Dean Johnson
Earlier this year at the Kyocera dealer meeting in Las Vegas, I met Dean Johnson, service manager for Royal Business Systems in Anchorage, AK, one morning at breakfast. He had a wealth of stories about living in Alaska and the challenges of servicing office technology throughout the state.
We usually interview dealer principals for the Dealer Spotlight, but in this case we’re making what I hope will not be a rare exception as we expand our Dealer Spotlight column to include individuals from all corners of a dealership. They’ve got good stories to tell too. Johnson has been with Royal Business Systems for 14 years, starting as a service technician before becoming service manager. He’s good at what he does, and he and his team are doing it in a way that most service managers and service techs here in the lower 48 might think, “Better them than me.”
How’d you get started in this business?
Johnson: I was working as an IT support technician for a company that had the contract to service the Alyeska pipeline. They had all the pump stations up and down the pipeline and we had to remote in and take care of the computers for them. We lost the bid to renew the contract so there were a bunch of IT people out of work; the market was flooded with IT people and you couldn’t get a job. I saw an ad in the paper for a copier repair technician. I had never done that type of work before; however, I grew up working on farms and equipment in Montana and my father was a mechanic so it seemed like a natural transition.
How did you progress into the position you have now?
Johnson: I’ve been lucky throughout my life and always seem to move up into management positions. I don’t know why it happens, it just tends to, and this just kind of happened and I became the service manager.
Tell me about the geographic region you service and how far that extends?
Johnson: We service the entire state of Alaska. Just to give an example, Alaska is over twice the size of the state of Texas with a population of roughly 736,000 people. Anchorage has a population of about 310,000 people with the next largest city of Fairbanks having around 32,000 people. The rest are shot gunned around the state in small villages or towns with limited road access. The whole state is 586,000 square miles and we cover all of it.
Is there any way to describe who your customers are, SMBs, certain verticals, etc.?
Johnson: We service universities, hospitals, oil field support companies, construction companies, and mom and pops. I always joke around here, we have winter and then we have construction. Most of the equipment we sell and service is below 100 pages per minute.
Tell me about your average day?
Johnson: I like to get in at 7:30 a half hour before we open so I can look over the call board, see what we have going on, and take care of any e-mails and things I need to do before the day starts. Then it’s off to the races.
As the service manager I don’t get out in the field as much as I used to even though I still do 90 percent of the networking. We service the entire state and have such a diverse field of machines out there you never know what’s going to come in. The other day we received a call from a company on the North Slope that had a copier down. One of my techs had to walk them through how to fix it over the phone. If he had not been able to fix it that way it would have been a long plane ride and two days of him being out of the office.
How many customers are you servicing?
Johnson: We have over 1,500 customers.
Do you see that growing?
Johnson: We have had continual growth since I started with Royal. Our business model of ‘Service First’ wins us deals and continues to bite into the 1,800 “who cares” business markets of the larger corporate companies.
What’s the best part of your job?
Johnson: The people. That’s one of the things about being a service manager; I’m behind the desk more than I’d like. I prefer being in front of our customers, but it is what it is. I still do 90 percent of the installs; I see people for the first time, I impart my enthusiasm for the product and the company to them and I really like that part of it. They’re almost always glad to see you. And there’s great satisfaction in fixing their problems and leaving them with a smile.
What’s the most challenging aspect of your job?
Johnson: The logistics of working in a state this large with such a limited road system. If you can’t get there by road you’re flying, and they aren’t always big comfortable planes landing at nice big airports. The challenge is getting out to them and getting back.
You service Kyocera, HP, and OKI, any challenges servicing any of those machines?
Johnson: Copiers in general have become way easier to work on over the years. Everything is becoming modular and component based. We don’t spend as much time working on a machine as we used to. Gone are the days of rebuilding fusers, drums or developing units. It’s really sped up our response times and our ability to get people up and running faster. Out of all the machines that I have worked on over the years, we rarely turn down an opportunity to work on any brand. Kyocera has by far been the better machine to work on, especially from the IT side. The web interface for networking and device setup is outstanding.
How many techs do you manage at Royal?
Johnson: Currently we have four technicians, not including myself, with an opening for another. I am always able to go out into the field if needed.
How difficult is it finding good help in your market?
Johnson: It is very hard to find someone that is willing to show up and give an honest day’s work. We just interviewed four people the other day and the best out of them we rated about a six. That being said we don’t allow ourselves to be held hostage by the idea that we can’t let someone go because there won’t be another person to replace them.
What kind of IT services do you provide?
Johnson: We provide IT for the connection of our devices for print scan and Hypass applications for the Kyocera devices. I also help smaller businesses without an IT company with light network support as a courtesy.
A lot of dealerships talk about response time, how do you measure response time in your market?
Johnson: We run our company tech heavy. We do that because we never know when a guy is going to have to go out somewhere and be gone for a couple of days. When we don’t have a tech working out in the bush or having to drive three and a half hours one way to work on a machine, then our response time in town is amazing. We get a lot of business with our response time, especially up here. There’s only two local companies, the rest are [direct branches]. Our response time for local calls is sub three hours. For calls outside of Anchorage such as Nikiski, which is a 350-mile round trip, it is next day.
At the Kyocera dealer meeting you talked about being delayed by avalanches, what are some of the biggest obstacles you and your techs have faced over the years?
Johnson: The big thing is weather. You never know when it is going to strand you somewhere. The weather moves in on one of these small villages and you can be stuck there for three days waiting for it to be clear enough for the small airplane to take off. Also when you get to these places, there’s no store, no hotel, so you’re bringing your own food, your sleeping bag, and you’re sleeping on the floor in a gym in a high school. I’ve even slept in a laundry room once. You’ve got to pack your own stuff and when you get off the plane it’s not like there’s a car waiting for you. So you’re taking a four wheeler or a small boat up a river. It’s a unique environment to work in.
And your techs are okay with that?
Johnson: We have a friend who owns his own copier business who was in a plane crash and went through the windshield of the plane and ended up on the ice on the river. He lived, but that kind of thing sticks in some of these guys’ minds. I have a couple of go-to guys and some who pretty much refuse to do it.
How long did it take you to get acclimated to that type of environment, sleeping on the floor after a call, etc.?
Johnson: I just did what I had to do. That’s the job and that’s what it requires in this area. I don’t always like it, but I also like going out and seeing some of those places because it’s really beautiful out there. And the people are great, especially because they rely on each other so much for everything. When you show up and you’re there to work on their equipment, you’re not just working on their equipment, you’re probably going to be working on every piece of equipment in town because they’re just happy to have somebody in town to fix something.
Are these weather-related issues seasonal?
Johnson: Unfortunately it’s year round for the weather. You can get stuck with rain—most of the villages on the outlying coast are all flat tundra and the winds come whipping through there. Planes are taking off almost sideways in order to get in or get out. It’s weather and the terrain. Sometimes you’re flying through these mountain passes. That’s the big thing, just getting to where you need to go and getting back. There are only three major roads in the state and only one to get out of the state.
What do you do for fun when you’re not servicing equipment?
Johnson: My wife and I have two kids and we have a cabin on Big Lake close to Anchorage so we spend most weekends in the summer boating and jet skiing. We have four wheelers and snow machines. When it’s nice you’re outside because in the winter you’re inside. As soon as summer hits I get the itch.
How does the rest of today look for you?
Johnson: Our salesmen have been selling like crazy; I have six new builds I have to get done today, then the Coast Guard needs a card authentication install. I have to do that today and then I have a delivery this afternoon. It’s going to be a busy day.
Can you imagine yourself doing anything else?
Johnson: No I can’t. When I’m interviewing guys and I tell them about the job, I tell them how you’re out of the office a lot and the days go by quick. Even being in the office, the days go by quick. And it’s the people, I like helping people. Ninety percent of the time they’re happy to see you and happy when you get their machine fixed. I always tell people it’s one of the only jobs where you can be happy telling somebody I hope I don’t see you soon.
