Content sponsored by: Heritage Parts
Chain operators know that international expansion comes with unique challenges. For one major quick-service restaurant (QSR), a considerable challenge came in the form of considerable shipping delays for equipment parts.
This leading chain had found huge success in Canada. However, there was one problem that kept its Canadian operations from performing as well as they could: Every time a piece of equipment broke down, the chain had to order parts from the United States, which meant significant shipping delays.
For QSRs, equipment downtime can feel like hemorrhaging profits. Every hour your equipment remains unusable is an hour you’ve failed to meet customers’ expectations. That means missed sales opportunities and even, potentially, loss of customer loyalty.
As the chain operators learned, you can’t rush customs no matter how badly you need a part – and sometimes they really needed a part.
Faster Shipping for Better Customer Service
The Canadian operations knew that to minimize equipment downtime, it needed to deliver parts to locations faster with minimal delays and without added fees. What the QSR chain found in Heritage Parts was even better: a partner who would work closely with the company to learn the unique needs of the chain’s business and help it thrive.
Headquartered in Fort Wayne, Ind., Heritage Parts is the largest distributor of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts for commercial kitchen equipment in North America. The company also happens to have the largest Genuine OEM parts inventory in Canada, with eight Canadian service branches and three Canadian parts warehouses.
Heritage’s presence in Canada meant the QSR chain would no longer have to worry about international shipping delays. However, that wasn’t the only thing that set Heritage apart as a parts distributor.
A Partnership for Shorter Downtimes
Heritage invested in its partnership with the chain by launching a grassroots effort to meet face to face with franchisees so Heritage could better understand their specific needs. As part of its commitment to service, Heritage immediately began stocking the chain’s most critical parts.
All of Heritage’s in-stock parts are shipped at a same-day fill rate of more than 96 percent, which meant the chain could count on getting the parts it needed when it needed them. Partnering with Heritage quickly proved effective for minimizing equipment downtime, and the QSR chain soon discovered that speed wasn’t Heritage’s only advantage.
Heritage also offers support from parts specialists, dedicated OEM experts who work directly with customers to assist with equipment repairs, and provides industry-leading parts identification and order accuracy.
Heritage’s focus on customers is a crucial aspect of what makes the company stand out. Parts specialists maintain records of customers’ order histories to help restaurants keep up with equipment maintenance and anticipate the parts they may want to have readily available to avoid costly downtime.
Heritage’s partnership with the Canadian operation has been an ongoing commitment. “We review ours sales daily,” says Trevor Seppanen, director of parts operations at Heritage. “So if they [the QSR chain operators] buy a gadget that we’ve never sold before or never had in stock, we’re stocking multiple units immediately.”
Start Your Partnership
That kind of foresight leads to the level of service that sets Heritage apart. Simply put, when you call Heritage, you can rest assured an expert parts specialist can accurately identify the part you need and ship that part the same day from the largest in-stock inventory of Genuine OEM parts in North America.
The performance of the program and Heritage’s dedication to customer service is also paving the way for an even greater offering of services and geographic expansion. As the Canadian chain discovered, Heritage is more than a parts distributor: It truly is a partner.
Get advice from a dedicated parts specialist today when you call Heritage at 1-800-458-5593, and make sure to visit HeritageParts.com to create your own personal online account, so you can order parts anytime, 24/7.