Custom Products Mean Custom Care
One of the most important things manufacturers can do is educate, advise and counsel operators about products in order to help them find the right piece for the right application rather than buy on the cheap, writes Lew Demis, regional sales manager at Town Food Service Equipment Co. in Brooklyn, N.Y.
By Lew Demis, Guest Author -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 6/1/2007
When operators identify the need to purchase a custom-built piece of equipment, it can be a time marked by intense pride and emotion. With a clear idea of what they want to accomplish, they will tell their consultant, dealer or manufacturer exactly what they want and expect the supply chain to deliver a product that meets their needs for a price that meets their budget. If only it were so easy.
In some instances, the end-user's budget will not support their perceived needs. This can lead to buying products on the cheap. Doing so leads to customer frustration associated with more downtime, higher maintenance costs and lower productivity.
What may seem like little things to a customer, such as insulating a chamber properly, can compromise the integrity of the equipment over time and may force the unit to come apart sooner. For example, one customer who bought something on the cheap told me he has to service an aspect of the equipment quarterly, as opposed to every five years or so if they had purchased the proper product.
The most successful projects I have been involved with include the consultant, dealer, operator customer and, of course, the manufacturer. And if the supply chain works together solely with the end-user customer's best intentions in mind, everything will be fine.
But the individual members of the supply chain need to function as a team in these instances. For example, some consultants and dealers have limited knowledge about certain types of cooking and may require a specialist's perspective. And if you get some wrong information from the beginning, it can affect the entire project. Many custom pieces of equipment, such as a wok range, require their own unique design and chamber configuration. We have the ability to assess these needs and generate a drawing for the customer to review. But the vendor probably won't know the local zoning and whether it requires something like safety pilots or whether the operation features limited space under the hood.
“What may seem like little things to a customer ... can compromise the integrity of the equipment over time and may force the unit to come apart sooner.” |
Oftentimes, we get a request that tells us exactly what the customer wants, based on their limited knowledge. In order to design the best product for the application, though, we push the conversation about features aside to determine what they want to accomplish.
We also can discuss the amount of space available, whether it's a new or existing operation, and the project's overall goals. Doing so allows us to explore the style of cooking, menu items, anticipated customer traffic levels, work flow and any other information relevant to this operator. And this will drive the configuration of the custom-built product.
These steps are important to take. Rushing them might lead to a product that satisfies their needs but the operator could determine later that structuring things differently would allow for even more productivity. But, there's not a whole lot you can do after the fact.
Sizing is another important reason to get the vendor involved early. Kitchen real estate is oftentimes limited and operators end up having to squeeze everything together, which can lead to selecting a piece of equipment that's less than ideal for the operation.
A product's features and options available should speak for themselves. What we need to do is educate the operators about what these features and options can do for them. The operators can weigh the benefits of the various features vs. the corresponding costs and make educated decisions.
