CMMS

Find Facility Management Software with These 4 Tips

Time to invest in modern tools for restaurant repairs and maintenance before you fall behind. Discover how to find better facility management software now.


Restaurants spend $26 billion on repairs and maintenance (R&M) and an additional $35 billion on new equipment every year. But the traditional way of managing repairs with pen and paper in a messy binder with inconsistent processes for maintenance across teams and locations, it’s clear the status quo isn’t helping to reduce these massive expenses and headaches associated with R&M. 

Luckily, new investments in technology for the back-of-house means that the status quo can be a thing of the past for restaurant operators. It’s time to look ahead to better options for your restaurant R&M before you fall behind. 

Use these 4 tips to ditch the pen and paper and make a switch to facility management software.

Explore software made for the restaurant industry

Facility management software is used by a wide variety of businesses: hospitals, schools, big-box retailers, and yes, restaurants. But all of these use cases are incredibly unique, with different priorities and challenges within their respective R&M needs. 

So why do they all use the same type of solution?

This type of Computerized Maintenance Management Software, or CMMS, is designed for large-scale, varying footprints that are typically managed by onsite technicians. But this heavy solution simply isn’t necessary for multi-unit, multi-market restaurant operators who don’t have full-time facilities managers on staff in every location. 

So, when evaluating a new tool for R&M, focus on finding a solution that’s made specifically for the restaurant industry. These solutions are designed to support the equipment and infrastructure found within commercial kitchens with a wide variety of end users in mind—not just highly trained techs.

Consider time commitments for training

Software solutions are certainly less time-consuming than tracking everything related to R&M by hand. But an important consideration when you evaluate options? The time you’ll need to get your team up to speed on the tool, and the time it takes to keep it up. 

Facility management software can be complicated and is designed for folks with extensive experience in R&M. In restaurants, your staff is there because they’re passionate about hospitality and food. It’s highly unlikely they’ll be able to pick up complicated maintenance software with ease—which will cost you the time you thought you were saving by implementing  technology in the first place.

That’s not to mention the frequent labor turnover seen in the restaurant industry. Imagine investing hours of time into training your team on a facilities management software…only to have half of your staff gone within the next six months. It’s not ideal, but it’s a very real possibility.

Your facility management software should be easy to use from the day it’s implemented for everyone at the restaurant, no matter how long they’ve worked there. 

Get a helping hand with a human touch

Some software in this space just facilitates communication between your restaurant and its vendors through an app or work order management tool. Yes, it can track information—but it doesn’t actually take anything off your team’s plate.

Find a facility management software solution that has 24/7/365 support from real humans who have extensive experience within the restaurant industry. With technology solutions that include full-time service support, all your team has to do is communicate the R&M issue they’re experiencing —and the people on the other side of the line will take it from there.

Continue working with preferred vendors

Most facility management software solutions charge vendor fees or require time and training to dispatch vendors to you—even if you’ve worked with them for as long as you’ve been in business. These tools create a greater barrier to entry for vendors and cause seasoned experts to jump through unnecessary hoops just to get the job done.

Why would you want to punish vendors to continue your partnership? The ideal facility management software for your business is priced fairly with no hidden fees so you can keep R&M spend in check without alienating your existing partners.

The new way to manage R&M

Ready for a better way to manage R&M? Look no further. 86 Repairs is the repair and maintenance management platform built for the restaurant industry. Our tech-enabled solution includes on-demand repair management and preventative maintenance.

Plus, we’ll work with your existing vendors—and don’t punish them with fees for being on our platform. Together, 86 and vendors get repairs handled and maintenance managed. Take it from one of our vendor partners, Cory Y.:

“[...] The process is easy to follow, well-thought-out, and thorough. Any time we need to speak to someone at 86 regarding specific information or data gathering, the staff is knowledgeable and efficient at getting that back to us, so we can execute efficiently for our clients. We'll never use "S-Channel" again, now that we've discovered 86 Repairs!”

With 86 Repairs, restaurants have access to data-driven insights and 24/7 support to control their facilities, reduce their R&M costs, and spend less of their team's time on equipment repairs. Click here to request a demo!

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