Surviving Inclement Times in The Service Industry

By Kurt Benedict

Do you own or run your own commercial service company? Or, are you just starting out on your own? One of the things many of us have to overcome on a regular basis is our slow times.

The coffee industry can vary by geographical region. Living in Colorado, I can speak to this quite a bit. During the start of fall, all of our mountain towns are coming alive and getting ready for the ski season. During this time, most of the region wants the machines’ preventative maintenance done before the influx of visitors. The cafés want to make sure they are ready for the season with hopefully no failures. At the same time, Denver might still be relatively warm and not picking up yet for service calls. Basically, one thought would be about traveling distances. How far are you willing to go? I know I have covered 600 miles in a day before for one service call.

Some (or most) of us will find a way to weather the slow times through many different outlets. I know of one of our CTG members and CTechP instructors, Benny the Badger does welding jobs on the side, creating tables, handrails, and who knows what else. Benny does a great job keeping busy. I believe this is really a great way to be able to keep mechanically inclined and extremely creative when you are not working on coffee equipment.

Another one of our active members in the guild, Mr. Marty Roe out of Kansas City, has taken to teaching. By knowing and scheduling classes when his call volumes are low, he is able to keep himself and his team busy. On the bonus side, Marty is educating the coffee community and creating new technicians!

Do you and your company only work on commercial equipment? I know that many companies have taken to service and maintaining home equipment. With the rise of specialty coffee, there has been a demand for higher quality home machines. The demand for home machines introduced a demand for service on those machines. If you have the bandwidth and the ability, are you willing to work on the consumer machines? As long as your customer knows your time frame and you stick to it, it can be an easy way to keep you or your technicians busy in between calls. Plus, it is a great way to get your name out to the public.

It’s simply a fact most of us will have to face: we will have slow times. Make sure you are creative and able to work with what you have. If you can teach, perform another skill i.e.; welding, manufacturing, baking, entertaining, or work on similar style home equipment, why not? Many of us have found a way to weather the inclement times, so we can stay within the industry we love so much. Make sure you find your way!