Customer Success Manager Spotlight: Katie Kammes

With 86 Repairs, handling restaurant equipment repair and maintenance is as easy as sending a text.

One of our Customer Success Managers is on call, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and seamlessly facilitates the entire process for our customers, from troubleshooting to comparing vendor quotes to dispatching service.

Katie Kammes is approaching her one-year anniversary at 86 Repairs.

As a Customer Success Manager, she uses a nuanced, confident approach to solving R&M issues for our customers. 

With an extensive background in the restaurant industry, Katie has done it all. She’s worn the hat of host, server, manager, accountant, account manager, and office manager. While working at a Chicago restaurant group, Katie saw firsthand how 86 Repairs takes R&M off customers’ plates.

“[Managers] were definitely freed up to do stuff for me that I needed for my deadlines, because 86 was helping them manage repairs. That gave me an interesting perspective on how 86 alleviates the pain that GMs have around R&M. When I got into this role with 86, it became crystal clear: Oh, we really are saving them a ton of time, a ton of money,” said Katie.

Katie works on Sundays, when customers are subject to overtime fees and have limited access to available service providers.

Just getting someone to the restaurant can incur a starting cost of $500, because they’re charging port to port—the entire time it takes to get to the restaurant—plus their overtime rate. 

"When I got into this role with 86, it became crystal clear: Oh, we really are saving them a ton of time, a ton of money.”

Over a recent weekend, Katie helped a customer save inventory (and hard costs) from a malfunctioning reach-in freezer. She quickly discovered the unit was under warranty, noting that it would be void if she dispatched a service provider that day, as warranty service wasn’t available on the weekend.

So Katie counseled the customer, advising them to move their product to a walk-in cooler and surround the more vulnerable product with ice packs in bins until the next day. This strategy saved the customer from high overtime fees and protected their warranty, which was good for a few more years.

“It’s not perfect, but you can make it work, and I know that because I have that former restaurant experience. I’ve seen it done. I’ve seen chefs and managers pull those little shortcuts to make it through. So that’s part of troubleshooting as well, solving those problems: How can we make it through the night to save that extra money?” said Katie.

Savings Alert!
How'd she do it? Katie walked the customer through successful troubleshooting tips to defrost a freezer that wasn't holding temp properly. The troubleshooting solved the issue and the customer avoided a $215 service provider dispatch cost.

Katie thrives at the intersection of creativity and practicality.

When solving customers’ problems, she uses intuitive guidance to first troubleshoot the issue with the customer, and then dispatch service using the formula of Intake, Dispatch, Follow-up, and Close. 

“I think what separates us from any kind of other restaurant CMMS vendor, is that we do have that personal touch in the sense that the more customers work with us, the more we basically become another appendage. We’re an extension of them. We become familiar with the layouts of their restaurants. We become friends with the managers that we talk to all the time that are calling in. We know their company culture,” Katie said.

Through her work at 86 Repairs, she finds joy in helping customers save time and costs while also getting to know customers on a deeper level—with 86 Repairs, our Customer Success Managers truly become a part of your team.