Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/92325
time his managers were spend- ing on repairs and reallocate it to customer focus and employ- ee focus, the payback in his mind was worth every dime, " employees to join the CRS team were from the The first few and wanted to be a part of it excited by what we were doing paced and full of new challenges. because it was different, fast- equipment side of the business. They were says Schmitt, but adds that that perspective is not shared by the majority of his customers. Most tend to be more con- cerned with how the service can help them cut costs. In dollars and cents, savings start with CRS' data management sys- tem, ChainBase. Along with 150 service codes for facility items, it houses the make, model, serial number, purchase date,and a unique IDnumber that's used by call center techs to quickly pull up everything fromprimary and secondary contractors to warranty information. Every call starts with basic Level One troubleshooting, says Schmitt, adding that roughly 8 percent of service calls end here. Next, techs check the system to see if an item is under warranty;CRS keeps track of warranty information for each piece of equipment in its cus- tomers' stores and also files claims on their behalf. "If there's a problem, their first incli- nation is to pick up the phone and call a service agent, they're not thinking about what's covered or not covered, " says Faber. "That's where we come in. We know who to call and,most impor- tantly,we make sure that only warranty- certified contractors are called out when equipment is down and under warranty, which is the difference between paying a $500 invoice vs. pay- ing $0.That translates into huge savings for the customer. " Complementing Equipment Sales Rapids Wholesale has benefited as well from its ties to Chain Restaurant Solutions.Nestled in a space just outside of Schmitt's office,CRS and its staff of 12 generate a respectable addition to the overall revenue of the combined com- panies. For now, it's still a relatively small portion, says Schmitt,but CRS has provided a boon for Rapids, both inter- nally and in the market, by building bridges between big chain accounts and equipment sales.One noteworthy exam- 1 4 FEDA News & Views ple of its yield—a large expansion group with plans to build 200 new locations over the next three years. "It's not where we want it to be yet, but right now we're at a point where we're covering costs and making a little bit ofmoney, "says Schmitt."We've had a fair amount of success using CRS to get our foot in the door in terms of equip- ment sales. Andwhenwe catch some of our smaller accounts at the right time in their growth curve, they are very recep- tive to signing on with the service side. Internally, CRS has become the spark " that Forbes blogger Eric Jackson alludes to in his post "Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail to KeepTheir Best Talent. " All of the usual suspects are there—no discussion around career development, a lack of vision—but it's No. 2 on the list that underscores what can happen when a business owner, namely Schmitt, finds a project that ignites passion. According to Jackson, it's the failure to do so that causes talent to flee. "Top talent isn't driven by money and power, " he says,"but by the opportunity to be a part of something huge…and forwhich they are really pas- sionate. " After CRS gained a bit more traction in the market with its second customer, others in the company began to take notice, says Schmitt. "The first few employees to join the CRS team were from the equipment side of the busi- ness, what we were doing and wanted to be a part of it because it was different, fast- paced and full of new challenges. We were building and constantly making improvements all at the same time. It was exciting. " All of which appealed to Faber, who approached Schmitt about going on the road to sell the service a year after being hired to serve as the inside sales man- ager for Rapids' catalogue division. "By 2006, the Chain Restaurant Solutions side of the business had been tested with the Panera Bread franchisee and it was very intriguing to me after under- standing Joe's vision, " says Faber, an advertising sales manager for Auto Trader prior to joining Rapids. continued on page 16 " he says. "They were excited by