Most quick-service crew members simply don’t have time to wait on the phone to purchase accessories or replacement parts. CE makes it incredibly convenient by offering online ordering. You can make purchases 24/7, as well as view repair pricing, send in drive-thru repairs, and read up on ways to improve your drive-thru efficiency. Gone are the days of waiting on hold.  

CE makes ordering drive-thru equipment as easy as 1-2-3. With an online shopping cart you can purchase drive-thru headsets, chargers, batteries and other accessories without ever having to pick up the phone.

Follow these steps to get started:

1.       Hover your mouse over the “Drive-Thru Repairs Accessories & Sales” tab above, and click on your brand of equipment.

2.       Choose the drive-thru equipment or accessories you need and add them to your cart. You can make quantity adjustments while items are in your shopping cart.

3.       Once you are ready to place the order, click Checkout.
Fill out your shipping and billing information and submit your order.

If you need to send in a drive-thru headset repair, CE also offers FREE inbound shipping. Locate the shipping form on the “Send in a Repair” tab, fill in your information, and click submit. A shipping label will be displayed on the next page. All you have to do is print it and tape it to the outside of your broken equipment box. Drop off the box at a UPS facility or hand it to your UPS driver and we’ll take care of the rest.

Check back next week for more tips on how to improve your drive-thru efficiency. Right click here and select “bookmark this link” to make CE blogs easily accessible for your weekly reading enjoyment. If there is anything you cannot find on the site, call 877-731-0334 and one of our support reps will be happy to assist.

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.

Everyone likes to get something for free.  During the CE free drive-thru battery special, when you purchase three CE batteries for use with your HME drive-thru system, we’ll throw in a fourth one for free! And that goes for Panasonic and 3M systems as well. Simply add three CE brand drive-thru batteries for the same system to your online shopping cart, and we’ll add the fourth battery to your order when you check out – for free!

This limited-time offer includes the following drive-thru batteries:

CE Battery for use with HME systems:

• Wireless IQ
• System 2000
• System 400

CE Battery for use with Panasonic systems:

• Attune
• WX-C920
• WX-C1020

CE Battery for use with 3M systems:

• XT1
• C960
• C1060

The QSR business is all about speed. The faster you can move customers thru your drive-thru, the more profitable you’re going to be. So when drive-thru equipment fails, it’s critical that you can get up and running as fast as possible. That’s why CE offers same-day service on drive-thru repairs. In most cases, we’ll repair your product within 24 hours of receiving it.  When it comes to getting you up and running in no time, it’s hard to beat CE Repairs.

Free inbound shipping on your drive-thru repair

To make it even easier, CE offers free inbound shipping for all drive-thru repairs. Just fill out an easy online form and print free inbound shipping labels (link) for your drive-thru repair. And we back every CE drive-thru repair with a 4-month warranty. If anything goes wrong with your equipment during that time period, we’ll fix it again – free.

Let’s face it, drive-thru equipment takes a lot of day to day abuse. Knowing the leading issues that lead to drive-thru headset repairs will at least keep you informed and hopefully less likely to need repair work done.

Broken wires across the headband

The leading issue for drive-thru headset repairs are broken wires across the headband. Twisting, pulling and bending the headset can lead to loss of communication with customers. So take it easy on those headbands, or insist on a product without wires in the headband like HME’s EOS|HD AIO drive-thru headset system.

Strain on internal wires for mic booms

Flexible booms and poorly designed pivots put strain on internal wires and often cause intermittent or complete power failures. Make sure you don’t force the mic boom any further than when you feel tension or resistance. Steel booms and pivots can also help prevent those problems. If that’s not an option, of course there’s always CE Repairs and their famous same-day service on most drive-thru repairs.

Headset Buttons

Hundreds of presses a day can take its toll on your drive-thru headset buttons. Try and keep the buttons clear of dirt and grime and handle with care.

Having a run down, damaged or faulty working drive-thru equipment affects everyone involved and can create problems for just about everyone. The line of people affected starts from the beginning with the manager or owner, to the very last person, being the customer. Make sure that your drive-thru repairs are no longer a hassle or nightmare to deal with. You can make this a reality when you work with CE Repairs. CE Repairs has a fully trained and knowledgeable staff of expert technicians that can turn around drive-thru repairs correctly the first time and not to mention, in a timely fashion back to their customers.

Drive-Thru Discovery

CE Repairs has been the leading drive-thru repair company for the past 40 years. Having been in the industry for so long gives CE Repairs the upper hand amongst their competitors; they stand apart by not only offering great service and deals, but also standing by their word and producing quality drive-thru repairs. You will be guaranteed to come back to CE Repairs time after time when you are in need of a drive-thru repair, or perhaps even a drive-thru equipment upgrade. There are many facets where CE Repairs has you and your quick-service restaurant covered. Discovering CE Repairs will soon come to be one of the greatest discoveries you will have made to make sure your quick-service restaurant, one that is operating at optimum levels at all times.

Being able to trouble shoot your drive-thru equipment back to life, can save you money and time along with the added stress of sending away for a drive-thru repair or waiting on a service provider to come out to your quick service restaurant. With these tips below, hopefully it will save you from having to call for a service provider and spending any money at all!

Tips

• Having difficulties with your drive-thru vehicle detection system? Try these two options first to help troubleshoot your drive-thru vehicle detection system:

1.       Try resetting the drive-thru system base station. If this does not resolve the problem with the drive-thru vehicle detection system, then proceed to try step two.

2.       Try unplugging the entire drive-thru system and rebooting.

• If the two options above did not work you may need to check for the following:

1.       Loose cable and electrical connections in your drive-thru vehicle detection system?

2.       Any frayed or exposed loop lead in wires?

3.       If your drive-thru menu board was moved or relocated without moving the detectors loops along with it, this could cause a connection problem.

4.       Inclement weather effect?

After running through this check list and nothing seems to resolve the issue with your drive-thru vehicle detection system, try calling CE Repairs at 877-731-0334 for free technical support, or to schedule an onsite service provider to help repair the problem.

CE Repairs has been able to establish themselves as a very reliable choice when it comes to drive-thru repair companies. They are set apart from the rest of the drive-thru repair companies they have set standards of excellence with their expertly trained facility of skilled technicians they are able to turn around drive-thru repairs daily and get them back to you in a timely and efficient manner. I was thrilled when I was referred to them because I knew I had finally found a trusty and reliable drive-thru repair company.  One cool feature that is offered by CE Repairs to their customers is a program called Bonus Bucks.

Getting Rewarded

In receiving my bill for my drive-thru repair I sent in, I was rewarded with a five dollar bonus bucks to CE Repairs. The way the Bonus Bucks program works is simple! For every $100 dollars spent with CE on any drive-thru repair or purchase of accessories you will receive five dollars in Bonus Bucks, redeemable at CE Repairs. Also, by becoming part of the Bonus Bucks loyalty program I get to enjoy additional savings on any future drive-thru repairs. To use your drive-thru repair Bonus Bucks, simply include them in the next drive-thru repair you send and CE Repairs will take of it from there and deduct the amount from your total repair bill.

Learning helpful preventative tips to keep your drive-thru equipment running smoothly, could end up saving you money and time. We have shared previous preventative tips for specific parts of your drive-thru equipment. This last installment we will share some tips on how to maintain your drive-thru battery charger. The battery charger is the life support of your drive-thru system, yet many of us may forget what an important role it actually plays in your daily drive-thru business. Without battery chargers we would not have batteries for our drive-thru headsets, therefore we would not be able to take any drive-thru orders. That being said, here are some helpful tips on how to maintain your batter charger's life.

• When cleaning the vent screen, located on the back of the charger, use a soft cloth so air can flow freely between the vents. The charger may have a fan, if so, make sure you leave enough clearance (6 inches should be fine), so the air can circulate.
• You want to house your battery charger on a clean, dry and flat surface. Always make sure to unplug the charger when no batteries are charging within the ports. When unplugging or handling the battery charger, make sure to have dry hands.
• Do not place metals near the charger, if the metal touches the two charging ports it could potentially short out the battery charger.
• When cleaning the entire battery charger monthly, dampen the soft cloth with window cleaner-do not spray cleaner directly onto the battery charger. To clean the ports of the charger, use a moistened swab or a pencil eraser.

For more preventative tips read our CE Blog, or call a representative today at: 1-877-731-0334!