Do you have different brands of drive-thru equipment? Not sure who to call when your equipment breaks down? CE is your total drive-thru solution. Not only does CE repair all major brands of drive-thru equipment, but they also have a trained technical support team that can assist with all of your drive-thru needs, no matter what brand of equipment you own. From programing your headsets to providing information on repairs, exchanges and onsite visits, CE has you covered.

Programming Equipment

Programming your drive-thru equipment can be a daunting task, especially if it’s been a while since you’ve done it. While some drive-thru timers and headset systems have become more user friendly over the years, there are still many out there that require extra help to get you back up and running. Many drive-thru systems require various combinations of button pushing or switch toggling to successfully program them. If you’ve misplaced the user’s manual it’s practically impossible to figure out the sequence without additional help. Whether it’s registering drive-thru headsets, setting up reminders in the message center, or re-installing drive-thru timers, CE’s technical support staff is able to help you every step of the way.

Troubleshooting Sound Quality Issues

Drive-thru sound quality plays an important part in order accuracy and speed of service. If the order taker or the customer has to repeat themselves because of problems with the audio, it can really slow things down. It also has a negative impact on the customer’s experience which is bad for business. If you are experiencing static, choppy audio or any other issues with your drive-thru sound quality call CE’s technical support team. They will troubleshoot your drive-thru equipment to find out exactly where the problem lies. Once the problem area is found, they will let you know what adjustments to make and give you advice on your next course of action if the problem is not resolved.

Providing Information about Repairs, Exchanges, and Onsite Visits

Not only are CE’s technical support reps skilled at troubleshooting equipment, but they are also very knowledgeable about when to send in repairs, when you should think about doing an exchange, and when an onsite technician is necessary. They can also provide you with the cost difference and timeframe of each service.

Next time you have a question about any of your drive-thru systems give CE a call at 877-731-0334. Technical Support is standing by to help with all of your drive-thru needs, from registering a headset, to assisting with drive-thru timer repairs and much, much more.  Best part of all, it’s free! What are you waiting for?

Now that schools are on break and the weather is warming up, everyone is spending more time out and about with their family and friends. With this busy season getting underway, you’ll want to make sure you’re prepared for the increase of orders coming in from the drive-thru. Here are a few tips that will help you manage your work flow and set up your store for success.   

Keep Tabs on Popular Menu Items - When there are several eateries to choose from, you need to stand out for the right reasons. Whether it’s a seasonal special or the most popular item on your menu, you’ll want to take regular inventory to ensure you have enough in stock at all times to keep your customers satisfied. A happy customer is a returning customer.

Clean up your Drive-Thru Menu Board - Make sure your menu board places emphasis on the most popular foods and beverages for the season. This is a great time to check pricing and update any outdated items. Also check the lighting on your menu board. Because people are staying out later during the summer months, they tend to eat dinner later in the evening. If there are areas that look dim, or sections that are completely dark, get in touch with your drive-thru menu board provider to have a technician come out and replace the bulbs.   

Inventory Your Drive-Thru Equipment - Working at a fast pace provides more opportunity for equipment failure, so you’ll want to have as many working back-up components as possible. If you have any broken drive-thru headsets or a non-operating drive-thru timer, send them in for repair before it gets too far in to summer. That way, if one headset goes down you’ll have replacements to back you up.

Purchase New Drive-Thru Batteries - When using a fresh, new drive-thru battery your headset will allow you to communicate for longer periods of time, thus reducing the need to switch it out as often. You’ll also experience an improvement in drive-thru sound quality, which will aid in order accuracy and help increase your overall speed of service.

The first day of summer is right around the corner. Now is the time to take advantage of these tips to ensure your drive-thru is working at peak performance. For additional ways to boost your drive-thru efficiency and overall customer experience, check back next week or call CE at 877-731-0334.   

The words “low battery” are the last thing a crewmember wants to hear while they are in the middle of a lunch or dinner rush. In the time it takes to remove the dead drive-thru battery, find a new one, insert it and turn your headset back on, the customer at your menu board will be irritated that they have not been greeted. To keep this from happening and to improve your overall drive-thru performance, here are five tricks to maximize your drive-thru battery life.

1.       Clean Batteries

When a battery isn’t making a solid connection with the contacts in your drive-thru headset or belt-pac, it can cause communication to drop suddenly. The best way to avoid this is by cleaning your battery contacts and the contacts in your headset or belt-pac with an alcohol swab. Also clean the ports in your battery charger to ensure your batteries are getting the best connection when charging. When maintaining your drive-thru equipment, you want to make sure that all pieces being cleaned are turned off and that you allow them to dry completely before turning any equipment back on or inserting batteries back in.

2.       Know When to Charge

Because drive-thru batteries have a certain number of charge cycles in their lifetime, it’s best to charge only when they are low on power. By turning off your drive-thru headsets and belt-pacs when not in use, you’ll be able to save any power your drive-thru battery is holding, avoiding an additional charge cycle. If you are unsure whether they have reached the end of their lifecycle, there is usually a manufacturer’s date on the back of the battery. If your battery is more than one-and-a-half to two-years old, you’ll want to send it to an e-waste recycling facility or back to CE for disposal, and purchase a new one. CE offers batteries that work with HME, 3M, and Panasonic drive-thru headsets. Call 877-731-0334 today!

3.       Keep Equipment Cool
When batteries are fully charged, remove them from the charger and store them in a cool, dry place. For best results, also keep your drive-thru battery charger in a cool, dry place. This will keep them from any overheating that can cause electrical component damage. 
 

4.       Use Regular Outlets
To extend the life of your batteries, use regular outlets instead of switched or timed outlets. This will ensure your battery goes through the entire charge cycle.

5.       Check Battery Ports
Before turning on your drive-thru headset make sure the battery is securely in place. If the battery feels loose, or if the clip that holds it in place is missing, contact Technical Support at 877-731-0334. They will troubleshoot the problem and recommend next steps.

By utilizing these five tips, you’ll see better results in your drive-thru performance. Drive-thru sound quality will improve. You won’t have to switch out your batteries as often, allowing crew members to stay focused on customers. And you won’t be caught off-guard when it’s time to replace your batteries. For more tips on how to maximize restaurant efficiency, or any other drive-thru maintenance related questions call 877-731-0334.

Unfortunately, not every quick-service restaurant can afford to buy a new drive-thru system every couple of years. However, by doing a little drive-thru maintenance on a regular basis you can extend the life of your drive-thru headsets and keep small problems from turning into large ones. Below are the four most common issues seen in drive-thru headsets, along with solutions to keep your drive-thru system running longer.

1.       Ear foams falling apart or missing

Ear foams aren’t often thought about until they are falling apart, or completely missing altogether. Replacing them at least every 60-90 days will not only improve comfort, but also improve drive-thru sound quality and promote good hygiene. And with ear foams being one of the least expensive drive-thru headset accessories, it’s a no-brainer.

2.       Visible fractures or cracks
Small cracks may not seem like a big deal, but if liquid gets inside the casing it can seriously damage the electronic components of your headset. If that happens, your headset can be deemed BER (beyond economical repair), which means you would have to purchase a new headset to replace the one that was sent in. To save money in the long run, send in your drive-thru equipment for repair at the first sight of fractures or cracks.

3.       Stuck or broken buttons
If you aren’t able to communicate with other crew members or customers due to a broken or stuck button on your headset, it can really cause issues with speed of service and overall customer experience. Weekly maintenance will help reduce the chance of this happening. If you aren’t sure how to clean your drive-thru equipment, refer to your user’s manual. If a button is completely broken, send your headset for repair.

4.       Batteries taped to the headset

When a latch on your drive-thru headset breaks, it may seem like a good idea to tape the battery in place and continue working. What happens, though, if a drive-thru battery isn’t seated properly in the headset, is it causes drops in communication. You could be in the middle of taking an order and lose connection without realizing it, causing communication gaps, and potentially slower service and incorrect orders. It's best to send it in for repair, rather than taking that chance.

By taking proper care, you’ll be able to extend the life of your drive-thru equipment, saving you money down the road. Make sure that routine checks are done to ensure ultimate drive-thru efficiency. For more information on how to increase the life of your drive-thru system, call 877-731-0334. Our technical support reps are happy to give advice and help with any of your drive-thru needs.

These days, sound quality in the drive-thru is really important when you’re up against the clock. With menu items becoming more intricate, the last thing you need is a customer having to repeat themselves due to voice breaks in your headset. The more time spent at the menu board, the longer others have to wait, and the fewer cars that get served. At the end of the day, this means less money coming in to your store.

The best way to avoid these issues is by staying up to date on your drive-thru equipment. Invest in a drive-thru system with wideband technology and state-of-the-art noise reduction capabilities, like EOS | HD from HME. With wideband you get an expanded audio range that includes higher and lower frequencies which provides a more accurate representation of a person’s voice. With the additional range you’ll have clearer conversations which will strengthen your order accuracy and speed up the order process.

If you aren’t ready for a new system, another great option is to purchase a protection plan from CE for all of your drive-thru repairs. For a flat, low monthly fee you can send in your drive-thru equipment as often as you need to get serviced. Whether it’s for static, or a broken headband or mic boom, CE will get it fixed and back out to you in no time.

There are so many options at the menu board these days, don’t let fragmented communication be one of them.

“Can I get a la    che   ger   with    ion and no    kles?”

Have you had a situation like this in your drive-thru where the person keeps cutting out, or there is so much static in your headset that you’re having to ask them to repeat their order two or three times? It’s not only frustrating for the customer, but also for the employee taking their order. Most often people think that the headset must be broken, or that there is an issue with the speaker, or that the entire drive-thru system is busted.

There are situations where that is the case, but often times it’s a less severe problem than you think. Here are a few ways to troubleshoot your drive-thru sound quality before wasting time and money sending in equipment that might not be broken.

Try a few different headsets. If the sound quality is clear in any one of them, then you can eliminate the base station and drive-thru speaker post as the cause. Take a headset that sounds clear, remove the battery, and place it into the headset that is not working properly. If that headset now sounds clear, then it could be that you have a battery that is low on juice or is just getting old. Most drive-thru batteries have a manufacture date on the bottom. If the battery is more than two years old it should be recycled and a new one purchased.

Clean the connections with an alcohol pad. If drive-thru equipment isn’t cleaned on a regular basis, then grease build-up occurs and can get into the electronic components. If it gets into the battery compartment, it can interfere with the connection between the battery and headset, causing static and audio cut-outs.  Turn off your headset, take the battery out, and clean the connections with an alcohol wipe where the battery and headset meet.

Move to another area of the store. If your headset only gets static or cuts out in certain areas of the store then there could be an issue with the antennas on the base station. Someone may have removed one of the antennas to adjust something else in the base station and forgot to screw it back in, or when the antennas were screwed in they weren’t tightened down correctly. Unscrew each of the antennas all the way and re-thread them back in, making sure they are secured properly.

I am a manager of several quick service restaurants in San Diego, CA. My weekly schedule is always hectic and jammed packed, with constantly visiting, checking up on the stores, and receiving updates from my employees. Having many tasks on my list of things to do throughout the week, in order to keep the restaurants running as smoothly as possible, the last thing I use to want to deal with is broken drive-thru equipment. I am sure that any manager or supervisor can relate when I say it is a nightmare having to deal with sending in the broken drive-thru equipment for repair and hoping it comes back fixed properly the first time around.

Having found CE Repairs a few years ago, drive-thru repairs no longer seem to cause much stress or agony to my daily life. In my eyes they are the drive-thru repair heroes! They have so much to offer and treat me with the upmost respect and care every single time I do business with them. They have consistently impressed me with their quick turn around on drive-thru repairs, and with their consistency of producing excellent and qualified drive-thru repairs on all my drive-thru equipment. If I could give one piece of advice, it would be to get in contact with CE Repairs and see what they have to offer with their drive-thru repairs, I promise you will gain peace of mind along with a great company to help keep your quick service restaurant up to speed.

There are many aspects that go into running a smooth, efficient, and productive drive-thru restaurant. Every manager's goal is to have a successful quick service restaurant running smoothly on a daily basis, without any obstacles or problems to overcome. There are many preventative maintenance tips that you could do yourself at the restaurant that could help you save lots of time and money on drive-thru repairs.

Drive-Thru Headset Tips:

Some of these tips below can help you and your staff from having to send in drive-thru repairs for your drive-thru headsets.

• When removing a headset, it helps if you remove the headset from both the left and right sides, rather than removing it from one end and pulling the other side off. This will prevent from any strain to happen on the headband part of the headset and potentially damaging the wires, or the making the band loose in any way.
• Do not swing or play with the headsets from either side, this will prevent from damaging the size and wear of the headset, along with preventing any breakage occurring to the headset and wires.
• Always make sure to have an ear pad on the ear piece of the headset, this will help prevent any damage to happen to the speaker inside the ear piece. This will also help to keep debris and dirt out along with preventing muffled or distorted sound.

Stay tuned next week for more preventative tips on your drive-thru headsets and drive-thru equipment!

Last week we gave you a few points on why CE Repairs should be your ultimate choice in a drive-thru repair facility. If those did not quite sell you on relying and trusting CE Repairs to take care of all your drive-thru repair needs and more, then here are some more points and facts on why CE repairs will be your drive-thru repair hero in more ways than one!

More about CE Repairs:

• CE Repairs is fully staffed with expertly trained and skilled technicians.
• CE Repairs offers same day service for all their customers. The technicians will fix your repair in 24 hours of receiving the drive-thru repair. If this is not met then your repair will be FREE of charge on CE Repairs.
• We provide nationwide installation and service by referrals of qualified onsite service providers.
• CE Repairs also offers free inbound shipping on all drive-thru repairs. All you need to do is fill out the simple drive-thru repair form and send it in to CE Repairs!
• CE Repairs also offers what many other drive-thru repair facilities do not, which, is free technical support in many different avenues. You can call our toll free number at 877-731-0334, you can watch our helpful how-to videos, review and download any of the user manuals that we provide for you, and also look over the FAQ's page and maybe find your answer!

CE Repairs has much to offer and these facts are only the tip of the ice burg. You will receive great service and care from us here at CE Repairs. We want to make sure our customers are 100% satisfied with all their drive-thru repair needs!

Are you in search for a reputable and reliable drive-thru repair company? Look no further than CE Repairs. We have plenty to offer you and are confident enough in our work that you will be satisfied with your drive-thru repair.

About our Drive-Thru Repairs:

• CE Repairs is a drive-thru repair facility that has been around for about 35 years.
• It is the only independent drive-thru repair facility that is HME factory- approved and trained.
• CE Repairs services all of the major drive-thru brands, such as: HME, Panasonic, and 3M.
• We do not compromise on the quality of our drive-thru repairs for our customers. Unlike many other drive-thru repair companies out there, we will not claim that we can fix a drive-thru repair we cannot. If we happen to run into this problem we will immediately notify you and you will receive either $65 credit to the purchase of a refurbished drive-thru product, or, 100$ credit to the purchase of a new drive-thru product. We pride ourselves in our integrity and always want to give the best to our customers.
• All of our drive-thru repairs go through a thorough 35-point inspection before the actual repair begins; we want to make sure the drive-thru repair is one that will last you.

Not sold yet on CE Repairs? Stay tuned for next week for more about why CE Repairs should be your one and only pick for a drive-thru repair facility!