The service department of Applied Imaging, an office technology dealership based in Grand Rapids, MI with offices across the state, would be at a serious disadvantage if not for BEI Services.
Applied has been using various programs from BEI Services for the past 15 years. Now, with the company growing and rapidly expanding into new markets, Joe Green, vice president of service, has his hands full developing a team focused on providing uniform and exceptional service across all of Applied’s markets.
“More and more everything is about doing everything you can possibly do for the customer,” emphasizes Green. “But you have to make money too. So finding out where we’re not making money and where we’re doing okay is what I find most useful about the information I get from BEI Services.”
Without the benchmarking data provided by BEI, Green wouldn’t have a clue as to how Applied Imaging’s service department stacks up against other dealership’s servicing the same models of copiers and MFPs. He would also find it difficult identifying where and on what equipment his service techs excel and would find it difficult identifying improvement areas.
Green’s original inspiration for evaluating BEI Services software was the need to come up with a service incentive for his techs. However, in order to provide them with incentives he needed to know how his reps compared to others in the field. “Every time I talked to other dealers I’d try to compare our stats with theirs, but everybody was tracking everything differently,” recalls Green.
That’s not the case for dealers using the benchmarking component of BEI Services’ program.
“BEI tracks the exact same criteria for everybody, looking at the same things the same way so when you look at national averages you can see where you stand compared to everybody else,” states Green.
He also likes the various tools included in the program even though he emphasizes that one has to be diligent about taking advantage of them. He’s a big fan too of the support he receives from BEI Services. “It’s a great group of people,” says Green.
One of those great people is Ken Staubitz, BEI Services’ National Sales Manager, who recently met with Green’s field managers to discuss measures to take to reduce the pesky problem of rising parts usage.
Green attributes that issue to Applied’s rapid growth and an influx of young, still learning service techs. Applied has been growing at a 27 to 30 percent clip the past few years and to keep pace with that growth Applied has been hiring new managers and techs who are still developing their skills. Although the techs are factory trained, it’s not unusual for some to throw as many parts as possible at a machine attempting to fix an issue rather than pinpointing the actual problem.
Some of them will throw the kitchen sink at a problem and of course that’s not going to work,” acknowledges Green who has found it beneficial to zero in on certain models using BEI’s stats, is hoping to improve the performance of his newer techs by helping them enhance their troubleshooting skills.
“Parts usage has always been around 17 percent, which is where we want it based on total billings,” states Green. “All of a sudden it leapt up and Ken came in and presented different ideas [to reduce parts usage], which was great. The tools have always been there, but the fact that he was able to come out and remind us what we needed to focus on was helpful.”
It’s still too soon to tell if this is the panacea, but Green believes it’s going to be a tremendous help. “We have action plans in place and our managers are working on it now.”
One of the keys Green has found to best leverage the information Applied receives from the various BEI reports is for Applied’s managers to sit down with each tech monthly, review their numbers and discuss how the program works, and coach the technicians accordingly. “If you don’t, the first thing they’re going to think is, if I don’t use parts I’ll make more money, and there couldn’t be a bigger untruth than that,” emphasizes Green. “The whole idea is to use the right part at the right time.”
What advice would Green have for another VP of service if asked whether or not to implement BEI Services’ benchmarking tools as well as its tech compensation program, which Applied also uses?
“Yes, I would implement, but you really can’t implement it and expect everyone to pick it up on their own,” he opines. “You have to make sure a manager sits down with each service technician and goes over all the numbers with them every month. The program has so many reports, but it means so much more if you get the tech to understand everything about it. Let’s face it no matter what program you set up they’re going to figure out what the best way is to help them. Whatever that is, it had better help you too.”
