Las Vegas — ENX Magazine spoke with several dealers during Kyocera’s Fiscal Year 2018 Business and Technology Conference, held here April 18-20, to understand their perspectives on the company, the conference and how to succeed in this competitive market. Part three of our series features Dave Snyder, owner of Elite Imaging Systems in Birmingham, MI.
Dave, what does KDA provide that sets your CopyStar dealership apart from your competition?
Dave Snyder, Elite Imaging Systems
Snyder: Well, it comes down to products and services. They completely refreshed their entire product line last year, building it on a consistent platform from the smallest machines to the larger 80+ ppm devices. This commonality of operation and drivers makes it easy to train, use and maintain across our accounts. And the Kyocera Fleet Services is pretty good, too. It lets us clear jam codes, do all the firmware updates and do software upgrades remotely.
We were one of the first dealerships to use KFS and it has made it a lot easier to troubleshoot and maintain our accounts. We have over 1,500 customers and we can do all our firmware updates overnight. That one task used to take days and days to do with our people traveling to each and every account.
It also lets us know when a machine needs preventative maintenance so we can schedule a call at a convenient time for the customer and arrive with the right parts in hand. Most of the time the customer doesn’t even know there was ever a problem because we’re already on it.
So, that’s what differentiates KDA. What do you do at Elite Imaging Systems to set yourself apart?
Snyder: The thing that sets Elite Imaging Systems apart is in our implementation. Kyocera is not the only company with these sorts of capabilities, so it comes down customers trusting that you’ll actually use the tools and deliver on the promise. We have a 95% customer retention rate because we are able to keep our customers happy. For instance, we measure everything. By the first of the month, I know our exact response time, as well as the callback ratio and reschedule rate. We consistently run only a 2% reschedule rate and we can back that up with real numbers. I can tell a customer exactly what we did, how long it took for us to respond and so forth. So, yeah, it starts with great products and services and it ends with knowing how to use them and delivering.
And what is your biggest challenge?
Snyder: Our hardest problem is getting good sales people who understand what I just shared with you and who are willing and able to make it happen.
