Providing an on-point, creative solution that increases a client’s return on technology investment and produces the Raving Results we constantly seek to deliver.

The Client: Southern Administrative Services

The Account Representative: Dave Duke

Dave Duke will tell you straight up. “I’m old, and I’m old school.”

So, when it came time to do a print assessment of 33 nursing rehab facilities across the entire state of Arkansas, Mr. Duke, Major Accounts Representative in Little Rock, took the road less traveled … and that has made all the difference.

“I’d rather talk on the phone than text, and I’d much rather be face to face than talk on the phone,” Dave said. “I saw parts of Arkansas I’d never seen before. I’m talking dirt roads, back roads, and cut-throughs.”

Dave’s time on the road (3,000 miles worth) was well spent. In visiting these facilities one at a time over the course of a few months, he replaced a competitor and worked a first-time account that totaled 46 new MFPs and plenty more to come.

The Business Challenge

Southern Administrative Services is a management group for nursing home organizations across the state of Arkansas. They control 33 nursing rehab facilities and depend on printing/scanning/faxing for many things, but certainly processing referrals for earning new business.

“If they’re slow (at processing these referrals) another competing nursing home will do it. If their equipment wasn’t functioning, they were losing business,” Dave said. “Unfortunately, they were very, very, very dissatisfied with their current vendor. When they had issues, they were very slow to respond. Things were simply not being addressed and not being taken care of in a timely manner.”

The Thought Process

In his expert way of thinking, Dave wanted to do a Discovery with each environment the right way – face to face.

“Hands-on, that’s always been my approach. When we first got started with this, I figured there was really no way to sit at a desk and take care of an account like this. You’ve got to go and see and visit and know these people.”

So he started driving. Hitting anywhere from two to four facilities in a given day, he listened to the needs of the local administrator and created a spreadsheet for every location that listed every piece of equipment (usually one to three copiers, and a plethora of printers all over the board). He used his data to make a relevant recommendation based on volume and speed requirements.

“They couldn’t believe it. They were very impressed because no one had done that with them before. Most of the time, an assessment like this was done over the phone,” Dave said. “They welcomed me with open arms. They felt like, hey we have somebody who cares, someone who will show up and ask questions and address our needs.”

Along the way, he noted that the organizations mostly did all their color prints on the smaller printers.

“What we try to do with a company like this is see what they’re doing, and see all the places we can save them money. You’re spending 17 to 18 cents a copy, vs 4 or 6 cents when you print color on a copier.”

To date, 19 of the 33 facilities have either ordered new equipment or had it delivered, and 33 of the 46 units have already been installed. In the coming months, Dave has plans to right-size their printer fleet and in doing so further maximize their return on technology investment. In many ways, this account relationship is still in its infant stages, but there is much further growth on the horizon.

The Prevailing Results

“What they found with Datamax is, number one, we’re willing to go to each place, willing to do the full assessment, willing to right-size their business… More than anything, it was that we did the footwork, we showed them that we were really listening. We understood what they needed. They also raved about our delivery and connect team. The bottom line is they don’t care if they see me (moving forward), they just don’t want to have to worry about their copiers.”

Whether that’s true or not is irrelevant. Rest assured, this road warrior will be back behind the wheel sooner rather than later, visiting with these folks individually, face to face. It’s just the way he prefers it.