Light production print can be a stepping stone to new customers and it offers the opportunity to grow your business. When managed properly, it can position a dealership for growth and continued success. When managed poorly, it can spell problems that may haunt the dealership for years.
This is not an arena you want to dip your toe in and see how it goes. To do it effectively, a significant investment in parts and training is required. If you only have a couple of devices in the field, your ability to properly support the equipment will be nonexistent.
The Market Assessment
The first phase of making the light production print decision needs to be a market assessment to see how many potential units you can reasonably expect to place. If that number is less than 10, this is probably not a market you want to tackle. Additionally, these need to be in a geographic area that one team can support.
If your territory covers a wide area and you expect to have equipment scattered throughout the territory, this may not be a wise decision. To be proficient on a product, a technician needs familiarity and experience: Working with a product on a regular basis is mandatory to solidify proficiency. If a tech supports only one of a certain model in the field, it will be difficult for the tech to be proficient on that model.
Understand the Difference
Most light production print customers will have very different expectations and requirements than the traditional MFP client.
First, in the production print arena, copy quality is critical. Where a typical MFP customer won’t notice or care about print density, fill or precise color shades, a production print customer looks at output all day long, hunting for imperfections. This means that you can expect more service calls and you may have trouble reaching the expected yield on components.
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