Maintenance – Neglect or Promote?

BY JAKE CHIAVARIO

Not all coffee shops are created equal and neither should their maintenance plan be.

Maintenance can be a tricky subject, of course we want our customers to budget and plan for scheduled maintenance on their espresso machines. The manufacturer sends you a list of quarterly maintenance that needs to be performed. This is a good platform to lay the ground-work, but it's more complicated than just going through a checklist every three months. In a perfect world we would go through our checklist, the customer would have the money to pay for that service, and machines would never break down. Unfortunately we live in an imperfect world.

Of course there’s items we know wear out, group gaskets/screens, baskets, portafilter springs, probes get build up, water filters clog or run out of media and burrs wear out. But at what rate? Does the restaurant selling 5lbs per week need as much maintenance as a high volume shop burning through 250lbs per week? Doing quarterly maintenance on a machine that sells 5lbs per week will certainly taint their coffee program, if it's not profitable they may just do away with the whole espresso program. Early on I had a customer who was doing quarterly maintenance and after we noticed their diffuser screens and gaskets looking new every time I came in, I felt like I was fleecing my customer. I brought to their attention replacing them was not necessary and we could extend their maintenance as I didn’t see quarterly visits fit for their volumes. By giving up this quick dollar to be made we are gaining something much more valuable long term: the customer’s trust and loyalty.

This is the question we ask our customers, “How many pounds of espresso do you go through per week?” We can then take that data and make maintenance decisions. For our customers we have annual, bi-annual (most common), and quarterly. We do have some super high-volume shops who need maintenance every three months, but a shop doing that much volume can afford it. We have to remember coffee has pretty slim margins and shop owners aren’t made of money. As technicians it's our responsibility to use their money wisely.

But at a minimum, we do this annually:

·       Safety valve

·       Vacuum breaker (or anti syphon valve whichever you prefer)

·       Group gaskets (we only use silicone these days)

·       Screens

·       Baskets

·       Portafilter springs

·       Level probes cleaned off

·       Steam valves rebuilt (sometimes only one side if that is the only used side)

·       Visual inspection

·       Functional test (testing all buttons, flow rates and steam boiler pressure and coffee boiler pressures)

·       And always ask prior to arriving if there are any concerns or complaints about the equipment. This can save headaches and money on all ends. (For those reading who are café owners/managers, communication to your tech about the problem in detail is the single most important tool for you to reduce maintenance costs!)

We’ve had customers who think they know the problem email a service request specifically asking, “Can you change my burrs?” not describing the problem. The person who made the request was not on-site, we changed the super expensive burrs in their grinder. Customer followed up with an email complaining the grinder does the same thing, and was upset their problem was not resolved even after they never communicated there was a problem.

Conversely for techs, don’t fix it if you weren’t asked to! As a technician it is our responsibility to make the customer aware of problems or parts that should be addressed or replaced. But it is not the technician’s responsibility to make that decision. I always leave notes on the invoice so if the customer ever tries to come back at you, there is a paper copy of suggested repairs. If you brought your car into a shop for an oil change and they just changed your brakes (without your consent) while it was there because they were worn, that would be pretty upsetting.

This article is not about promoting or neglecting maintenance, but about right-sizing it. Coffee shop owners aren’t made of money, and especially these days when every dollar and cappuccino and latte sale matters we need to make our services effective and deliver results to shop owners. Always strive to add value to maintenance and repair visits and your customers (at least the good ones) will notice and reward you.