The office technology industry thrives on service and whenever one asks a dealer why customers choose them as opposed to a competitor, more often than not, service ends up as one of the primary reasons.
One of the companies at the forefront of assisting dealerships enhance its service operations is BEI Services, whose focus is imaging device and technician performance benchmarking. Now, after helping dealerships for more than 20 years improve their service operations, BEI Services is launching a new initiative in 2015 to honor those dealers whose service levels excel compared to their peers.
BEI Services is looking to do something completely different than what others in the industry have done before when it comes to service recognition programs.
“Most programs are well intentioned, in that they work to recognize dealer service organizations that provide outstanding service,” explains Wes McArtor, president of BEI Services. “As an objective observer, I have to ask; how is it possible that there are dealers that consistently win recognition, while key performance metrics would say they shouldn’t? How is it possible that only one company in a market area is the only ‘good’ one? How is it possible that a truly ‘good’ dealer gets no recognition?”
Those questions lead to more questions. Most importantly, “How are they measured, if at all? In addition has anyone published the criteria for how a dealer is recognized to ensure the award is earned and not bought?”
BEI Services and ENX magazine’s Office Technology Service Excellence Award will change that thanks to a partnership between BEI Services and ENX Magazine. Top award winners will be featured throughout 2015 in ENX Magazine.
“This award will recognize dealers whose service performance meets, or exceeds, specific and clear measurable goals for machine and technician performance,” states McArtor.
The key elements of this new award are based on what matters most to the customer.
“Obviously the customer wants someone there quickly when a problem arises,” states McArtor. “In my experience though, they would prefer not to have to call someone in the first place. As a result, many of the measurements used to determine the winners of this award focus on reliability and technician proficiency.”
BEI Services’ process for determining service excellence centers on performance analytics, including historical service data to document the quality of service provided by each participating dealer. The ranking and grading process uses BEI’s proprietary database of performance statistics to ensure each participant is evaluated fairly and uniformly. It is open to all dealers using a supported ERP platform for managing its service operations, or can provide BEI Services with the data in the appropriate format.
Dealers do not have to be a BEI Services customer to be considered for an award, and will be evaluated at no cost.
Both the dealer and individual technicians will be recognized for meeting each level of service performance. The top award winners will be visited by a BEI team member and audited at no charge, to ensure that the data received is accurate and not manipulated in any way.
Dealers will be evaluated on four key metrics:
Average Call Back Rates – This equates to technician’s performance on the machines they work on and the training commitment and practices of the dealership. This measurement indicates how frequently a customer has to call for service within a prescribed amount of time, or pages, following the previous service call.
Average Hold for Parts Rates – This measures the amount of time a technician did not have the parts needed to complete the service call on the first visit, indicating the dealer’s ability to effectively manage its inventories.
Average Technician Grade – There are 11 key performance metrics, weighted on three areas that affect the customer the most (see sidebar).
Average MCBV (Mean Copies Between Visits) – This metric calculates the average images produced between service calls which is an indicator of machine reliability. This complex algorithm not only determines if their machine MCBV exceeds the average, but also by how much.
Technicians are also evaluated on a weighted grade card system, using standardized grading and point deductions.
For the highest level awards, BEI Services will actually visit the dealership and audit them from an operational standpoint. This audit will ensure that the company’s Service Excellence Score reflects the company’s true performance. “We want the award winners to fully understand all aspects of the evaluation,” notes McArtor. In addition to a BEI Services audit, these dealers will be profiled by ENX magazine and the Week in Imaging to further promote their achievement.
Gauging Success
Success of this new award program will be gauged by the number of dealers who incorporate this grading methodology into their internal evaluation processes. In addition, further success of the program will be gained by introducing a method for technicians to be recognized for their outstanding efforts in servicing each company’s customers. “In the technician ranks we’d like to see a heightened awareness of each tech’s performance level, creating a new atmosphere of competition among the techs,” says McArtor. This should increase the number of technicians achieving an award level. McArtor continues, “I also want as many dealers as possible calling me to find out what they have to do to get this award.”
He’s also hoping to generate dealer interest outside of BEI Services’ existing customer base.
McArtor expects this to become an ongoing program. “As each dealer achieves a certain level or scores higher, they’ll move up to another award level. BEI Services will certify them, making sure that the data is correct. From that point forward we will monitor the dealer’s performance and immediately recognize when the dealer has achieved a higher award level. Otherwise they’ll be evaluated on a 12-month anniversary and they’ll get a new award that’s based on the given performance level,” explains McArtor.
BEI Services will follow a similar approach with technician awards.
“This is a game changer for the industry because no one has ever done an objective job of measuring criteria and certifying that this dealer has done a good job. Without national statistics you don’t know what good looks like. Every other award program relies on too much subjectivity, which in my opinion allows for bias. This is totally objective and recognizes your performance compared to your peers as excellent.”
In an industry where the differentiation between one OEM’s products and another’s are minimal at best, the differentiator for the dealer in his marketplace is the performance of the service department.
“If we can use a program like this to draw attention to what a well run service department looks like and what’s required, I think we can have a substantial impact on the dealer’s profitability and the industry as a whole,” concludes McArtor.
The 11 Key Technician Performance Metrics
These are the 11 performance metrics, weighted on three areas that affect the customer the most.
Average Start Time: Compares the technician’s ability to arrive at their first call at the time designated as the start of day by the dealer.
Average Last Call Completion: Indicates the average time the technician completes their last call of the day, compared to the end of day time set by the dealer.
Effective Hours: Compares the total hours the technician spends in the field servicing customers’ devices to BEI’s benchmark of the number of hours available to work each month.
First Call Average: Compares the length of the first call to all others done by the technician. This measurement indicates whether the technician is misreporting the actual time they arrived at the first call.
Middle Call Average: Compares the length of the middle call to all the others done by the technician. This measurement indicates the consistency of the technician’s call procedures and time accountability accuracy.
Last Call Average: Compares the length of the last call to all the others done by the technician. This measurement can be an indicator of a technician misreporting their last call times.
Parts Usage: Measures the technician cost per page for parts to BEI’s national benchmarks by model.
CPP Management: This Cost per Page measurement compares the technician’s over parts and labor cost for servicing compared to BEI’s national benchmarks by model.
Average Hold for Parts: Compares the technician’s hold for parts instances to BEI’s benchmark of 12% of customer placed calls.
Average Call Backs: Compares the technician’s ability to fix the devices on the first call without incurring an additional call in the prescribed number of days, or pages. BEI sets this standard and the target is 20% of customer placed calls.
Total MCBV: This measures the technician’s ability to fix the machine by tracking how many pages the machine produces between each visit. This is compared to BEI’s national benchmark by model.
The last three criteria are weighted heavier than the others.
