Change is Good for NATIONAL Business Equipment

NATIONAL Business Equipment (NATIONAL) CEO and President, Scott Mueller, points out that it was important to establish a specific culture at NATIONAL because he knew they were going to experience rapid growth. Mueller says, “The first thing I spoke to our team about was the core philosophy of our company: Change is Good. Within Change is Good is another core philosophy: Change Provides Opportunity.”

NATIONAL is no stranger to change. The company traces its origins to Camera Exchange, which began in Albany, New York in 1927. Although initially focused strictly on camera supplies, the company expanded its divisions to include graphics supply, newspaper supply and even law enforcement supply. In the 1950’s, NATIONAL began selling Kodak Verifax photocopiers.

Scott Mueller President CEO

Mueller has been in the copier industry for over 20 years. He spent his early career in Cincinnati, Ohio, building ProSource, a small local office equipment dealer, into a nationally recognized office solutions provider. In 2007 he decided to sell his equity position in ProSource and move back to his hometown of Albany, New York. In 2008 he acquired NATIONAL Business Equipment and Supply. NATIONAL at that time was comprised of five employees with revenues of less than $1 million per year. Today NATIONAL has grown to over 75 employees with annual revenues in excess of $15 million. They are a full line Kyocera dealer and production line Konica Minolta dealer.

“We’re growing at a very rapid pace,” says Mueller. “We expect that growth to continue.”

NATIONAL has a wide variety of clients ranging from enterprise accounts to SMBs. NATIONAL is also very diversified through many vertical markets including banking, education, government and retail. In New York, NATIONAL provides coverage to the entire area known as “Tech Valley”, which stretches just north of New York City to the Canadian border. Their New York locations include Albany, Plattsburgh, Kingston and Glen Falls. In Vermont, their Burlington office provides service to the entire state of Vermont.

NATIONAL has 25 factory-trained technicians servicing over 5,000 devices. Their technicians are consistently recognized for the outstanding quality of service they provide to their customers. Most recently, NATIONAL has been recognized as a BEI and ENX Magazine’s Office Technology Service Excellence Award (OTSEA) Platinum Level service provider with over 50% of their technicians receiving national recognition for their individual performances. This includes three technicians who achieved Platinum level status and two technicians who achieved Diamond level status. This outstanding achievement ranks these technicians in the top 5% and 1% respectively of over 13,000 service technicians across the Country.

Scott Mueller at Kyocera Dealer Council

When asked about NATIONAL’s growth, Mueller said that in 2015 sales grew 62% and they are currently 51% ahead of last year’s results. He points out that the growth is not attributable to any one particular factor.

“The majority of our growth is organic,” he explains. “This has been accomplished by hiring more sales professionals which in turn allows NATIONAL to successfully compete for more market share. When I acquired NATIONAL, they had only one salesperson working out of one office in downtown Albany. We currently have 26 sales professionals working out of five offices servicing New York, Vermont and Massachusetts.”

Mueller has always been an advocate of promoting from within. To help provide the leadership to manage the growing company, NATIONAL spends a considerable amount of time and effort grooming many entry-level employees to eventually grow into managerial positions. Mueller says that the development of the management team is an important part of their growth objectives as they transition into a different phase of NATIONAL’s organizational structure. “We’re moving from an entrepreneurial company into a management company,” he says.

Mueller credits CFO Chris Shersky, a former colleague in Cincinnati, who relocated to Albany to work for NATIONAL, as another important factor of the company’s growth strategy. “Shersky has 25 years of experience in our industry,” he says. “With him being responsible for the operational and administrative areas of the organization, it allows me to focus more on sales, acquisitions and ultimately growth.”

Growth is the operative word. NATIONAL expects to double the size of its organization in the next few years. Mueller believes that the foundation for that growth is quality service. He cites the 95% plus retention rate of their customers as a prime example of that outstanding service. The catalyst of this service achievement is delivered through their GOLD Alliance program.

“The GOLD Alliance program reflects our commitment to providing quality service and improving our customer’s business,” explains Mueller. “It is a partnership that offers our preferred clients priority service response, a cost containment strategy and guaranteed service performance. The cornerstone of the GOLD Alliance is superior customer service, backed by the GOLD Alliance 100% satisfaction guarantee.”

Scott Mueller with his Service Team members at corporate headquarters in Albany NY

Mueller emphasizes that in order to provide outstanding service, it’s important to ensure that their best technicians are matched up with their best opportunities. He points out that this could never be achieved without a method of measuring performance. NATIONAL turns to BEI Services, Inc. (BEI) for that method.

“I’ve been using BEI since the mid-1990s,” states Mueller. “It’s a tried and true system. It provides the performance analytics to properly manage technician results as well as giving the technicians a great tool to assist them in managing their territory. Those technicians who are the most passionate about doing great things can do great things here. The BEI system helps us recognize those performers.”

Adds Mueller, “We also believe that our top performers should be rewarded. We reward our technicians by using a Technician Incentive Compensation Program utilizing BEI results. We also give technicians bonuses for improving their service level ranking as recognized by BEI.”

The company culture of offering growth opportunities extends to the technical staff as well. At NATIONAL, entry-level setup technicians have the opportunity to develop into printer technicians, MFP technicians and production print technicians. They can also transition into other technologies such as telephony or IT services.

OTSEA Platinum award winners rank in the top 25 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 as well as parts expense as it relates to parts CPC compared to world stats.