Copy This

Everyone in business has a copier horror story. Whether it’s a new suit ruined by a leaky toner cartridge or a complete machine breakdown just before an important presentation, no one, it seems, is ever completely satisfied with a copier.

“The copier’s down” has joined “The computer’s down” to form the two top excuses for not meeting a deadline. So how do you possibly sell a product that customers know will disappoint them someday? According to Murray Martin, president of the Pitney Bowes copier division, even an inevitable disappointment can become a competitive advantage.

“There are all kinds of technical problems inherent with copiers, no matter what brand,” Martin says. “For a price all those problems could be eliminated, but that price would be so high that no one would ever pay it. It might be nice not to sell a product knowing ahead of time that people are going to be unhappy with it but given those issues, there are opportunities. If you can’t identify problems, you can’t identify solutions and take actions to make improvements.”

Since establishing a separate copier division in 1990, Pitney Bowes has initiated a comprehensive value-added sales strategy. It incorporates manufacturing, sales and service to minimize customer distress and maximize opportunities. Martin divides the strategy into two areas: quality of product and quality of distribution.

The Manufacturing Side

“In 1981 we decided to discontinue producing our own copiers,” he says, “and switched to procuring the best class of machines across product lines. That’s because when we were involved in manufacturing if we made a substandard product, we still had to try to sell it. Now, by demanding the best products from five different suppliers we maintain the focus on quality, while to the customer we support all our products singularly as if they were all from one supplier. This way the customer is guaranteed the best service as well as the best quality.”

In fact, Martin says that Pitney Bowes will often demand a higher quality of output from copiers than these top vendors produce – what the company calls a “PB Quality Image.”

“A PB Quality Image is a little above the standard in a variety of areas,” he explains, “from how true the copy is to the original, its density, how solid the characters are and consistency from left to right and up and down. These things we will force vendors to retrofit into the product if they don’t meet our standard. This gives us a standardized product regardless of manufacturer.”

The Distribution Side

The Pitney copier division considers Fortune 1000 companies its main customer base. Right now, according to Martin, the main competition in that market comes from a distributor he refers to as “that company in Stamford, Connecticut, with an ‘X’ in its name.” He admits that over the years the unnamed competitor has delivered quality products to the market. So it’s up to Pitney to supply equivalent or better quality products with an even better value. Since Pitney Bowes’ facsimile division has already achieved success against Xerox with a similar strategy, Martin sees no reason for it to fail in copier sales.

“One very important aspect of selling in the copier industry,” Martin says, “is that the loyalty level is notoriously low – somewhere around 45-55 percent. Realistically, that means to make a sale, even to a previous customer, you have to be in the right place at the right time with the right solution and the right message. And we’ve determined that in the industry, on average, products turn every 36-48 months. That’s how long a copier stays in place until it’s replaced.

“At the beginning of that cycle, our sales professionals call on existing customers once a quarter. This is more customer service support than sales support. If the customers have problems, whether with equipment, billing, supplies, operator or whatever, we have a whole issue resolution system that can handle virtually any problem within five days, but usually even quicker.”

Once the cycle nears the prime buying period, however, the frequency of calls increases from once quarterly to once every 30 days. Martin considers this the best policy for improving Pitney’s chances of being in the right place at the right time.

“In the later stages you get into sales support,” he says, “where you discuss new products, features and benefits. We’ve determined that the typical sales cycle for copiers is about 30 days, so that’s why we schedule calls so frequently – to make sure we’re in their offices somewhere during that cycle.”

As a result of this sales follow-up policy Martin says Pitney has seen a 50 percent increase in customer loyalty in the past five years. Another key factor is ACESS, the company’s nationwide computer network online system that helps technicians respond immediately to customer service calls.

“If you are having trouble with your copier,” Martin explains, “you place an 800 call to our service center. With your name and phone number we can pull all the information about your machine’s history, including any work that’s been done in the past, what has and hasn’t been replaced, dates and times of previous calls, etc.

“That data then passes into a coast-to-coast network of portable devices carried by our more than 3,000 field service technicians. Whichever qualified technician is closest at that moment is beeped and the information is automatically downloaded into his or her hand-held device. And this all takes place within two minutes of your phone call.”

Preventive Maintenance

Assuming they aren’t otherwise engaged with another customer the technician then returns the customer’s phone call, ideally within an hour. According to Martin, technicians can handle between 20 and 30 percent of such calls over the phone. For calls that require a visit, as a part of the Pitney value-added service, the technicians do more than fix the problem that prompted the call.

“While the technician is there we perform what is called a VAMS,” he says, “short for Value-Added Maintenance System. In the copier industry there are predetermined life cycles for various consumable parts in the product, ranging anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 copies.

“In the old days you used to have a scheduled preventative maintenance call every 50,000 to 80,000 copies, whatever was appropriate for a machine’s life cycle. Instead of doing that, which requires extra time and money and takes the copier out of service for the customer more frequently, today we have the service technician replace any parts that have already achieved life or are within 10 percent of life while he’s there and has the machine open. As a result, our customers get decreased downtime of the product and have to place fewer service calls.”

Proactive Problem Solving

The third segment of Pitney’s acronym-rich service drive, called PSI for Proactive Service Identification, helps the company troubleshoot any persistent service issues.

“Our ACESS database can provide us with a list,” Martin says, “by region, office or customer, of machines that are outside the range of serviceability. And we say, ‘OK, service manager, you go out and determine what the problem is, whether it’s a customer issue, a product issue or a technician issue.’ So if, for example, we’ve had three calls in the last 30 days, that will trigger a proactive call before the customer gets really angry on the fourth one. Then someone who has a higher skill level than a technician visits to trouble shoot.

“Basically that can be one of a few things. One, the technician who was out before just hasn’t been getting our message across. If you keep calling us because you’re not putting toner in the machine, we need to sit down and decide who’s going to be responsible for this so you aren’t always angry that the machine isn’t working. Or maybe the machine’s always crunching paper, and we agree that it’s a problem. We’ll get a highly skilled technician out there to address it. Or, if we determine that the machine is a lemon, we will exchange the machine immediately, and get you back on track. We’ve found that when we go to our customers and say, ‘We want to talk to you about these problems you’ve been having,’ that’s a very powerful sales support function.”

Drumming Up New Business

But existing Pitney Bowes clients aren’t the only customers enjoying the company’s value-added approach to sales and service. Just as with existing clients, the key to selling new customers rests in being in the right place at the right time.

“When we’re calling on potential customers who have not yet realized the benefits of a Pitney Bowes copier,” Martin explains, “we still want to be there during their hot buying cycle. The difference lies in the questions we like to ask. We want to do a basic quality check on whether they are satisfied and whether they’re getting the service they expected from their copier company.

“Some will be perfectly satisfied, and in that case we will say, ‘Thanks for your time,’ and move on to another prospect. But there are always going to be a fair number who are not getting the support they were promised. Either the product isn’t as promised or the service is substandard. These are the people we want to work with and to inform about the value-added services we offer.”

Invariably, Martin adds, frustration with previous copiers’ performance leads customers to first look to find the least expensive product available. But to Pitney Bowes salespeople, this frustration is essentially a cry for help.

“Most buyers are on their second, third, fourth or fifth copier,” he explains. “There are very few new copier users. So most of them are saying, ‘Hey, the product never works anyway, so I might as well just get the cheapest one.’ But that says to me, ‘Show me that this isn’t true.’ If you can demonstrate to a customer that your product is top notch, and that your support is better than anyone else’s, they will pay a premium for that combination. This isn’t to say that they’ll pay a 50 percent premium, but they will pay more to ease that frustration.

“So when I hear a customer say, ‘I’ll never be happy with a copier,’ I start talking about ACESS, VAMS and PSI. I ask, ‘Are you getting those things today?’ The answer invariably comes back, ‘No,’ and we’re well on our way to selling another customer on a Pitney Bowes copier.”