Building customer loyalty is a high priority, and delivering on customer experience is often the key to loyalty. Providing customers a great experience can involve your unique offer, but it’s more than that. The bottom line is that a great experience is a smooth experience.

Industry veteran and Senior Vice President of Customer Success—Convenience at Vixxo, a facilities solution provider, Jeff Stegman noted that many c-stores have at least 30 equipment assets, a number that is continuing to grow. “Whether it’s a pizza maker, a beverage dispenser or something else, equipment that isn’t up and running leaks both dollars and customers. With 75% of c-store profit coming from in-store sales, operators want to ensure customers get what they need,” he said.

Vixxo has observed that most stores do well in maintaining their HVAC and refrigeration equipment. However, food, beverage and pump equipment are more likely to be out of order, which negatively impacts the overall store experience. Maintenance presents several challenges, such as the availability of trained technicians, increasing equipment complexity and inefficient processes.

When a piece of equipment fails, it halts sales and may drive customers away for good. In a Vixxo study, 35% of convenience stores reported issues with revenue-generating equipment, and a quarter of all stores had problems with food and beverage equipment. “We see inefficiencies in the maintenance and repair process, combined with a shortage of trained technicians,” Stegman explained.

Efficiency is key when it comes to making repairs in the store. Today, most corporate c-store operators have their own in-house technicians as part of their facilities model. This model is meant to help manage costs, improve customer experience and provide better control over repair and maintenance—but it doesn’t always accomplish these results, said David Lambert, president at Vixxo.

Lambert explained, “We’re seeing organizations primarily focus on the percentage of work orders internal technicians complete. They are not always looking at efficiency or the right balance between external providers and internal teams, leading to higher costs and more equipment downtime.” An effective technician team, he said, should be spending more than 60% of its hours on-site. He’s seen operators with on-site numbers below 50% … who still pay their technicians a lot of overtime.

Transforming the Field With AI

It is projected that by 2025, the maintenance industry will face the challenge of filling 3.4 million jobs, as many technicians opt for retirement. The phenomenon is part of what’s referred to as the “Silver Tsunami.”

Lambert noted that the average time to recruit for a maintenance role is now more than 50 days—with an average training time of six weeks added on. Additionally, the turnover rate is at 20%—and even higher for employees in their first year—so employees are spending a lot upfront to build and maintain a technician team.

As the influx of new technicians continues to grow within the industry, companies are faced with the critical responsibility of cultivating and supporting the growth and development of these individuals. This was a great opportunity for artificial intelligence, AI, to come into play.

According to McKinsey, AI could add up to $4.4 trillion value to the economy. As many companies look to unlock AI’s potential, Vixxo has been exploring how to impact the facilities industry. “We’ve identified numerous ways for AI to enhance our services and add value for our clients. Our AI journey began several years ago, but we made critical investments last year to support technicians in the field” shared Bobby Hunnicutt, VP of IT at Vixxo.

Refining the Process

Currently, when technicians need support in the field, they have a few options:

• Call in-house tech support, which often has delayed response times.
• Contact a colleague or friend for help.
• Refer to instruction manuals or guides.

“These options are inefficient, and often mean that a necessary repair takes longer than it needs to” said Jim McCarthy, COO at Vixxo. Vixxo delved into the various ways that the technician experience could be enhanced and efficiency improved. One major issue that Vixxo looked to solve was the transition between experienced technicians who are retiring and the technicians who are just entering the workforce and who need a way to quickly learn from the experience of others.

“We were exploring the various ways that we could help to bridge this transition in the workforce,” McCarthy said. “We wanted to provide all of our technicians, new and experienced, with comprehensive support along with training for incoming employees.”

As a result, Vixxo built an AI solution that incorporates decades of work order history, asset information and experience to create a tool that technicians can interact with to resolve issues faster. The new tool is called VITA: Vixxo Intelligent Tech Assistant. “VITA is the first virtual assistant of its kind in the industry,” Hunnicutt said. “We also plan to offer it to customers for use with their own technician teams. Additionally, store managers can use it to troubleshoot issues, reducing repair costs by avoiding unnecessary service calls.”

VITA, powered by Vixxo’s AI, provides technicians with instant information in the field, offering real-time guidance, troubleshooting and feedback. “Our virtual assistant is built to put the right information into the hands of the technician, provide information on parts and avoid ordering the wrong parts. With that, it reduces overall equipment downtime and improves first time fix rate.”

“This is a good tool and it provides useful responses. It is definitely a quick resource in the field, especially when other techs are busy or the manufacturer tech support is behind” shared Jack Buda, a food and beverage technician at Vixxo. Buda has worked in the service industry as a tech for seven years and has seen first-hand the challenges of not having the right information at the right time.

To avoid some of the pitfalls associated with early AI systems—such as generating incorrect or nonsensical answers—VITA operates in a closed, supervised environment. The system contains over 20,000 pieces of content, and Vixxo continuously updates it to ensure the knowledge base remains current.

McCarthy noted that VITA is currently available for Vixxo technicians, but the company has plans to expand the solution to c-stores soon. “C-store operators have been sharing the constant need to increase operational efficiency and lower costs and we’re having active conversations with them on the potential of VITA.”

If you are interested in learning more, you can be part of the first look team by signing up at https://www.vixxo.com/facilities_ai.