When a business disruption pushes the business community from its base of operations, communication takes on greater emphasis, which holds true with employees, partners, clients or other stakeholders critical to success.
When the pandemic forced companies to resort to remote communications platforms that had been largely underutilized, decentralized operations were tasked with effectively conveying multiple messaging initiatives in a sleek and seamless fashion that needed to appear opaque, especially to the end-user client. In this week’s installment of Elite Dealer challenges, we will feature a sampling of companies that grappled with the tall order of keeping their communications ducks in a row.
One such dealer is Doing Better Business of Altoona, Pennsylvania. While the company is able to have limited face-to-face interaction (armed with PPE, of course), it can be difficult to find creative ways of getting/maintaining attention during remote meetings. That means keeping employees sufficiently armed from a tech standpoint.
“We hold a staff meeting daily via our own video conferencing solution and have equipped many of our at-home workers with interactive flat panel displays so they can collaborate on documents and presentations,” the dealer noted.
Communication is key to any business or organization’s success and stamina, reports CPI Technologies of Springfield Missouri. The dealer schedules Zoom meetings twice monthly to keep all employees updated and in contact with fellow team members. This also allows them to ask questions of the leadership team.
“Weekly state-of-the-business emails have also had an impact by giving everyone short updates at the end of the week regarding upcoming events and business health,” the dealer added.
Delivering the Goods
From the “good problems” department: With an increase in sales and accompanying solutions, Copiers Plus of Fayetteville, North Carolina, finds it requires more time and personnel to furnish deliveries and installations that are up to the standards the company has set for itself. In response, Copiers Plus leverages pre-delivery installation huddles to canvass logistics and issues that may arise.
“In addition, we shifted delivery responsibilities to one person, who works with dispatch, service, sales and warehouse staff to ensure the details of each delivery are addressed and smoothly implemented,” the dealer wrote.
Even in the midst of the pandemic, ACT Group of Cromwell, Connecticut, put its long-tenured staff through the paces with operational changes, new operating and CRM software, and procedural changes. Given the amount of training involved, the dealer feared it might have bitten off more than it could chew.
The fears were unfounded; staff responded and delivered on absorbing the new systems and methodologies, and ACT Group finds itself in a much stronger position than it was the previous year. “We also learned to take culture into account to a much greater degree when clients are looking to make aggressive changes,” the company reported. “Another lesson learned! It also helps that we were 10% ahead of the same six-month period last year.”
Client Growth
Adding net-new customers, while pleasing to the bottom line, can result in growing pains. Image Matters of Knoxville, Tennessee, view MFPs as “truly integrated network citizens that support multi-layered workflows in customer environments.” However, these environments are constantly changing and increasing in complexity, and new client spaces offer many unknowns, including limited IT resources.
“(These) can stress processes and resources to ensure our implementations are successful and meet or exceed customer expectations,” Image Matters reported. “With the increased flow of new business orders, we are constantly analyzing and refining our processes from the initial order to implementation to ensure that our proposed solution delights our clients and makes the favorable first impression needed to (generate) future incremental business.”
Speaking of IT, Repeat Business Systems of Albany, New York, grappled with how to best grow its managed network services department in a scalable manner. As more MNS business gravitated to the dealer, there was a concern that it could compromise the dealer’s ability to maintain its excellence standards.
“Before it impacted on our customers, we hired someone whose responsibility was project management and account relationships,” Repeat Business Systems wrote, which helped allay those fears.
One of the most common challenges created by the pandemic has been a significant reduction in customer clicks. For dealers such as KOMAX Business Systems of South Charleston, West Virginia, it has lowered service revenue and necessitated finding new revenue streams.
“We have focused on diversifying our product and services offering and this has helped us to get deeper with existing customers and find new customers,” the dealer wrote.
Abundance of Opportunities
In a year that represented significant struggles for much of the industry, Stratix Systems of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, positioned itself to answer the significant call for business related to remote access, data security and backup technologies. The real task here was for the dealer to refine its processes, services and supply chain to remain on pace with what it termed “vigorous demand.”
Operating within, and serving a client base mired in a work-from-home scenario prompted the dealer to utilize constant training, innovative communication tools, mentoring and strong sales management that will enable Stratix Systems to flourish even more on the backside of the pandemic.
“These changes have yielded excellent results,” the company reported. “We have been able to remain profitable so that we can reinvest in acquiring other businesses which may have not been able to adjust to the new environment. These opportunities have led to three acquisitions in the past three years and over 500% growth – which has landed us on the prestigious Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing businesses the past three years.”
All told, Stratix Systems believes its greatest challenge—the end-users’ changing attitudes toward technology—also represents the greatest opportunity to flourish. “Buyers are changing the way they analyze and purchase technology, and the technology itself that they need to drive their business has become more sophisticated,” the dealer wrote. “We have committed to being at the foreground of this evolution. We are no longer a service business selling boxes by knocking on doors; we are an integrated, experienced, capable technology partner to more than 6,500 clients.”
