The Employee: Bob Haley

Location: Little Rock

The Fans: Harding University

 

Bob Haley jokes with his kids that, back in his early days as a copier technician, he had to find a phone booth to receive his next service call. Yes, he’s a chiseled veteran in the copier business.

After serving in the US Army from 1987 to 1991, Bob earned a degree at the Arkansas School of Technology. In January 1995, he found Datamax. And he hasn’t looked back since.

“I talk about it all the time with some of the guys who have been here even longer than me — when you used to make a copy with the machine and that was it. Now it’s evolved to the copier does everything. It’s certainly a lot different.”

One thing that hasn’t changed? Customer service. And that is an art that Bob has been perfecting for more than 25 years at Datamax.

“I always go back to how I would feel if someone serviced something for me, how they approached me. Even though I’ve been here so long, I try to enact that more and more. It kind of keeps you going,” Bob says.

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The Fan's Need

Harding University is a private liberal arts university with 7,000 students and 48 buildings spread across 350 acres. The Business Office is where most of the teachers there print class-related materials and conduct school-related business.

They have a number of various-sized black and white printers that these teachers depend on throughout the school year.

“One of the machines was jamming consistently,” Bob said. “I knew that if it came back, there was one piece (a Buffer Pass Assembly) I was going to be able to replace to fix the device. When the jam did come back, I had the piece so I went back in and fixed it.”

Bob fixed the paper jam. But, as he always does, he looked around and went a little above and beyond in the process. And that’s what made the difference in the customer’s eyes.

The Team’s Approach

The first thing Bob does (on any call) is visit Canon SnapShot to get a glimpse of the machine before going on site.

“It really prepares me before I get there. If it’s a machine that doesn’t happen to be turned on for that, I’ll look at the history of the copier. My goal is to not have to come back to the site a second time.”

But there’s another, less technical aspect of Bob’s service methodology – communication.

“Customers just really like to know, to be in the loop,” he said. “That starts the time I arrive, having that ‘smile’ mindset and saying hello, being courteous right off the bat. And that’s communicating with them everything you’ve done in and around the machine. Also, if you’re going to have to replace a part or come back, you want to update them. If you contact them, and keep them in the know throughout the process, they always say ‘thank you’ for keeping them in the line of communication."

What Made Them a Raving Fan?

So that “above and beyond” measure that Bob took? It was emptying the waste toner bottle before leaving the office. A simple, yet very much appreciated gesture.

“Bob is always great! He works efficiently and he noticed that my waste toners needed emptied so he took care of that while he was here,” the customer took the time to write on the post-service survey.

Which goes back to Bob’s thought process. How would he want to feel if he was in the customer’s place? How would he like to be treated?

“The little things matter,” Bob says.