The A/C is running warm or the range is on the fritz. Time to bring in the repair technician and brace for a costly service call. Or is it?
For many operators, taking the time to troubleshoot equipment issues before picking up the phone can help save on maintenance costs. And step one, according to engineers, is to check the plug. No, really: This is not a joke.
“You would be surprised how many times we get a call out, and the problem is the equipment is not even on,” says Randy Legard, maintenance engineer on the in-house service team for Brennan Restaurant Group in New Orleans. “The button wasn’t pushed or the gas wasn’t turned on or it wasn’t plugged in,” he says. “Those kinds of things can be costly if you call a company, and you have to pay the minimum for them to come out.”
Once the (seemingly) obvious is out of the way, there are steps to try and remedy the problem before calling for help. And there are tricks managers have learned to get around the service call altogether. In fact, cutting unnecessary out-of-house maintenance has been a recent focus for David Kurlander, COO of Gyroville, a fast casual with locations in southeast Florida. He estimates that additional manager training at each location saves him an average of two service calls per month at $125 each, or $750 less off the bottom line each quarter.
Of course, if there’s any doubt, it’s better to be safe than sorry. But we asked Legard—plus operators who also have reduced unnecessary service calls—to share the go-to fixes they try before dialing for repairs.