Last month, we discussed the current environment of our industry and the challenges facing it. In this issue, our next step is to examine the opportunities that exist within the service department and how you can leverage them to remain relevant going forward.
Learn From Those Leading the Way
When we look at the leading players in the acquisition market, what do we see in common? They get deep and wide with the customer. Marco is a very good example of that process—if it touches a Cat 5 cable, it sells, supports and services the products. Recently, it became the IT department for a hospital. Who is going to sell the hospital anything, other than Marco?
The more you can provide clients with all the devices and services they need or want, the more secure your relationship with that client becomes. Anyone who wants to take the client away from you will need to service and support all the equipment you provide.
MTS
One of the presentations at the BTA national meeting in Orlando focused on a new acronym: managed technology services (MTS). The presenter discussed why this is the direction everyone should move in. Small- and mid-sized business clients need technology, but they do not want to have to deal with, or worry about, their technology.
To implement MTS successfully, your company will have to sell, support and service a wide variety of devices and environments. In most cases, the exact range of devices will change with the dealer. The key is to get so embedded into the client that the pain of replacing you is more than the client wants to deal with.
What will it mean for our industry? In many cases, this evolution will reduce the number of surviving companies. Dealers that want to stick solely with copiers will most likely go the way of typewriter dealers that did not want to adapt.
Get Involved in the Decision Process
It is vital that service department members contribute to the development of plans. All the things we’ve discussed so far will involve them, while also requiring the service team to develop new skills.
Work with owners and senior managers to help them see opportunities and challenges. One way to facilitate this involvement is to educate yourself on what’s happening in the industry. When you identify trends and possible opportunities you can benefit from, you gain respect and credibility.
Reading trade journals, participating in professional forums and attending trade events are some of the things you can do to acquire the necessary education. If you fail in this, managers who don’t understand the impact may make decisions you have to live with.
Hiring
We must attract and hire good talent with digital skills to deal with expansion into new technologies. Recruiting and hiring qualified candidates may be the most difficult task you face. The applicants coming out of school have salary expectations that are significantly higher than the technicians on your staff.
In the past, the technicians we hired needed good mechanical skills, and while these skills remain important, what we need now are digital experts who can install and manage networks and networked devices.
In addition to their salary expectations, these candidates will be looking at the potential for advancement and additional training to increase their value to your company and future employers.
Retention
Most of the candidates who meet your needs will come from younger generations, and they have a very different view of what the work environment and conditions of employment should be. They may expect to have flexible hours, and are more likely to want to change jobs than your current technicians.
To improve your retention, you’ll have to demonstrate that you value them and their opinions. They need to feel they have some control, and that you value the ideas and suggestions they share.
Mentoring is important to the younger generations entering the workforce; they want to work for and with people who are interested in their success. This may not be a skill you currently have, but it’s one you’ll need to keep the employees you want.
Another important aspect to challenge these team members. They’ll perform best if they are encouraged and motivated to help the company grow. For the most part, the employees you want and need will thrive when they can contribute in meaningful ways to the department’s success. In most cases, they will not tolerate micro-management; they will leave.
Identifying Adjacent Opportunities
While you’re building the workforce of the future, you also need to look for opportunities that allow you to become more valuable to your clients. Being a one-trick pony is not going to ensure your company’s survival.
Look at the skills your team has and the skills of the employees you’re going to have on your team. With those skills, what can you support in the way of equipment, software and applications? What do your clients have in their office that you can add to your portfolio?
One way to start this process is to ask your customers. What are the challenges they face in managing their technology? What do they wish they didn’t have to worry about? Have your sales and service teams look at what clients have in their office and document everything they see.
Also, look at what your competitors are servicing for their clients. Check their websites to see if they’re adding new products and services. If they’re trying to be just a copier/printer company, view their clients as real opportunities to grow your business.
Opportunities to Consider
If you are dabbling in the managed print services (MPS) arena, you need to become fully involved in that market. You can’t afford to have someone else taking care of your client’s printers. Anyone who can do that is potentially a serious threat to your company. At the recent ITEX show, there was a significant amount of encouragement for the managed network services (MNS) companies to go after the output business.
MNS is another area your company should be exploring. There’s a significant amount of revenue available when you take care of your client’s network. You may not be able to manage all of it in-house, but there are companies you can partner with to fill in those areas. This includes disaster planning, disaster recovery, data security and Virtual Chief Information Officer (VCIO) functions.
Voice over IP (VoIP) is an additional product to look at. If your company doesn’t want to take it on, another approach is to find a partner that provides it and work together to offer the product and support.
Another growing area is digital signage. More and more business are seeing the advantages of using digital signage and various display technologies in their business. It’s easy to support, and with skills outlined earlier, it would seem an obvious opportunity to embed your company deeper in your client’s infrastructure.
More often, employees are wanting to use their devices on the company’s network. This opens up the opportunity to work with your clients to not only make sure the devices don’t pose a security risk, but also to enable them to print and access network resources.
The place to start is with your own business. Which of those things are you currently doing? What are you outsourcing that you could bring in house? If you develop your skills supporting these types of products, it will help you prepare to share these skills with your clients.
Training
The future requires that both new and existing employees need to grow their digital skills. With a few exceptions, everything your technicians work on now, and will work on in the future, are digital devices and require an understanding of the technology.
So as a manager, you need to find ways for them to acquire the skills they need in the future. Start with all the training offered by your manufacturers; in many cases, they will have free or low-cost training to help your staff acquire new skills. Are there programs that your local community college or technical schools offer that your company will pay for?
After choosing the products you’re expanding into, find the training either by becoming a representative for those companies and benefiting from what they provide, or finding third-party companies that can provide the needed training. In the MPS arena, third-party printer training is widely available—identify the models you want to support and the models your clients have, and you can move in that direction immediately. Devices such as paper shredders are mechanical and not difficult to service, and in many cases, you can become a dealer fairly easily.
There’s a saying that supposedly originated as an ancient Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.” It was a curse because interesting times were fraught with danger, but also with opportunity.
Know that we live in interesting times, and the future is going to be what you make it.
