At this time of economic uncertainty, many butchers and local retailers may be looking to cut cost by reducing spend on equipment service premiums.
Equipment maintenance is often regarded as a non-essential expense, with owners believing that until the equipment fails completely, there is no need to call out an engineer.
In this article, Mark Goff, service commercial manager for Avery Berkel, the UK’s largest weighing equipment service provider will highlight why it makes good business sense for butchers to ensure that the scales installed in the store are serviced regularly.
A critical component to your business performance
A business’s weighing equipment is critical to daily operations and its failure can lead to customer dissatisfaction, loss of revenue and profit as well as a breach of Weights and Measures’ legislation if the equipment is neglected for too long.
For example, in many butchers’ shops, there may only be one weighing machine, and in some instances, this will function as a counter scale and a cash register. If this scale fails, the butcher is faced with a serious problem.
Firstly, it becomes impossible to sell any loose meat because there is no means of accurately and legally determining the price to pay. In stores where there is no pre-packaged produce for sale, this will soon become a costly problem as customers are forced to go elsewhere to make their purchases. In the worst case, the butcher may be forced to cease trading until the scale can be repaired or a replacement machine found.
Secondly, with equipment out of action, customers will inevitably be dissatisfied with the level of service they are receiving, as queue lengths and waiting times increase; an unwelcome situation for every butcher that is anxious to retain customer loyalty in today’s highly competitive marketplace.
The problems of inaccurate weighing
Weights and Measures’ legislation specifies that butchers ‘must use scales that are approved for trade use and stamped to show they’ve been tested.’ In addition, it is considered ‘an offence to have or to use equipment which is seriously incorrect.’
In practice, this legislation gives trading standards officers the power to remove and destamp a scale that is operating outside the permitted tolerances – and this scale can only be returned to service once it is repaired and restamped. This cost, in terms of downtime and lost revenue to a business can be considerable.
Aside from the legal implications of inaccurate weighing, there are other financial concerns that owners should be aware of. If a scale is ‘under- weighing’ items, the shop is unable to trade efficiently, as it becomes impossible to price loose goods properly, resulting in high levels of product giveaway that will affect the store’s profit margins.
In contrast, an inaccurate scale which is ‘over weighing’, in other words, providing a readout that is heavier than the item itself, will result in the customer being overcharged. Perhaps most importantly, it will render the scale illegal in the eyes of a trading standards officer.
Scale maintenance – a simple solution
There are certain simple steps that every retailer can take, at no cost to the business to ensure that every scale in the shop is performing well, but, argues Goff, this should be considered as additional to and not a replacement for routine, professional service and maintenance.
The scale should always be sited on a flat surface, away from strong draughts caused by breeze or air conditioning systems. The level indicator device should read correctly and the scale should be properly balanced so that the weight display is reading zero.
The scale should be kept clean and free from any debris underneath the pan, as build up of material under or adjacent to the scale can interfere with the weighing operation.
Finally, it is critical to carry out regular checks of the scale with stamped weights to ensure that the machine is weighing accurately and remains suitable for trade purposes.
No replacement for professional maintenance
As we have established, monitoring the accurate performance of weighing equipment is critical to business performance and profitability. However, for better peace of mind, Goff recommends investing in a service contract from a reputable supplier that can help guarantee the continuous and efficient operation of all the scales in store.
Most suppliers will fix a faulty scale without a service contract in place, but owners will typically be charged a premium for this kind of response and will generally have to wait longer for an engineer to visit than existing contract customers, increasing equipment downtime. With this in mind, the case for spending a little on a monthly service premium soon becomes an attractive proposition.
When choosing a supplier, butchers should consider the level of service they want to receive, taking into account areas such as response times, technical support and payment terms.
For example, Avery Berkel, which has recently invested £5 million to improve its customer service infrastructure, offers a wide variety of flexible service contracts to suit the demands of even the smallest butcher’s shop.
As standard, its contract customers are assured of a 12-working hour response and fix service, so owners can typically have their scale operational again within one day. This is made possible because the company’s engineers are located across the UK and only have to travel short distances to reach the customer.
If a scale fails then it is always desirable to have the fault fixed first time, to avoid further disruption to shop operations. Therefore, another area to consider is the expertise and technical knowledge of the service provider.
It is always preferable to use a company that specialises in weighing scale support than a more general equipment service supplier, as its technicians will have the necessary technical knowledge and backup and are more likely to have the correct spare part to fix the fault quickly and avoid further delay.
Cost is, of course, a key factor in the choice of service provider and it is often the case that a larger organisation can offer lower monthly premiums than a smaller, local supplier. Avery Berkel provides contracts from as little as
41 pence per day, which include all emergency callouts and spare parts and flexible monthly direct debit payment terms.
Protect your profitability
There is no question that, in this economic downturn, local retailers are scrutinising cost across every area of their business and minimising spend wherever it is practical to do so.
However, consider how much revenue a store can lose if the scale is out of action, even for a few days? It is likely that the affect on profitability far outweighs the small cost of a monthly service premium. For this reason alone argues Goff, investing a little in a service contract now, can be a sound financial decision in the long term, whilst helping to improve store efficiency and improve scale life, to minimise further capital expenditure.
For further information, please contact Avery Berkel on 0870 903 2000 or visit the company’s website at
www.averyberkel.com
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