Customer Stories

From Phone Tag Chaos to Control: Kerbey Lane Cafe’s Journey with ResQ

Key successes

Company Background

Kerbey Lane Cafe, nestled in the heart of Austin, Texas, is a beloved local institution famous for its warm atmosphere, delicious comfort food, and community commitment. Since 1980, it has been a go-to spot for locals and visitors alike, growing to 10 locations and becoming one of Austin’s largest independent restaurant groups.

We spoke with Philip Baucus, VP of Operations and Director of Facilities, to learn about Kerbey Lane Cafe’s repair and maintenance process and how implementing ResQ has helped streamline their operations.

Challenge

Philip faced several challenges in their maintenance process.

Working within a system that only handled internal technicians

Initially, they used a minimal app that only allowed for basic internal work order submissions. External maintenance was handled ad hoc, relying on trusted vendors and starting relationships from scratch when new vendors were needed.

“All of our external stuff, which is just as big of a load, was really kind of just shooting from the hip, firing with vendors that we had kind of trusted. But when you needed somebody new, you had to start from scratch, and kind of develop that relationship again.”

Playing phone tag with vendors led to inefficiencies

This led to inefficiencies, as area directors frequently had to make numerous phone calls, follow up, and deal with phone tag to track and manage work orders, making the process cumbersome and time-consuming.

“And pretty early on, it was common that my area directors at work under me was like, "We got to have something. Every day, we wake up, we're making phone calls, we're following up, we're trying to figure out who's coming out, who didn't come out, did that store actually call in the work order?" And it was a lot of calling each other. And then, of course, whenever you call someone, they don't always answer, so you have to wait for the callback. Then the callback comes when you're in the meeting, and so then you gotta get out of the meeting.”

Solution

Philip and the Kerbey team looked to ResQ to solve these challenges. They integrated ResQ with ease, finding it user-friendly and straightforward, requiring minimal training. In addition, vendor onboarding was easy and Philip was able to maintain existing vendor relationships.

Integrated Internal And External Work Order Management In One Platform

With ResQ, Philip was able to bring full transparency into the repairs process by enabling both internal and external work orders in one place. Reassigning tasks from internal to external is simple, eliminating the need for daily vendor calls. Phillip can now quickly review and manage work orders from his laptop or phone, ensuring tasks are properly assigned and tracked. This streamlined process provides confidence in knowing the status and progress of all work orders.

“It makes me feel really confident that I know where I'm at, and what's being worked on, and how long it's been.”

Clear Calendar With All Asset Preventative Maintenance

In addition, for the first time, Philip was able to get one calendar with all preventative maintenance schedules. He mentions:

“What was really helpful with ResQ was for the first time I was able to get a schedule and a calendar with all of our preventative maintenance. That's a big thing for us. We have it for HVAC, we have it for espresso machines, we have it for... We do water filters, fire suppression, power washing, vent hoods. 10 stores, some of that's happening monthly, some of it's happening quarterly, but that's so many work orders. I don't even know. And as you're building stores in new markets, now, sometimes you have different companies, now you're not all in with one company anymore, because they don't stretch to that market. So now, the ability for me to log in and just know that everybody has a preventative maintenance, when it's coming, when it's going, and just that I have all that documented has been really fantastic.”

This ensures the Kerbey team is able to cut down the amount of reactive work orders associated with assets breaking down and leading to increased downtime and lost revenue.

Scaling with ResQ

With ResQ, Philip feels ready to open new locations. Kerbey’s expansion to San Antonio marked their first major move into a new city, requiring them to build a vendor list from scratch due to a lack of local connections.

Phillip Baucus has relied heavily on ResQ for this process. Establishing a verified vendor list was a strategic goal for the company’s growth, and ResQ has now made this possible. With ResQ, Kerbey Lane can confidently open new locations anywhere in the country, knowing they have access to vetted service providers, even before developing personal relationships with them.

“I can open in any state in the country, and be able to call somebody for any sort of service, and know that they're at least vetted by ResQ, if it hasn't been me yet, until we develop that relationship.”