Michael Walsh, President/CEO
Natural selection is not a term limited to the animal kingdom or even nature. Survival of the fittest most certainly applies to the world of office technology equipment, and Michael Walsh finds himself smack in the middle of a competition jungle down in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, GA.
Walsh is the president of United Office Systems, a 24-year-old dealership that started from scratch and grew into a $6 million performer that offers Konica Minolta and Lexmark equipment. But he is far from alone in that regard, especially when it comes to Konica Minolta gear. In each of the roughly 10 counties where Walsh is authorized to sell Konica Minolta product, there’s an average of eight competitors between the direct branch and other dealerships. One county alone includes 10 competitors. With all that competition, it helps that United Office Systems has captured the Konica Minolta Pro-Tech award for 10 consecutive years.
(from left) Michael Walsh, President; Michelle Daniel, VP; David Harding, Director of Service
United Office Systems, a proud member of the Select Dealer Group peer organization, has a retention rate of 90 percent for customers under lease contract, which is quite remarkable for a dealership vying for share in such a hotly contested and constantly evolving, market.
“Atlanta is a huge marketplace and it’s amazing how many companies are bought and sold,” Walsh observed. “Smaller markets tend to be more static, with 15-20 employee businesses that have been around forever. In Atlanta, you’ll have an organization pop up out of the blue and it will have 50-100 people within a year. But three years later, when the lease is about to be renewed, that company has been acquired by someone else. The churn of organizations going in and out of business is a challenge.”
Consistency and Focus
With a volatile business base and scores of competitors fishing from the same pond, United Office Systems thrives courtesy of a simple philosophy—consistency and focus. Walsh doesn’t try to be all things to all customers. Instead, he maintains a concentrated method of attack that has proven to be successful. About 80 percent of United Office Systems’ client base consists of mid-sized organizations with 25 to 100 employees, and its bread and butter is the 25-75 page-per-minute range of A3 color multifunction devices, which plays well in a business-oriented metro area where demand is heavy.
The dealership’s philosophy further dictates that it is the responsibility of the service department to maintain its customers. That level of accountability, coupled with its 12th-place ranking in the country, has earned United Office Systems this month’s BEI/ENX Office Technology Service Excellence Platinum Award.
For a company that is celebrating its silver anniversary, United Office Systems boasts an impressive record of tenure throughout its organization. The service department averages 15 years on the job, with sales and admin coming in at 10 years each. That experience, along with its 25-75 ppm, A3 MFP sweet spot, has enabled the service department to hone its craft through the years and register solid performances with the BEI metrics—their most recent month’s performance includes 70 percent first-call effectiveness, a 28 percent callback rate and a 10 percent hold-for-parts.
“The advantage provided by that band of equipment is those machines are quite reliable,” Walsh said. “They’re user friendly and technician friendly from a servicing aspect. Clients are always a lot more satisfied with these segment machines. We see more consistent upgrading of these machines every three to four years. And because we focus so much on these segments, we’re able to be a lot more competitive in the marketplace and a lot more efficient with service.”
Technician Empowerment
The company’s tenure record has created an environment where technicians feel they are supported and empowered with the autonomy to make critical decisions that help ensure long-lasting relationships with clients. That autonomy is key in maintaining experienced technicians as well. “With tenure,” Walsh noted, “you don’t have to make sure everyone is on the same page and rowing in the right direction. Our people feel more trusted, and they are.”
The onus of responsibility for the customer is obviously vital in a hyper-competitive industry where customer loyalty can be tenuous at best, according to Walsh. Service creates the customer stickiness needed to prevent them from jumping ship when the lease contract expires. In lieu of being the lowest-cost provider, service becomes the value-add selling point.
Walsh prefers to be the best rather than the cheapest. United Office Systems averages 2.5 hours on response time and prides itself on first-call effectiveness. He describes the service component as a high touch department, with courtesy calls constituting half of its service visits. It’s the equivalent of a wellness visit in health care, with the techs dropping in to ensure the machines are clean and operating optimally.
That level of service and familiarity serves as a catalyst for ongoing business. “It’s a whole lot easier from the sales department standpoint to go into an account and upgrade them to a new machines when they’re happy with the service and reliability as well as the technician,” Walsh said.
David Harding, Service Manager
United Office Systems is fortunate to foster a veteran crew of eight technicians, and part of the challenge for the dealership is complementing them with quality employees who value hard work, creativity, accountability, collaboration and competition, according to David Harding, director of service.
The motivation behind joining the BEI program was to find ways to increase productivity while controlling cost. The BEI compensation program enables the technicians to relate their performances as if it were their own business, Harding said. When technicians are more efficient with parts and time, and the customer is kept up and operating, it is reflected in their level of bonus.
“The program allows for the technician to manage their performance themselves,” Harding added. “They come to their supervisor with an issue before the supervisor has to come to them. They’re attuned to how their performance on a particular machine or customer situation impacts their bonus.”
Another perk of the BEI compensation plan is that the self-regulation factor enables Harding to spend more time focusing on other aspects of the business. Harding also values the technician assessment tool BEI offers, which helps the tech and supervisor identify specific areas that need improvement, develop a plan and monitor results. This has been most beneficial to technicians who have stagnated in their quest to improve. With newer technicians, the compensation program provides ample enticement to quickly ramp up their performance to the requisite levels for bonuses.
Communicating Success
The feedback from customers has been extremely positive. United Office Systems sends out surveys to customers following every experience with the dealership, whether it’s a service call or network issue. According to Harding, one of the most consistent notes they receive is the appreciation for the lines of communication United Office Systems provides, particularly email notifications and the ability to track technicians via GPS.
United Office Systems also uses CEO Juice, an automated best practices tool for copier dealers, which provides chain-of-command notifications for unresolved issues. The objective with CEO Juice is to head off problems before the customer picks up the phone. Preserving the valued relationship is paramount, according to Harding.
Looking ahead, Walsh’s primary goal is to maintain the consistent growth United Office Systems has enjoyed while improving on its BEI key statistics. He takes pride in being the top-ranked performer in the Select Dealer Group when it comes to the Net Promoter Score and would like to bolster United Office Systems’ nationwide ranking, which sits at 12. Harding added that the most telling analytic from the BEI survey is whether a customer would recommend United Office Systems to a friend or colleague.
“It’s just a matter of focusing on what works,” Walsh concluded. “When you do that, you’re able to take care of the customer directly. They’re satisfaction becomes ours.”
