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Permalink Reply by Mike Sabol on September 20, 2010 at 12:32pm

Preventative maintanence is a relationship that has to be built over time. Catostrophic failure has to be dealt with no matter who gets called. I think the main reason the little shops don't get their equipment maintained is because they don't trust service companies not to rip them off. And that trust doesn't exist becase service companies, as a general rule, do a lousy job of building trusting relationships with their clientle over time. Most of these ma/pa shops are used to having a service guy show up to address a blown PRV and then get handed a bill for 2.5 hours of labor @ $75/hour, a PRV marked up 100% and they are told the PRV blew because the contactor points welded shut which adds another $180-$200 to the bill. And maybe it was Saturday service to boot. This could easily be a $500 dollar call and the service company has every expectation that they should get paid for the work done. Most techs have a "I fixed it - you pay me" kind of attitude. I think there are very few service companies that work to make themselves a true partner to the cafe owners in their area. I think it is this disconnect between the two parties that keeps the regualar, ongoing, preventative maintainence from happening. Just my 2 cents.

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Permalink Reply by ryan mcdougall on September 21, 2010 at 7:51am

ok, How about your 4 cents?! Those are really good points Mike. How can we avoid the "I fixed it - you pay me." attitude? Typically I try not to be a beast about it, but when you do a job, whether the machine can be fixed in one call or not, you still dispatched your resources(work truck, parts, service tech, etc...) on behalf of someone else's profit. I'm not defending the attitude, but how do we get around it? How do we become true partners to the cafe owners without loosing the leases on our workshops? I'd love your input because in the short time I've been in this business I've seen some pretty cut-throat/hardball cafe owners who assume I'm there to screw them before I say hello just from the past experiences they've had with other service companies. Maybe I'm a dreamer, but I'd like to be able to keep the lights on and make really good friends in this business. How can the coffee tech industry change for the better?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Sabol on September 21, 2010 at 9:33pm

Boy, that really is the $10,000 question, isn't it? I think that the basic failure is that both the cafe owners and the service companies allow the context of the relationship to be defined by the emergency situation staring them in the face. The cafe owner has a couple of problems, first - the machine isn't working and they're losing money and sales because of it. Second - they are going to be charged a lot of money to get it fixed. Either way they're out a lot of money. It's a no win situation for them. The service company has just the opposite attitude toward the situation. They are in the position to make pretty good money for 45 min of work and the mark up on the parts they use. The issue isn't that the service company is doing work that the cafe owner needs to be done, it's that the attitudes/agendas of the two parties are not emotionally aligned. This re-alignment should be the first thing a tech works on when they get on site.

Easier said than done, I know. The other thing I think service companies can do better is to schmooze more. Many techs have the interpersonal skills of the machines they work on. This only adds to the perception by the cafe owners that the service company is up to something. (They must be otherwise the tech would be more friendly.) As the owner of the company you need to get out among your customers and re-cast the context of your relationship. Stop by for a cup of coffee and chat. Commiserate about being fellow small business owners. DON'T TRY TO SELL THEM ANYTHING. Be pleasant, polite, professional and interested in their business and what they do. Like any other relationship. You have to work to make them trust you. And you can only do it one person at a time. Hook them up with a couple group gaskets. They only cost you $0.85 and it will help them right now. Install them real quick. No charge.

Another thing you have on your side is the fact that you are driving all over the place anyway. Use that to your advantage and stop by two or three places everyday to say "Hi" and buy a double shot. Make sure your company van is visible or that you are wearing your company shirt and be friendly. DON'T TRY TO SELL THEM ANYTHING. Don't ask to talk to the owner, don't drop off your business card. Ask how their day is going. Make some jokes about the weather. Just make sure they see you come around once or twice a week.

I have worked both sides of the relationship. I was a field tech for many years and right now I manage service for a roaster. I've thought many times about starting my own service company but I know very well how hard it is. And there are no guarantees of success. So I am not trying to make light of the work that you do and what you have done to get your business going. But as a service manager I know that I use the vendors that I trust. And I will give second chances to vendors who "do the right thing". Vendors that charge me $16.00 for a group gasket don't get called back. I know what your customers expect of you and I know from experience how difficult it can be but I also know that win-win long term relationships can be forged and that the effort you put into building-protecting-growing them will not be wasted. It's just a lot of leg work YOU have to do. Cafe owners always have the luxury of calling somebody else and if they have no relationship with you, what is going to stop them?

I believe that only after these relationships are built can you sell them on the preventative maintenance programs. Or water filters. Or advanced training. Or any of the other added value kinds of things you have to offer. They really have to trust that you are saving them money. From their point of view they are letting go of $200 every three months when there was no problem in the first place. That's a leap of faith and they'll only jump when they trust that you are on their side.

Was that 4 cents worth?

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