When you are in the food service business, your refrigeration equipment is your lifeline. You depend on those blast chillers and display cases and low-boy refrigerators and walk-in freezers to keep your ingredients and your product both fresh and safe to consume. The problem is, when any one of those units breaks down, you have a serious problem on your hands and you need emergency refrigerator repair FAST.
If you’ve been in the restaurant business for a while, you’ve probably experienced the panic that sets in when you unexpectedly need refrigerator repair. And it always seems to happen during your busiest time! You may find yourself throwing away thousands of dollars in wasted product and losing significant business in a very short period of time. Not to mention the repair bill, which can often cost you double if it happens at night or a weekend.
When that happens (and it eventually will), you need to ensure that you can get fast emergency refrigerator or freezer repair. You may already know from experience that you’re unlikely to get fast service if you cold-call just any emergency refrigerator repair company you come across on the Internet.
So how can you find a company you can count on to fix your emergency refrigerator repair problems before your profits melt away like the ice cream in your broken freezer? Read on for three little-known strategies.
3 steps to ensure fast emergency refrigerator repair when you need it
1: Have your equipment regularly serviced
There are actually several benefits to this strategy. First of all, preventative maintenance keeps your refrigeration equipment operating efficiently and reliably. This means you won’t experience as many emergency refrigeration repair issues to begin with. That’s because when a qualified service technician inspects your equipment, he can spot failing parts and impending problems and fix them before they cause the unit to fail during a busy dinner shift. He also changes filters and cleans grimy coils and fans which prevents damage to the compressor.
The second benefit is lower electric bills. This one might be a surprise, but it’s a fact: when your refrigeration units are kept clean and operating efficiently, they use considerably less electricity. That’s because they can maintain the set temperature without running constantly.
And here’s the part you were waiting for: you’ll get faster emergency refrigeration repair when your service technician is familiar with your equipment. He’ll be able to hone in on the problem and diagnose the issue more quickly. And if the same company regularly services your equipment, it’s more likely that they will have parts in stock to fix it. Remember that response time is not the only factor to consider when selecting a service provider for emergency refrigerator repair. It doesn’t help if someone shows up in an hour, but you need to wait 3 days for the parts to fix it.
Related article: Commercial Refrigeration Maintenance: Summer Tuneups Prevent Meltdowns
2: Invest in a maintenance contract
Did you know that service providers often give priority on emergency refrigeration repair calls to their customers with maintenance contracts? So if you want someone there quickly in an emergency, don’t just call them in periodically to do maintenance. It’s worthwhile to invest in a maintenance contract. You’ll also get the best price on all your service needs with a maintenance contract. And you get peace of mind knowing that if you do need emergency refrigerator repair, you will get priority attention from a company that you already know and trust.
A refrigeration maintenance contract is an important way to manage and plan for your commercial refrigeration repair service. If you are new to these type of agreements, or you just haven’t explored using them for refrigeration, grab a copy of our free guide that can help you navigate the possibilities and decide what’s right for you: Refrigeration Preventive Maintenance Contracts: How to Find the Right One for Your Food Service Operation.
3: Use the same provider for all your HVAC, refrigeration and kitchen service needs
Now that you know a service provider will give priority emergency commercial refrigeration repair to their best customers, it should not be a surprise to learn that if you use the same provider for all your HVAC, refrigeration and kitchen service, you’ll get priority treatment for that as well.
Actually, there’s quite a lot you stand to gain by sticking to a single service provider for your kitchen, HVAC and emergency refrigerator repair. For one thing, it makes your life simpler when you have one company to deal with. It means fewer phone calls and less paperwork. But there’s something even more important you gain by building a relationship with one trusted refrigeration and HVAC service provider: having someone with eyes on the big picture.
When you have different vendors doing each job, no one is considering the impact of each of your systems on one another. For example:
- Kitchen equipment produces heat that creates a higher load on your air conditioning.
- When your air conditioning is not working well, your refrigeration equipment has to work harder to reach set temperature since ambient temperatures are higher.
- Problems with kitchen ventilation can also impact the effectiveness of your air conditioning.
- When air conditioning is not properly maintaining temperature and humidity, your open cases can run continuously as they actually attempt to cool the surrounding space.
When you have a single service provider responsible for kitchen, HVAC and emergency refrigerator repair, problem-solving is streamlined, making it faster and more cost-effective to find the right solutions.
Related article: 5 Reasons to Combine Your HVAC and Refrigeration Repair Services