“All of our service people, from our parts manager to our billing clerk, they actually care about our customers,\u201d said Greg Wilbanks, service manager at ABM. \u201cOur service techs know our customers by name.\u201d He noted that a smaller family owned company can resolve problems quickly, and ABM has empowered its employees to escalate whatever they need to. \u201cIf they find any kind of an issue out there in the field, they can immediately come to me or go to Phil, Dan or whichever department head they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, ABM is a $6 million\u2011a\u2011year company serving a 100-mile radius of the Fort Wayne, Indiana area. Its main lines are sales and servicing of Sharp copiers and Kyocera printers. Schools and churches represent about 40 percent of ABM\u2019s business. The company added office furniture and supplies about 10 years ago when sales for product lines like typewriters, calculators, and cash registers were declining. \u201cBelieve it or not, we\u2019re still servicing typewriters for our customers,\u201d said Maucher.<\/p>\n
![\"Phil](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Phil-Koehl.png\")
Phil Koehl<\/p><\/div>\n
ABM recently launched a managed services division using the Continuum platform. \u201cOur copier revenue is growing marginally,\u201d said Phil Koehl, controller at ABM. \u201cManaged network services is probably going to have the biggest growth potential, though it\u2019s been a slow start. It\u2019s an area we really want to grow, and at some point it will probably overtake the copier business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount that\u2019s going to get printed will continue to decrease,\u201d said Phil. \u201cThat was one of the driving factors for us to get involved with managed network services. It kind of offset the falling page output. It\u2019s going to get tougher in that arena.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether in core or new business lines, growth for ABM will depend on the quality of the service it provides. \u201cI started in the business back in 1980. The rule of thumb back then was you made money in your hardware and your supplies. If we could break even in service, we were doing well,\u201d said Maucher. \u201cNow it\u2019s totally the opposite. With margins being compressed as everybody goes after each other, if you can make a little bit on the hardware and the supply, OK. Your money is made in service now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur service techs are our frontline,\u201d said Wilbanks. \u201cThey see our customers more than anyone. Our customers will talk to them more. They can get inside information that a sales guy just can\u2019t do, because the sales guy talks to them maybe once or twice a year. A service tech speaks with them all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
ABM\u2019s service team is also a source for business leads. When they can, they drop off brochures at neighboring businesses. This is one way that ABM is getting the word out about its new managed network service program. \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t know we\u2019re doing that,\u201d said Wilbanks. \u201cWe\u2019re using our service techs to educate our customers on what we do. It\u2019s going to be a big help.\u201d Service techs can earn lead fees of between $20 and $150.<\/p>\n
Wilbanks said the biggest challenge for his techs is keeping up with the changes in technology. \u201cWhat a service tech does today is not anywhere near what it was 10 years ago. The service techs have to know so much more about IT work than they had to know before,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s been a challenge to some older guys who would rather just fix copiers and not worry about how the print works.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turnover has not been a problem, said Wilbanks. The youngest technician has been with ABM for 10 years, and the longest 28. \u201cWe\u2019re a small family business, and we treat them right. Dan pays our service guys and all of our employees profit sharing,\u201d he said. \u201cSo they have a stake in whether we\u2019re successful or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe give them the ability to solve problems and act on their own,\u201d Wilbanks added. \u201cThat\u2019s huge. A lot of companies don\u2019t do that. When they feel like they\u2019re kind of like the boss, they like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilbanks also gives credit to BEI\u2019s tech comp feature for the low turnover rate. \u201cOur service techs like to make money,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen people retired, we have not had to replace them because our current staff is more than willing to do a little extra to try to pick up where the guy left them. They\u2019re very eager to take on more copies. If that means they have to work a little extra, they will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilbanks estimates that the productivity of his technicians has gone up by 50 percent since implementing BEI.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw the potential to get the technicians on board for reducing our parts usage,\u201d said Phil, who introduced ABM to the BEI program. \u201cOur parts usage was climbing at a pretty high percentage on an annual basis year over year. We saw a dramatic reduction in parts usage once we went on the program.\u201d<\/p>\n
The BEI program incentivized the technicians to use the parts to their fullest extent. Instead of leaving a part in a machine if it didn\u2019t fix the problem, they took it out. Phil estimates that parts usage declined by 20 percent in the first year of using BEI, compared to a 15 percent increase previously. Parts usage continued to decline for another five years before it stabilized.<\/p>\n
When ABM first implemented BEI, Wilbanks was one of the service techs. \u201cI was fully on board with it, because our service manager at the time went back in the past and ran some numbers,\u201d he said. \u201cHe showed how much money I would have made if I had done everything exactly the same. I was fully on board at that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA good 50 percent of our techs were totally against it,\u201d said Wilbanks. \u201cThey were saying we\u2019re shorting the customers on parts. We\u2019re trying to do whatever we can to make more money. It\u2019s not fair to the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other half of the team saw the value of it right away and started doing the total call procedure, said Wilbanks. \u201cThe techs that were against it are no longer here. It\u2019s funny how they were the ones that weeded themselves out. They weren\u2019t making the money and they were getting way more call backs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilbanks said that ABM\u2019s current service techs are taking full ownership of the machines for which they are responsible, but they are willing to help each other out. \u201cIf I need to put a part in your machine, I will. But you have to put a part in my machine when I need it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
ABM is looking at implementing BEI\u2019s new tech assessments feature. \u201cI can look and see if my territories are aligned properly. I can easily compare one tech to another tech on cost\u2011per\u2011copy and his mean copies between visits,\u201d said Wilbanks. \u201cI can see which tech I think is the best, and I can have that tech share information during meetings if, say, he\u2019s got a little tip that can make something last 25 percent longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The purpose of tech assessments as ABM sees it is to identify best practices and match techs with jobs and clients that they are best able to handle. \u201cIf I see somebody that\u2019s just way out of line, we sit down and talk about it,\u201d said Wilbanks. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s just a bad model.\u201d<\/p>\n
ABM got a little customer pushback on the BEI program initially. \u201cSome of the techs were telling the customer how bad a plan this was,\u201d said Wilbanks. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t long before the customers realized that none of that bad stuff was actually happening. People were doing a total call.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the previous plan, the goal was to fix the problem and get out. \u201cIt was putting out fires every day,\u201d said Wilbanks. With a total call, the tech might put in a few more parts initially so the machines would run better, reducing the number of future visits. That drove down the cost per copy. \u201cWhen our customers realized that, the tune changed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
ABM asks its customers to complete a satisfaction survey after each call. This gives them the opportunity to rate the experience and make suggestions for improvement. \u201cI was really afraid to send these things out,\u201d said Maucher. \u201cUsually it\u2019s just a big chance to complain. Believe it or not, 92 percent of those surveys we get back from customers are all positive.\u201d Maucher added that the company shares positive comments on the surveys with the service techs. \u201cThey feel proud about getting mentions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
To keep improving customer satisfaction, ABM uses \u201cseven or eight benchmarks that we look at religiously,\u201d said Maucher. \u201cWe hit most of them, but not all the time. If we can be more consistent with certain numbers, that\u2019s just going to improve us even more.\u201d Sometimes a miss on the benchmarks is due to factors out of the service tech\u2019s control, but Maucher said that it\u2019s easy to identify them so it doesn\u2019t reflect on the tech.<\/p>\n
\n
The company\u2019s service-oriented approach contributed to a 5 percent increase in sales for 2015. That came with a 2 percent drop in cost and a 2.5 percent increase in gross profit. Future growth might come from acquisitions, according to Maucher. \u201cOne of the things we\u2019re probably going to look at is some type of IT company that has reached the point where they\u2019re not going to see any growth.\u201d He added that ABM is working on a couple of smaller acquisitions of other copier companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started in 1980, we had 52 employees,\u201d said Maucher. \u201cAs of today we have 30, and we\u2019re doing three times as much business. The efficiency has improved greatly around here. Are we perfect? No way. We can strive for it, though.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/ABMLogo-2.png\")
<\/p>\n
About the Dealership:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Owner and President: Dan Maucher<\/li>\n
- Controller: Phil Koehl<\/li>\n
- Service Manager: Greg Wilbanks<\/li>\n
- Number of Techs: 6<\/li>\n
- Number of Devices Serviced: 2,000+<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<\/p>\n
Information provided by BEI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- First Call Effectiveness: 59%<\/li>\n
- Hold for Parts Rate: 14%<\/li>\n
- Ranking: 16th overall of the 170 dealers<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
OTSEA Platinum award winners rank in the top 25 of all dealers evaluated. \u00a0The evaluations are based on Call Back percentage, Hold for Parts percentage, MCBV (Mean Copies Between Visits) and Technician Grading. \u00a0Tech Grading encompasses Time Accountability and Time Management along with individual HP, CB and MCBV rates as well as parts expense as it relates to parts CPC compared to world stats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every business owner strives to do more with less, increasing sales while paring back overhead. That\u2019s difficult to do without stressing out employees or cutting quality of service. Office equipment dealer Allen Business Machines (ABM) has found a way to raise its service business productivity with the enthusiastic support of its technicians. Today, ABM is handling about 5 million more copies than it was 10 years ago while going from 10 to six technicians and maintaining a two-hour response time. President and owner Dan Maucher attributes this achievement to a service-oriented company culture that began when his father Elmer started the company in 1953. \u201cDad always made a special effort toward the service side of the business, making sure that customers were responded to and taken care of,\u201d said Maucher. \u201cHe didn\u2019t like getting calls from customers that something wasn\u2019t right. Even though he was a very nice guy, that was one thing that could really, really tick him off. I was brought up to very much respect the service side of the business.\u201d That dedication to customer service is what earned ABM the BEI and ENX Magazine Office Technology Service Excellence Platinum Award. \u201cMy father actually bought a small dealership. He was in the Navy during World War II and the Korean conflict,\u201d said Maucher. \u201cHe served on a repair ship, and they taught him the trade of repairing office equipment.\u201d Elmer Maucher didn\u2019t get much for the $600 he borrowed from an uncle to buy the business: some furniture, parts, and tools. “All of our service people, from our parts manager to our billing clerk, they actually care about our customers,\u201d said Greg Wilbanks, service manager at ABM. \u201cOur service techs know our customers by name.\u201d He noted that a smaller family owned company can resolve problems quickly, and ABM has empowered its employees to escalate whatever they need to. \u201cIf they find any kind of an issue out there in the field, they can immediately come to me or go to Phil, Dan or whichever department head they need.\u201d Today, ABM is a $6 million\u2011a\u2011year company serving a 100-mile radius of the Fort Wayne, Indiana area. Its main lines are sales and servicing of Sharp copiers and Kyocera printers. Schools and churches represent about 40 percent of ABM\u2019s business. The company added office furniture and supplies about 10 years ago when sales for product lines like typewriters, calculators, and cash registers were declining. \u201cBelieve it or not, we\u2019re still servicing typewriters for our customers,\u201d said Maucher. ABM recently launched a managed services division using the Continuum platform. \u201cOur copier revenue is growing marginally,\u201d said Phil Koehl, controller at ABM. \u201cManaged network services is probably going to have the biggest growth potential, though it\u2019s been a slow start. It\u2019s an area we really want to grow, and at some point it will probably overtake the copier business.\u201d \u201cThe amount that\u2019s going to get printed will continue to decrease,\u201d said Phil. \u201cThat was one of the driving factors for us to get involved with managed network services. It kind of offset the falling page output. It\u2019s going to get tougher in that arena.\u201d Whether in core or new business lines, growth for ABM will depend on the quality of the service it provides. \u201cI started in the business back in 1980. The rule of thumb back then was you made money in your hardware and your supplies. If we could break even in service, we were doing well,\u201d said Maucher. \u201cNow it\u2019s totally the opposite. With margins being compressed as everybody goes after each other, if you can make a little bit on the hardware and the supply, OK. Your money is made in service now.\u201d \u201cOur service techs are our frontline,\u201d said Wilbanks. \u201cThey see our customers more than anyone. Our customers will talk to them more. They can get inside information that a sales guy just can\u2019t do, because the sales guy talks to them maybe once or twice a year. A service tech speaks with them all the time.\u201d ABM\u2019s service team is also a source for business leads. When they can, they drop off brochures at neighboring businesses. This is one way that ABM is getting the word out about its new managed network service program. \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t know we\u2019re doing that,\u201d said Wilbanks. \u201cWe\u2019re using our service techs to educate our customers on what we do. It\u2019s going to be a big help.\u201d Service techs can earn lead fees of between $20 and $150. Wilbanks said the biggest challenge for his techs is keeping up with the changes in technology. \u201cWhat a service tech does today is not anywhere near what it was 10 years ago. The service techs have to know so much more about IT work than they had to know before,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s been a challenge to some older guys who would rather just fix copiers and not worry about how the print works.\u201d Turnover has not been a problem, said Wilbanks. The youngest technician has been with ABM for 10 years, and the longest 28. \u201cWe\u2019re a small family business, and we treat them right. Dan pays our service guys and all of our employees profit sharing,\u201d he said. \u201cSo they have a stake in whether we\u2019re successful or not.\u201d \u201cWe give them the ability to solve problems and act on their own,\u201d Wilbanks added. \u201cThat\u2019s huge. A lot of companies don\u2019t do that. When they feel like they\u2019re kind of like the boss, they like that.\u201d Wilbanks also gives credit to BEI\u2019s tech comp feature for the low turnover rate. \u201cOur service techs like to make money,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen people retired, we have not had to replace them because our current staff is more than willing to do a little extra to try to pick up where the guy left them. They\u2019re very eager to take on more copies. If that means they have to work a little extra, they will.\u201d Wilbanks estimates that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2195],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20401"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20588,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20401\/revisions\/20588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"bei-enx-office-technology-sea-platinum-awards\"](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/BEI-ENX-Office-Technology-SEA-Platinum-Awards.png\")
Every business owner strives to do more with less, increasing sales while paring back overhead. That\u2019s difficult to do without stressing out employees or cutting quality of service. Office equipment dealer Allen Business Machines (ABM) has found a way to raise its service business productivity with the enthusiastic support of its technicians. Today, ABM is handling about 5 million more copies than it was 10 years ago while going from 10 to six technicians and maintaining a two-hour response time.<\/p>\n![\"Dan](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Dan-Maucher.png\")
![\"Greg](\"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Greg-Wilbanks.png\")