Business Equipment Center (BEC), the close-knit dealership co-owned by brothers Bill Matthews, Jr. and Mark Matthews, has a lot of which to be proud. Not only are they a BEI and ENX Magazine’s Office Technology Service Excellence Diamond Award winner, they are also clearly a winner with their customers and employees.
Located in Memphis, Tennessee, BEC was started in 1971 by W. C. Matthews Sr., the father of Bill and Mark. The company, at its beginning, had 10 employees and mostly sold typewriters, calculators, and a few e-stat copiers.
Today, BEC’s primary equipment vendor is Sharp Electronics. Their customer base consists primarily of companies located in a tri-state area that include Memphis and surrounding counties.
(from left) Mark Richardson, Chris Heuer, Bill Matthews, Jr. , Mark Mathews, and Guy Worzel
Each one of BEC’s technicians has over 20 years of experience in the industry. BEC also retains a typewriter technician who works on a per call basis.
“One of our strengths is that we stock all of our parts and supplies in Memphis,” Bill Matthews, Jr. says. “A lot of our competitors do not stock locally. We keep a large inventory for the machines that we have out in the field.”
Service is a top priority. Mark Richardson, Director of Service, says that the distinguishing characteristic of their service is honesty. “That’s the number one point that we’ve always preached,” he says. “We’re the honest company. Our customers have the same view.”
BEC implemented the BEI services program in December of 2012. Chris Heuer, Business Manager, maintains that the information provided by BEI Services software has allowed BEC to improve their operations in many important areas.
“Our parts cost, inventory control and service to our customers has seen a significant improvement,” he says.
(from left) Owners Bill Matthews, Jr. and Mark Matthews with Guy Worzel of BEI
Heuer also points out that since they’ve implemented BEI Services their callbacks have decreased considerably and their on-site response time has also gone down.
“The techs now know, since they’re in their own territory and that they are responsible for the equipment in their territory, they basically own it, as far as performance goes,” he says. “They’ve been able to keep up with the equipment and make sure that it’s running properly. Because you don’t have a different tech out each time, they know the history on the equipment. We’ve really been able to improve our service quite a bit because of this.”
“All that started with BEI,” continues Heuer. “If you look back at when we started, we had a first call effective rate of seven percent and now we’re running in the upper 50s. Our callbacks went from 67 percent to 29 percent and our hold for parts went from 26 percent to about 17 percent or even less. It’s been a huge improvement. It’s meant a lot money-wise and it’s improved the morale of the techs. The customers like it, obviously. It’s just been great all the way around.”
“The techs are also taking great pride in their car stock and in their work,” adds Krissie Heuer, Office Manager. “They’ve shown an excitement for the BEI bonus program, and I think it’s been a tremendous boost to them.”
Chris Heuer runs the BEI reports once a month. He says the first thing he does is look at the snapshot page because it provides a month-to-month comparison in virtually every category. He then reviews the callback page with the techs to ensure that there are no discrepancies.
Heuer admits that most of the technicians were initially skeptical of the BEI Services program. He says that one tech had worked for a dealer in Florida who had used BEI Services and he communicated the benefits to the others.
“They were still a bit reluctant,” says Heuer. “But as everything was implemented and we started the car stock and assigned all the inventories, the attitude changed. Now they’re getting bonuses and they’re obviously happy to get them.”
Service Techs with Guy Worzel
BEC recently celebrated their 45th anniversary as a successful dealership. Asked what he believes to be the key to such longevity, Mark Matthews replied that he could cite several reasons, but the number one point he wanted to emphasize was that they’ve always worked hard to be an honest company.
“The overriding thing is that we believe that we can be 100 percent honest and transparent with our customers and still make a profit,” states Mark Matthews. “That’s not always true of every dealership in our industry. That’s how we try to differentiate ourselves.”
OTSEA Diamond award winners score in the top five percent of all dealers evaluated. The evaluations are based on call back percentage, hold for parts percentage, MCBV (Mean Copies Between Visits) and technician grading. Tech grading encompasses time accountability and time management along with individual HP, CB and MCBV rates. It also includes parts expense as it relates to parts CPC compared to world stats.
