Life is never dull in the ACS offices supporting catering businesses with their Rational ovens. Often what our Office Team copes with seems to go unnoticed. Today’s blog shines some light on Lynne, Neil, Allison and Helen’s work making sure customer’s problems are solved on a typical Monday.

AC Services Monday Emergencies

Bizarrely for some, our Monday starts on Sunday! We check in late Sunday afternoon with the engineer on call on the weekend to see if any calls were attended. And equally importantly those that have been carried over.

This means when Lynne opens up the office at 8.15; they are prepared for the email check from third parties, who want attendance often Monday and if not Tuesday at latest. There are also clients who’ve emailed rather than called. For us there is no difference. We need to respond. And immediately rejuggle our engineers’ visits to fit in the urgent ones with where the engineers are already attending on the day.

Of course, then the calls and emails start for those, who have waited until the office is open. Gone are the days of the office’s post-it whiteboard. This was like fighter command from old war movies. There was a constant rejuggling of the visits to efficiently deal with those that were next to each other. Today it’s a shared spreadsheet. But the activity of keeping our catering colleagues informed is still the same; typically by phone so we know everyone is updated.

Last in is often Helen. She is forgiven as we know she may have been on the phone solving problems already. There were the classic calls from the butchers at 6am and pub at 7. They got their problems sorted by 9 and 10 respectively. Both had very significant events that day so we understood their need; but these very early calls are thankfully the exception. More often Helen is redirecting an engineer from the route planned the previous week for more routine visits.

Supporting Our Customers and Our Engineers

Since ACS started in 1990, much has significantly changed in our office support. We have been running a fully automated service system for over a year now. This minimizes not only physical paperwork, but increases our responsiveness to calls from the information shared.

All jobs are placed on the system so that the engineers can use their mobile app to confirm which site they will be attending. Once there, all parts, timings and follow-up needs are shared. Lynne and Neil in the office can immediately save the jobsheet, prepare estimates should revisits be required, order non-stock parts, send copy jobsheets to third parties; and of course, raise invoices.

Not app-based are the necessary approval phone calls, while on the job for third party clients. Here the engineer informs the office so that Lynne can call the appropriate person for authorization to proceed. On the days she is in, Allison will take card payments if payment is required upfront or check the bank for Bacs payments.

Before leaving for the next job, the engineers always call in to doublecheck if the job on his system is where he is still going. Or whether an emergency has diverted him. This gives the office a chance to ring the customer with an eta. We can then ensure it’s convenient for us to attend at that time and for them to prepare for the engineers visit. We need access to left-hand side panel of the oven, often installed next to a wall. This can cause some disruption to the workings of the kitchen.

Paperwork, Parts and People

By no means are all Monday jobs, emergencies. Many are planned service calls either on regular maintenance plans or ad hoc. These may lead to estimates on costs to be approved or occasionally for parts not carried on the vans.

We repair most ovens first time with our 95+% first-time fix rate. But space constraints on the vans means we can’t carry everything. If parts need to be ordered Neil usually does this and then arranges either have them delivered direct to site or to the office for the engineer to take out.

Of course, once a part is used, it needs to be replaced on the van for when the engineers come in to restock. As Mondays calm down in the afternoon, we pick parts. This is something we do every day to ensure the appropriate van bins are ready for the engineers’ return.

Sometimes visitors come to the office to collect parts and cleaning products. This is when the office team actually get to meet our clients face-to-face rather than by phone or email. This is always a pleasure as it helps build relationships, upon which friendly efficient customer service is based.

For the ACS Office Team, the rest of the week is less manic. Not least as the emergencies are more evenly spread, until we get Friday! But that is a completely other story.