{"id":13961,"date":"2015-08-24T11:41:09","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T15:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=13961"},"modified":"2015-08-24T11:41:09","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T15:41:09","slug":"service-excellence-award-winner-bishop-business-equipment-on-the-art-of-customer-retention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/enx-features\/service-excellence-winner\/2015\/08\/service-excellence-award-winner-bishop-business-equipment-on-the-art-of-customer-retention\/","title":{"rendered":"Service Excellence Award Winner: Bishop Business Equipment on the Art of Customer Retention"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bishop's

Bishop’s Techs & Service Managers:\u00a0
Back Row from Left to Right \u2013
Tom Neighbors (Field Service Manager), Scott Watts, Jr. (he did not win any BEI but our managers wanted him in the photo), Stacy Bell, John Lottman, James Driscoll (VP of Service)
Front Row from Left to Right \u2013
Bok-Hyun Lee, Ty Smth, Lee Kordash, Cory Wilson<\/p><\/div>\n

If your customer retention rate consistently hovers in the nineties you must be doing something right. For Bishop Business Equipment in Omaha, NE, it starts with a mission, a mission that everyone in the company is focused on day in and day out. That\u2019s \u201cto be a company of engaged business professionals whose customers are so satisfied they wouldn\u2019t think about going anywhere else!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bishop Business Equipment markets products and solutions from Toshiba, Xerox, OKI Data, Lexmark, and Laserfiche. It also has a sizable MPS program. Bishop\u2019s territories encompass Omaha, Lincoln, and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cover a large area in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa,\u201d explains James Driscoll, VP of service who has been with the dealership for nearly 14 years, starting as a field technician.<\/p>\n

Competition comes from a handful of other independent dealers as well as Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Xerox, and Canon branches. Although that competition is formidable, Bishop has proven difficult to displace.<\/p>\n

Owner Dave Bishop, whose father started the business in 1954, worked in the family business while going to school and became a full-time employee in 1978 after graduation from college. Asked why customers choose Bishop Business Equipment, he responds, \u201cYou need good products, but there are a lot of good products out there. We have great <\/em>service and great <\/em>people, and whenever we\u2019re talking about that or thinking about what sets us apart, it always goes back to our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dave

Dave Bishop<\/p><\/div>\n

Bishop is so focused on ensuring that his dealership has great people that he always interviews every candidate no matter what department before they\u2019re hired. \u201cI care about the culture of this business and the people we have determine the culture we have,\u201d says Bishop. \u201cThat comes from the top, but then you need to hire the people who will be working in that culture. It\u2019s all about people and then making sure they understand what\u2019s expected of them. Do they have the tools to do their job? What are we measuring? What they are responsible for? And making sure everybody understands quality service. That\u2019s the bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n

While we\u2019re on the topic of quality service, the dealership has eight field technicians who are assigned territories by zip code. Techs service 250-350 machines each with the best techs responsible for the most devices. A dedicated printer tech handles roughly 2,000 printers.<\/p>\n

One tool that\u2019s made a difference in how Bishop Business Equipment provides quality service is the BEI Services program. It\u2019s made a big difference, although as can occasionally happen, it took a little bit of time for service techs to embrace it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen BEI first came in, people were skeptical, saying, \u2018We\u2019re going to get penalized for using parts,\u2019 but as time went on [people saw] the better job you did, the more copies you had between service calls and the more bonus opportunity there was for you,\u201d recalls Driscoll. \u201cI was seeing sizable bonuses for myself when I was a field technician.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always worked hard to make sure we\u2019re managing things well,\u201d adds Bishop. \u201cWe want accountability and to reward those people who are doing a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for those who need to improve, the program helps management pinpoint areas where struggling techs can improve.<\/p>\n

Bishop also prides itself on being able to provide more proactive service. The overall model rating system provided by BEI allows the dealership to look at the specs on a certain model and the grouping it sells in compared to other similar products in the field and how they\u2019re doing compared to other dealerships. With this information, Bishop\u2019s service department is often well prepared for any issues that may occur with specific machines in the field.<\/p>\n

If one looks at the metrics, it\u2019s easy to see why Bishop is a BEI Services\/ENX Service Excellence Diamond Award winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir Hold for Parts numbers are absolutely fabulous when you consider the geographic area they cover and all the equipment they\u2019re working on being a multi line dealer. Their Hold for Parts consistently runs in the single digits\u20146 to 7 percent,\u201d reports BEI\u2019s Steve Sharkey. \u201cThat is a great indication of how well James, the parts room staff, and the technicians are doing managing that car stock activity and making sure they are adequately stocked from a parts standpoint to be completing the calls at that high a percentage. That\u2019s a phenomenal example of the great job they do managing their inventory and making sure their techs have what they need to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the biggest challenge of achieving these kinds of numbers, Driscoll says, \u201cWe look at everything as an opportunity. We go over our BEI reviews every month with the technicians, we sit down, dig into callbacks, if they had incomplete for parts, why and what they had an incomplete for, and is it something they need to carry. The callback report is my favorite report to dig into because it holds them accountable and they know I\u2019m going to be asking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driscoll and the techs review what was done, did they complete the call, did they follow Bishop\u2019s complete call procedures to make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again, and identify if there\u2019s something that could have been done differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell the guys I don\u2019t ever want to see a callback for feed tires, ever,\u201d states Driscoll. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason to not put in a $15 set of feed tires because they\u2019re so cheap. Why cause the customer or yourself that kind of heartburn? These are the little things that make a difference. We\u2019ve seen good benefits from going over callbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Figuring there\u2019s always room for improvement Driscoll would love to see every one of Bishop\u2019s techs consistently score at least 70 percent in First Call Effectiveness. Considering that number was in the mid thirties in 2005 and hovers around 65 percent today, they don\u2019t have far to go to achieve that goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where our technicians need to be to get 100 percent of their bonus,\u201d states Driscoll. \u201cWe are very aggressive with that number.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are indeed and already have a couple of techs above 70 percent, including the number two tech in the country measured by BEI\u2019s metrics. Their second tech ranks 21st<\/sup> in the country out of more than 6,000 techs monitored by BEI.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne or two call backs for not having parts can really hurt them,\u201d says Driscoll. \u201cSome guys can be sitting at 69 percent and if they had fixed two more machines they could be getting 100 percent of their bonus, so keeping them informed is key.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the owner\u2019s office Bishop likes the way Driscoll operates, particularly those monthly meetings with techs to go over their BEI reports and bonus structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s totally different than posting the numbers and passing out the checks and not having conversations, because a lot of times these guys are not working on the right stuff; they\u2019re engaged with it because they get a bonus check, but they don\u2019t take it to the next level,\u201d says Bishop. \u201cI think it\u2019s huge to have your manager sit down with you. James has done a great job with that and I think these guys look forward to their monthly review. It\u2019s, \u2018How do I get better and raise the [performance of the] entire group in terms of their effectiveness?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Bishop fully understands the benefits of tracking the numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about management, watching the right stuff, about parts usage, and efficiency in terms of call backs,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s how you have to be running a service department; if you do, things change. Inspect what you expect, people do what you measure. If you measure something, things change. You\u2019ve got to manage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that they\u2019ve claimed their Service Excellence Diamond Award, Bishop is exploring ways to leverage this acknowledgement internally and externally. Who knows, it may even help them raise their customer retention rate higher than it currently is.<\/p>\n

In the ideal situation, if we were to speak to Driscoll a year from now, how might things have improved beyond where they are today?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an ideal situation we\u2019d be consistently above 70 percent,\u201d he answers. \u201cI have the best techs in the business. I tell the guys that all the time. We have mutual respect for each other, we\u2019re like a family. A year from now, things are going to be just as great as they are today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bishop Business Equipment Company<\/strong><\/p>\n

Omaha, NE<\/p>\n

www.bbec.com<\/a><\/p>\n

President & CEO:<\/strong> Dave Bishop<\/p>\n

Vice President & COO:<\/strong> Mark Newhouse<\/p>\n

VP of Service:<\/strong> James Driscoll<\/p>\n

Field Service Manager:<\/strong> Tom Neighbors<\/p>\n

Number of Service Techs: <\/strong>8<\/p>\n

Territory Covered: <\/strong>Eastern NE to western IA<\/p>\n

Why Bishop Stands Out<\/strong><\/p>\n