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When you decide to hire professionals for planned preventative maintenance (PPM), it should be the best planned preventative maintenance company you can find considering your needs and budget.
So, here are some valuable recommendations on how to shortlist the possible PPM providers and choose the best one for your restaurant.
Check certification
Start with legal attributes. In other words, your provider must have all the necessary certification. Regarding this, it is worth paying attention to at least the following aspects:
- F-gas certificate for refrigeration and HVAC maintenance
- Gas Safe certification for commercial kitchens with your exact equipment type domain
Check expertise
First, you need not just a handyman who knows how to service cooking, refrigeration, and cooling facilities in general but an engineer with deep expertise in your exact equipment and its exact brand. For example, if your kitchen is equipped with Rational ovens, you need expertise in Rational ovens, not in Hobart or any other brands.
To clarify, expertise in your exact brand is necessary, because, first, the unit could be built with some unique technologies, and an engineer should be familiar with them. Second, should this unit require repairs, the service provider must have got access to supply of genuine parts for this exact brand or fully compatible generic parts.
Check terms and conditions
Some providers offer annual PPM visits while others are more flexible and can offer bi-annual or even more frequent servicing.
Other terms and conditions to check include such important service level aspects as:
- Appointment window that fits your business schedule
- Availability if an emergency, response and arrival times
- Extra services that can be provided (for example, Gas Safety certification, hygiene service, etc.)
- Billing and payment terms
- Contract price, repair and extra service rates
How to verify and make decision
You can verify the candidate certification in the official database of the relevant register authority. To verify their expertise and their actual service level commitments, ask for references.
After checking and verifying the candidates’ certification, expertise, and commitments, analyse their terms and conditions and compare them with other providers and your own requirements and budget limitations. And choose the company that best fits your requirements and budget, while offering an optimal service-to-cost ratio.
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