Ask JR Johnson about his part in the positive service experience for an East Texas funeral home, and he’ll proverbially shrug his shoulders. To be honest, he says, he’s just there to get the machine up and running, and offers up a smile while doing so.

JR’s quiet by nature. But his presence is calming, and his service methodology is as solid as a rock. 

But there’s more to it than that: Especially in the pine thicket he careens throughout deep East Texas, from Lufkin to Carthage to Longview and in between, where resolution is paramount but relationships are equally indisputable.

Truth be told, JR’s been in the copier service game for 38 years. He’s seen some things. He’s met some people. He’s built relationships that may not directly show up in metrics (though his are great) but reveal themselves in the comments from clients.

One of those customers recently was Cunningham Funeral Home, which was experiencing paper jams, had a lack of understanding of the paper weight and machine instructions, and ultimately couldn’t get their funeral programs run.

JR diagnosed the issue, educated the customer, and helped get the programs out with plenty of time to spare.

Mr. Johnson is always very prompt and professional. I run into issue quite often and he always solves my issues. I truly appreciate him and all he does to keep our business up and running,” the customer said.

We asked East Texas Service Manager Michael Johnson to weigh in a bit on what makes JR such a solid technician. 

He’s calming.

“He is definitely quiet. But he’s got that sense of being upbeat, in a good mood, and I think people pick up on that pretty quickly. When you’re around him, you can’t help but smile as well. He’s got a calming aspect to any room he’s in.”

He's willing.

“I joke around that the longer the drive is (from one site to another), the happier he is,” Michael said. “He flexes everywhere east of Tyler, and that could be Carthage, Henderson, Lufkin, and even south of there. He’ll go wherever, and never has a single complaint about it,” Michael said. 

He's experienced.

“Honestly, he’s been around so long, he knows his customers well. We might get to talking about a customer, and he’ll remember they used to have this machine, or had that issue, it’s almost like he’s got the entire call history in his head. Technology changes over time, and having a long relationship with customers is an expertise that can get overlooked sometimes. Especially in ETX, where relationships sometimes matter more than if you can fix it on the first try.”