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: Lakeside School District (Hot Springs) 

The Account Representative: Molissa Spradley

Retaining a customer – even one with a 17-year-history of solid rapport – isn’t always easy. In fact, it took Molissa Spradley three years to do just that with Lakeside School District in Hot Springs.

A new IT Director/District Administrator arrived in 2017, with new expectations and an absolute mission to cut overall expenses. Though the agreements in place had worked for a long time, Molissa knew there would need to be not only a reworking of the contract, but also a lot of time, energy, and essentially proving herself to continue the partnership with Lakeside.

But this one was personal for Molissa. She’s a Lakeside alumni, and all three of her children graduated from there. She simply refused to lose.

The Business Challenge

The service was exceptional. The Datamax reputation across campus was strong. But the district’s needs were changing, and we needed to change with them.

“The agreement we had in place was essentially, they commit to run a certain number of copies per month over a 60-month term, and then their click rate is established on their committed volume. For years, there were many schools that have this agreement, and when volumes were high, it just worked for all parties,” Molissa said.

But the IT administrator (who didn’t initially review the contract) tasked everyone to print less. Then COVID hit. And his mission to reduce overall costs was being affected by the current agreement.

“In March of 2019, he started questioning the existing contract, and I had just recently taken over the account,” Molissa recalls. “When we first sat down and he realized the agreement, he was not happy…. Not unhappiness with Datamax, but with the agreement.”

The Thought Process

“He of course said all along that moving forward, whether it be with Datamax or a competitor, he wanted a traditional lease payment and maintenance agreement. And that was our end goal,” Molissa said.

So Molissa, for three years, met regularly with the administrator. She worked on “right-sizing” his fleet for an entirely new printing setup (printing pods throughout the buildings vs classroom printers and workroom copiers). She responded to needs, answered questions, and routinely made herself available. She set up a new proposed contract that would meet the school’s current needs.

“I just had to keep pushing forward. I had too much at stake because this was so dear to my heart,” Molissa said. “After meetings with him, in which we would discuss his vision moving forward, I never knew how he felt along the way… I just had to be consistent and go into each and every meeting with a positive attitude.”

Molissa recalls one meeting in particular:

“I looked at him and said, ‘other than the existing agreement in place, is there anything you are unhappy with about Datamax? And he said, ‘no I’m happy with everything else.’”

The Prevailing Results

When it came time to present to the school board, there were no other bids presented. Datamax had retained a longtime customer. Molissa had prevailed.

“It was one of my happiest days since I’ve been here,” Molissa said. “I never gave up. And our service techs had a lot to do with these results. In the end, I think he knew that Datamax was there to take care of them.”