally delivery an optimum schedule based on any number of factors,” he said. “Bottom line is sure I’d like to send an employee tech. But the geography of the call might make it impossible. How do I manage and balance the blended workforce? The key is that the experience for that restaurant or operator is totally seamless.”
ServicePower’s history has been marked by several key milestones. In 2000, the company purchased a firm that handled warranty claims with equipment manufacturers for independent contractors. ServicePower also purchased a third-party dispatch provider. “Those two additions really enabled us to create a platform for the independent service operator that provided a single place to source a tech with the right skill set and get them paid faster,” Hawkins said.
“Bottom line today is that we offer a single point of contact for each service event,” Hawkins continued. “With all of those pieces, the service operator can maximize their use of today’s blended workforce. Maybe the job requires an employee with a specific skill set or it might be a contractor. We are able to successfully predict the optimum approach. Our specialty is that short cycle job where we need to get in there, fix it and make sure it is done. We don’t do oil rigs with crews that are out to sea for months. With that, we understand that in the commercial kitchen space, if you don’t have the right part ready to go with the right tech, you could be looking at the loss of tens of thousands of dollars.”
ServicePower’s recipe for success has been built with an understanding of Contractor Management and Mobility. “We understand that what makes the independent contractor tick are the “2-P’s”: Get them PAID on a timely basis and make sure they have access to the PARTS they need,” Hawkins explained. “We understand how to use contractors to speed response times, increase capacity, and reduce cost of service. The execution of that enables seamless onboarding and managing a contracted workforce, that can easily dispatch a blended workforce. Our mobility facilitates installers and service technicians to complete delivery and installation on the first visit, driving consistent quality of service, improved productivity, and increased installation and repair completion rates.”
ServicePower’s goal is to enable a seamless customer journey. It begins with a service event that is personalized, simple & quick with product registration, and warranty qualification. That flows into schedule service with “truth-based” appointment slots. Technicians are then tracked with ETA updates, schedule compliance & communications. The goal of the actual on-site repair is to maximize productivity & efficiency. That is followed up by a post-service customer survey and warranty claims.
With the NAFEM Show just around the corner, Hawkins brought an interesting perspective on the relationship between service and the nation’s kitchen equipment manufacturers. “I think there was a perception that the IOT/Internet of Things was going to create a magic solution for anything,” he said. “We understand that self-reporting a piece of kitchen equipment is a great idea. But the reality is that the technology simply isn’t there yet. It’s a mistake for the industry to think that a service tech workforce that is aging out does not need to be replaced. Machine learning and AI are great, but it is very unstructured. The model still requires human intervention.”
With an understanding that each service provider has a distinct set of needs, ServicePower offers a trio of prepackaged solutions:
- Employed workforce solutions were created to deliver self-service, increase customer satisfaction and experience with a customer portal and Scheduling/Dispatch.
- Contracted workforce solutions offer a suite of solutions to manage onboarding, credentialing, dispatch, and claims for third-party warranties. It also features: Contractor Management, Dispatch, and Claims Management.
- Depot solutions provide solutions to manage the entire lifecycle of depot repair with both Customer Portal and Claims features. Each of these options can be supplemented with ServicePower’s HyperSupport that offers four weeks of additional onboarding support to ensure a smooth transition.
ServicePower’s reach has grown across 36 countries in North America and Europe, and dispatches more than 20 million jobs per year to over 18,000 independent service companies and 100,000 service users. The company is trusted by some of the world’s leading brands across multiple industries including GE Appliances, LG, Electrolux, and Siemens.
“There’s simply no compromise in the commercial kitchen space for anything other than a First-Time Fix,” the veteran service executive concluded. “We have partnered with companies that enable us to use AI and machine learning to predict which parts I need to have to fix this properly. We then have the ability, once we know what is needed, to be able to find the nearest truck that has that part onboard.”
To learn more about ServicePower, visit their website
