{"id":5815,"date":"2013-09-11T10:54:57","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T14:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweekinimaging.com\/?p=5815"},"modified":"2013-09-11T10:55:20","modified_gmt":"2013-09-11T14:55:20","slug":"between-the-lines-you-cant-charge-for-scanningor-can-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/the-week-in-imaging-twii\/editors-blog\/2013\/09\/between-the-lines-you-cant-charge-for-scanningor-can-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Between the Lines: You Can\u2019t Charge for Scanning\u2026or Can You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"scan<\/a>Terry Bogner of Austin Technology Group in Austin, Texas, had an epiphany a while back. He had one of those inexpensive inkjet MFPs at home that had seen its better days with the exception of the scanning function.\u00a0 Even after he replaced that device with a laser printer, he was still using that original inkjet MFP as a scanner. Then it hit him. \u201cThat\u2019s what customers are doing to us! They\u2019re telling me they\u2019re copying less, printing less, and scanning more, and brag about how they went paperless as if I\u2019m supposed to be happy for them,\u201d laments Bogner.<\/p>\n

Bogner is like many dealers, still trying to figure out how to charge for scans. He\u2019s heard through the grapevine that some dealers are charging customers as much as 5 mils per scan, which is a little higher than what he\u2019d thought it might be. His estimate is 2 mils.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we discussed years ago when scanning was a new feature,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, customers who are scanning more are costing him money because he still has to service that machine even if it\u2019s being used a lot less for printing and copying these days. \u201cA lot of the time we don\u2019t charge for it because it\u2019s a good customer or they have a maintenance agreement,\u201d states Bogner.<\/p>\n

He wonders if other dealers are covertly adding scanning into maintenance agreements or if they\u2019re telling the customer up front that they\u2019re now charging for something they once gave away for nothing.<\/p>\n

As far as he knows none of his competitors are charging for scanning, and even if it makes perfect business sense, nobody wants to be the first dealer in the market to charge for scanning.<\/p>\n

I spoke with Jim Coriddi, vice president, Dealer Division, Ricoh Americas Corporation, about charging for scanning last week to get an OEM\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy and large what we\u2019re finding is the profit-oriented dealers see this as an opportunity that they have not been acting on because of where we are in the market,\u201d says Coriddi. \u201cUnfortunately, there are enough competitors out there that are attacking the market with price. Some of our better dealers are trying to provide more of a value to be above that, but I don\u2019t think there\u2019s enough confidence in the value proposition to be the first on the block to start charging for scans. We\u2019re working toward that. Ricoh is looking to support our dealers with a more services-led approach to be able to bring that deeper more expansive value to our customers. We all recognize its\u2019 something we need to do and we need to meld it into a bigger value proposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you think? Take our survey and let us know if you are charging your customers for scanning on their MFPs or not?<\/p>\n