Office Equipment Dealer Nirvana

Nirvana in Indian culture is described as a state of perfect quietude, freedom, and highest happiness.  We are not going to talk about it in the religious sense, but we will look at it in the business sense. 

If I were a betting man, I would bet that you would not describe your business using those adjectives.  You would probably discuss it in the sense of turmoil in the marketplace and in the challenges you face. This blog may help you move toward a more nirvana-like state in your business.    

Current Situation

Both within your business and with your dealings with customers there are issues causing challenges that impact your customer’s happiness.  

Challenges for Your Customers

There are several areas in dealing with your company that your customers find less than desirable, no matter how hard you try. Let's discuss four that are probably at the top of their list.

Meter readings. If you surveyed...

Creating Amazing Customer Service

As a business owner or as a manager, you should want to create not just good service but amazing customer service.  Yet, most businesses provide mediocre service.  Why?

To create the kind of customer service that turns customers into raving fans requires focus and effort.  It is worth the expenditure of both.

Ask the Hard Questions

I encourage you to ask the hard questions.  Ask questions that generate answers that are difficult to hear.  It is these questions and these answers that can transform your company.

You see businesses that talk about their unbelievable customer satisfaction scores.  Those scores could be the result of asking easy questions.  But those scores don't help the company improve.

I will share the two questions to ask if you want to improve.  But understand, if you ask these questions, you may not like the answers.

The first question is one that you ask customers that no longer do business...

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...

In our industry, the most important area for the profitability and survival of the company stems from the recurring revenue in the service department. When considering the trends in our industry for the future, this topic deserves serious attention.—dealers that fail to secure the revenue stream properly are most at risk for failure.

What Does it Mean

When we are talking about securing the revenue stream, we are talking about creating a binding support agreement for the duration of the equipment lease. I know some dealers do not like to build the service into the lease, but failing to do so diminishes the value of the dealership and does not provide any future security for the company.

I am not suggesting pre-funding the service component of the lease, and most leasing companies no longer offer that as an option. When valuing your dealership, a pre-funded service contract is viewed as a liability rather than as an asset.

Building Value

When you build your service contract...

One thing I’ve noticed while teaching a BTA service management course is that many service managers are not active on social media, either professionally or for their companies. Many don’t have a profile on LinkedIn, and any other social media they have is strictly personal. Among the technicians, there is a wide range of involvement as well.

It is important that company employees have an active role in social media, especially managers. Let’s discuss some of the reasons for this.

Why Social Media Matters in Sales

In general, buyers use online resources more than ever. They complete much of their research and decision making before the sales representatives even know there might be an opportunity.

Among the information that buyers consider is the public persona of the company. They look at the company’s website, Facebook page, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, and also look at what the employees post.

Buyers look for independent reviews of the company and the...