Carlisle Corp is a restaurant and hospitality company based in Memphis, Tennessee.
Owning over 200 Wendy’s franchise locations spread across the southeast United States, Carlisle Corp found they had many IT and system maintenance needs, from cash registers to payment terminals and beyond. Instead of using a third party to handle that maintenance, they decided to bring it in-house. And to do that, they needed the right system.
IT Manager Ashton Holton joined us to discuss his company’s expansion since implementing solutions from Commusoft’s Customer Journey plan in 2022.
He explains, “One of the biggest reasons we went with Commusoft was the tracking”. Whether tracking vehicles on the road, specific jobs, or technician timesheets, Commusoft ensures Ashton’s team has everything they need.
Confident Onboarding With Commusoft and Technicians
Choosing and implementing a new software package can feel like a roll of the dice. Ashton remembers working with Commusoft’s trainers:
“They held our hand through so much. It was huge, Commusoft was like going from a tricycle to a Ferrari! The trainers went at our pace, so we really enjoyed it. This helped whenever we had to ‘sell’ Commusoft, such as to technicians or other departments. We could say ‘hey look, this is why you’re doing it’.
He expands,
“Some of the techs were very hesitant to Commusoft at first, because it was a new way of learning to do things. But once they came around to it, it made sense and they saw the value added.. So that’s been pretty nice.
Accurate Timesheets
To make sure Carlisle Corp could be as efficient as possible, it was important to them to keep an eye on technicians and any unexpected detours.
Ashton explains,
“The timesheets feature is great mainly because anytime you clock in and out, it’s on your phone. The huge eye-opener for us is the time traveled versus the time worked on a ticket. Technicians hit ‘travel’ and then we have that travel time and can compare that with what the installed vehicle trackers recorded. If they took a crazy detour or something, we’d know.
“Or”, he expands, ”we see they hit ‘arrive’, they work the issue, resolve it, get a signature, and boom, Bob’s your uncle.”
Commusoft’s technician timesheet software enables teams like Carlisle Corp to accurately monitor their mobile workforce. With this digital solution, technicians can easily log their hours, without involving the office. Furthermore, admins can ensure field crews are accountable and follow company procedures.
Comprehensive Service Scheduling
With so many jobs and franchises to oversee, Ashton and his team need a reliable way to build out technician calendars. He explains,
“The scheduler and the visual aspect of it is fantastic because I can see at a glance and see that everything looks good. I can see the store numbers. I see the color-coded calendar of who’s going where and what’s happening. We can see technician drive times. Utilizing this system, we were able to create a more efficient program, allowing our technicians to hit multiple issues throughout the day, instead of traveling, working an issue, and traveling home.”
Optimized scheduling not only benefits his team, but their customers too. Streamlined calendars are most successful when customers are kept up to date. With their technician tracking portal, Ashton’s team shares live crew ETAs with customers. Ashton explains, “Both our field techs and our customers enjoyed the communication aspect of knowing when that technician was going to be on-site to address the issue.”
Commusoft enables service dispatchers to build time and cost-effective schedules, this means Carlisle Corp can boost their productivity and profits without additional administrative strain.
Planned Preventative and Reactive Maintenance
Staying ahead of issues is essential. Ashton outlines, “We do preventative audits, where we visit each site every month and take photos of their equipment.”
While preventative care is a keystone, Commusoft enables Ashton’s team to incorporate reactive maintenance too.
He explains,
“Every now and then there will be a technician on their way to a job, and we’ll find out ‘a certain restaurant is completely down. They can’t accept credit cards. They can’t serve customers right now’. So we’re losing money from this point. We can easily divert the technician, cancel a job, assign them the new one, and have them fly over with it.”
Real-Time Reporting
Ashton relies on Commusoft’s reporting software to confidently oversee and track the outcomes of the many maintenance jobs logged across their 200+ restaurants.
He states,
“The reporting feature pulls everything together with what was already built in. From the main reporting dashboard, I can see SLA breaches, job statuses, and drill into everything I need to. It gives us a 10,000-foot visibility of the business. And then whenever you look at Commusoft, you know green means good: everything’s fine, we’re doing great.”
Commusoft’s reporting dashboard software offers 40+ reports and customizable widgets, empowering managers like Ashton to gain full insights into their business. This way, Carlisle Corp can organize all aspects of daily operations, and expand the business with confidence.
Ashton summarizes,
“I would 100% recommend Commusoft to any company with a field tech program that is looking to resolve more jobs, improve visibility, and increase operations.”
