Of all the service clichés Justin Harper dreads, he’s especially frustrated when he hears this: “May I put you on a brief hold?”
The most recent time he heard it from a vendor for a home repair, that brief hold turned into 30 minutes. Which motivated him to drop the service completely.
Justin fervently wants to equip his team to never have to drop one of these frustrating lines into a client’s lap: “I’ve never seen this issue before,” “I don’t have the part I need,” or “When’s a good time to reschedule this appointment?”
How do they do this?
“Having people in the right place with the right tools to do what they need to do,” Justin says. “For example, we try extremely hard and we do a lot of extensive research to avoid rescheduling an appointment simply because we don’t have the right part.”
They hustle, too. Just as an example, this week Justin met a technician in Whitehouse (who was coming from Troup) to give him three drums, so a customer wouldn’t be down for another day.
But what about the big picture?
Justin’s 3 Foundations for Fanatical Service
1. Communication.
Communication is in everything that his teams do – no matter what it is. For Justin, it’s his number one.
“As soon as you receive a service call, obviously don’t stop a call you’re already on, but it’s important to be on the phone with the customer. Let the customer know we have the call, and this the expected ETA. That’s massive, because that’s how the customer can move forward with their day.”
It continues one on one. Justin says if you’re not seeing what the customer is doing (with their equipment), you can’t always fix the problem. Whether they’re complaining about the quality of the output, or having issue with the software, maintain strong communication to get to the bottom of it.
2. Knowledge.
You can’t send someone out to fix a machine if they’ve never seen it before.
“It gets said all the time, a copy machine is a copy machine, but its’ really not. They’re all different. We spend a lot of time and money on training. So knowledge is massive. That directly affects the end user. if I send you a technician that doesn’t know their stuff, there’s going to be a customer down even longer,” Justin says.
3. Preparedness.
What does Justin mean by preparedness?
- The tools to do the job.
- The training to do the job.
- The knowledge to do the job.
- And the right ATTITUDE to do the job.
“Your daily attitude is preparedness,” Justin says. “Beyond that, the company commits to a lot of ongoing training. We make sure they have all the tools they need, the bag to carry the tools, the latest software, phones with the latest knowledge base, with log-ins for every place you might need to get support.”
The Magnificent 7: Key Datamax Differentiators to Keep in Your Back Pocket.
1. Experience &Training.
- Canon ATSP Certified service provider 13 years
- Extensive technical training (25,000 hours & 1 million dollars past 5 years)
- Production technicians trained on digital front-end workflow applications
2. Incentives & Accountability.
- Service technicians are incentivized for no call backs (20 business days for any reason)
- Service Managers assigned quota for post-service call inspections
3. Local Decision Making.
- All service/support decisions made locally
- At least 1 Service Manager is always on duty in the office overseeing service operations
4. Metrics & Monitoring.
- Live monitoring of key service performance indicators
- Live monitoring of service personnel current field location (assists with ETA)
- Tracking of service call resolution in addition to service call response
5. Tools & Support Technology.
- ImageWare Remote Monitoring of fleet to deliver proactive service
- Technicians utilize live Canon SnapShot mobile app to ensure responsive service
- FMAudit Software utilized for automatic meter reads and proactive toner replenishment
- All customers proactively emailed an ETA and picture of the responding technician
6. Parts & Availability.
- Extensive corporate parts inventory
- OEM parts used
- Service technicians replace waste toner boxes on service call for most models
7. Service Process Best Practices.
- Pre-installation site surveys conducted
- All Service Guarantees in writing and included in ImageCare Maintenance Agreement
- Customer surveys sent after calls completed
- Net Promoter Score® service evaluation format
