I used to be employed by IKON Office Solutions. Today, both companies announced that IKON will be purchased by Ricoh. You can see Ricoh’s release here and IKON’s release here.

It is interesting to me. Ricoh buys IKON for $1.6 Billion or $17.25 per share. A little over a year ago Xerox bought Global Imaging for $1.5 Billion or $29 per share.

Why the big difference? Well, Global Imaging positioned itself for a sale for a long time, as such, it worked on being profitable by growth.

IKON Office Solutions seemed to have a different approach. When I worked for IKON a number of years ago, I remember year after year was the concern that sales weren’t where they needed to be.

They still needed to be profitable, so the only other option was to cut. I remember thinking every year, "Oh, boy, here we go again… cutting our way to prosperity."

Here is how it would work. At the end of the fiscal year, there would be buying freezes on everything. Parts for customers’ failing machines would suddenly go on "backorder." Supply sales would be "delayed." New equipment wouldn’t be ordered because we had to sell the products we had in stock. Showrooms were barren and order fulfillments were difficult unless we had a product already in stock.

Then, the first day of the next fiscal year, all those supplies would suddenly be available from the manufacturer and would be in within a few days. The cycle would begin again. The costs from one year would be shifted to the next year… only to have to go through the process again in another 11 months.

It is that attitude that caused Global Imaging (a much younger company) to be worth 68% more upon sale.

In your business, do you find that you are growing or trying to cut your way to prosperity?

Tags: Cost Cutting, IKON Office Solutions, Profit, Revenue

Two weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to try an air card so that I wouldn’t have to find a wi-fi hotspot for my internet needs. I was going out of town on a couple of trips, so it made sense. I talked with the sales guy at AT&T and Sprint.

I decided to go with Sprint. They have a location about 1 1/2 miles from my house. Prices were the same as AT&T, but Sprint was where I ended up. When I was at Sprint, they said they didn’t have a card in stock and I would have to go downtown to pick it up… about 10 miles away.

No problem… I was actually going right past the location about 15 minutes later.

I picked up the card and for the most part, it worked fine.

There was one area on my travels it didn’t work (I am pretty sure the AT&T card works) so I decided to take them up on the offer of returning the card within their 30 day time return policy.

When I went in, the sales guy told me that I would have to take it back to the store where I picked it up… the store he sent me to because he didn’t have it in stock before.

"But I bought it from this store. You put it into the computer for me. You sold me the card," I said.

When I told him that didn’t make any sense, he told me, "It is our policy because it is how we keep our inventory straight."

I pointed out that if I had not picked it up myself, he would have done it for me and then I could return to the store here, but that didn’t make a difference.

So, at least in this case, a happy inventory management system is far more important than a happy customer.

With that said, I don’t think that I’ll recommend Sprint anytime soon.

Tags: Customer Experience, Internet, Return Policy, Sprint

I am proud to launch another client site. I have been working with Ken at Kearns Business Solutions for some time now. He is the brains behind ChangeForge.com… which I highly recommend as a great read.

He decided to trust me enough to put together his new company website. I posted a press release over at OfficeProductNews.net.

Here is an except.

Kearns Business Solutions is proud to announce the launch of their new website, www.TeamKearns.com.

Several months ago, the company launched the Team Kearns initiative, geared towards communicating the value a team approach brings to outlining and executing their clients’ strategies. This website is another step towards helping Kearns not only communicate their message to clients, but ultimately providing valuable resources to augment their clients’ document strategies.

Read the rest of the press release at OfficeProductNews.net.

Tags: Kearns, Website

I mentioned that I was in Las Vegas. I stayed at Mandalay Bay. I found it very interesting that my first experience there was to wait in line for better than 30 minutes. I was only the 7th person in line.

I looked around and found something interesting about my situation. If you will notice in the image below, there are a lot of people waiting. There are a total of 26 lines where people can check in. Only 10 of them were manned (or womanned… as the case might be). At the point of taking my first picture, there were approximately 8 people in each line. It may look like there are more, but many people wait in line together. But still, that is about 80 people waiting to check into the hotel if you don’t count their associates.

After I was done checking in, I decided to step back and take another picture. As far as I could tell, the lines doubled in length during that 30 minutes.

So, for 30 minutes 100 - 150 people (not including those with them) are standing in a line. Not shopping, not eating at restaurants and, more important to the casino’s cash flow, not gambling.

It is fascinating to me that as businesses we seem to forget that people standing in line are not spending money. People standing in line aren’t happy. People standing in line don’t help us to grow. People standing in line tell their friends how long they had to wait in line.

Tags: Customer Experience, Las Vegas, Long Lines

I am proud to have just launched a new client website. Another fun project to check off my list.

I just posted the press release over at OfficeProductNews.net. Here is an excerpt from the press release.

Copytronics Information Systems is proud to announce the launch of their new website at www.copytronics.com.

“Office technology continues to evolve.” said Bob Shields, President. “We wanted to create a website where current and potential clients could find helpful information on the application of these new technologies.”

Over the past few years Copytronics has made investments in new solutions to add value to their clients. The Managed Print Services program provides supplies and service to printer fleets in a usage-based cost-per-page model, helping clients control costs. A suite of document solutions software offerings like DocuWare aids clients in streamlining workflow and creating electronic filing systems.

The new website features useful information on each of the new solutions along with expanded content on the application of multifunction technology that prints, copies, faxes and scans. Product catalogs are continually updated by CopierCatalog.com. This ensures that clients will always have access to fresh information about the latest systems.

Tags: Copytronics

I just left Las Vegas and left my hotel room 1 hour and 30 minutes before my flight. I went outside the hotel to the taxi stand. There was no doorman so I went to the taxi stand myself and called for a cab. Since I didn’t have any cash, I asked if he accepted credit cards.

The driver was a little disappointed and said, "No."

I waited a couple of minutes for another cab to show up and asked the same question.

"Sorry, there is only one cab company in the area that accepts credit cards," came the response.

So, I looked for a doorman to help me with finding the right cab company, but there were none to be found.

I decided to go to the back of the hotel where I knew there was another taxi stand.

I would have just gotten cash from the ATM on the way to the back taxi stand, but I didn’t have a debit card with me.

I asked the doorman at the back to call for me a cab that accepted credit cards. He did so right away and hoped that I would only have to wait about 10 minutes. I waited with him for about 20 minutes for the cab to come… and had a great conversation with him…. what a nice guy.

Finally, when I had less than an hour left for my flight, he got a sedan that accepted credit cards… but I had to pay 2 1/2 times the fare.

When I arrived at the airport, I had 42 minutes left before my flight left. Upon trying to check in, I was informed that the cut off was 45 minutes. The counter attendant said, "Well, we can get you on a flight at 11am but you’ll have to pay $100 for the change fee plus the difference in fare."

"Oh, boy," I said. "Well, I need to get home, so do what you can."

She then paused for a moment and said, "Well, let me not charge you the $100 now and you run to see if you can get on the flight anyway. You may still have to pay the fee, but if you hurry, you might be okay. I’ll get you back on standby on your scheduled flight."

So, I ran. I ran a long way, but not so fast, because I am not that fast.

I arrived at the gate with 20 minutes to spare and asked the man at the gate if he could still get me on the flight and no problem. I was just in time.

So, what is the business moral to this story?

I think there are two morals.

The first is from the perspective of the customer. As a customer that was late because I wasn’t prepared with cash and didn’t leave myself enough time, I didn’t have a right to cause others to stress on my behalf. I couldn’t get mad at the doorman (tipped him what little cash I had). I couldn’t get mad at the lady at the ticket counter, because it wasn’t her fault that I was late. I couldn’t take out my stress on other people. Because I didn’t ask them to be stressed, they wanted to take care of me… and did.

The second moral of the story is for business. I, as a customer, tend to get impatient. It is not always easy for me to not let my stress show through. Because everyone along the way took my concern seriously, they actually helped reduce my stress and make my experience a little better.

So, my thanks goes out to doorman Mike at THEHotel at Mandalay Bay and to the lady at the ticket counter at Alaska Airlines.

Tags: Customer Experience, Las Vegas, Taxi

In thinking a little about how you might compete, I also pose the question of how you sell? Sales tactics have evolved over the years. By and large, people don’t want to be "sold to." But, they do want to have their problems solved.

If you talk about your products all the time, you are simply a pitchman. The natural question that follows from the client is, "Okay, so how much is it?" You put yourself into a position that they client will naturally look for the lowest price.

If you talk about how you can solve their business problems, then the landscape changes. You become the expert and not the salesman. You become a resource to them where they can learn how to solve their problems.

When talking about solving business problems, the price is de-emphasized. It opens up your opportunities.

Tags: Sales

When you sell the same thing everyone else sells, how do you compete? When your product is identical, do you simply drop your price or do you find some sort of substantial differentiation?

I would hope that when you look at your product offerings that you don’t fall into the trap that you are better because you are the lowest price… because someone will always be a lower price.

I would hope that you don’t think that just because you say you have better service, more employees, more revenues or because you are local that you think that you have a point of differentiation.

You have to be great to be different. If you aren’t truly great, then you better get your prices as low as possible.

Tags: Commodity, Competition, Sales

So, Microsoft is really working hard to dispel the attitudes that people have about  Windows Vista. It is fascinating to me that they have to work so hard at it. They have sites dedicated to telling people how good they are like the Mojave Experiment. They did the same with another site but it wouldn’t work because of their stupid Silverlight technology. They have even resorted to spam to accomplish the telling.

If it was half as good as Microsoft claimed, they wouldn’t have such a hard time getting people to upgrade. The consumer would spread the word for them.

The fact is, you can do so many things with Vista. You can do all that you did before… you just have to do it differently. In many cases, it is much more difficult.

Here are some observations that I made a year ago that still seem to be an issue… even with the much touted SP1. Some are getting better, but still not there.

1. The interface is pretty cool; it is better than XP, but you can have the same (or better) interface with Mac OS X in a more stable environment.
2. My digital camera was very hard to connect. 
3. My battery life was terrible.
4. Microsoft claims greater security, but at the cost of convenience and efficiency.
5. There are plenty printing problems.
6. Plenty of program / OS compatibility issues… even with Microsoft applications.

Well, let’s add another to the list.

I have been going nuts trying to figure out why the new MP3 player in my car won’t work. It is the kind that you have to burn disks for. I have burned a number of disks with my Vista OS and every time I put a disk in to the car, it doesn’t work.

Finally, I tried with my Mac… which I should have done from the beginning.

First try… no problems.

Oh, I am sure there is a way to do on Windows Vista, but it shouldn’t be that hard. It should work right, out of the box, with standards that have been around for 10 years.

And here is the way I look at it. If I, who have an IT Degree, work on my computer 14 hours per day, build web sites, understand multimedia and love to figure out how to make new things work, can’t figure it out, then it probably isn’t easy enough.

Tags: Microsoft, MP3, Music, Problems, Technology, Vista

I am a pretty demanding customer. I think that there are many people out there who are willing to accept less from their vendors. In some cases, I think they are willing to accept less because they are pleased with the low cost. However, I think that most people don’t expect better service because they have been conditioned to accept mediocrity.

While I don’t believe in a "customer bill of rights" because I think that it is an easy thing to say and forget, I believe in good customer service policies that positively affect the customer experience.

1. I know I am not your only customer, but talk to me like I am as often as possible. When I am talking to you, don’t answer the phone, don’t talk to other employees unless you are asking them for me and don’t walk away from me.
2. Provide me various methods of communication. Sometimes I want to talk face to face. Sometimes I want to talk on the phone. Usually, I want to email or text message. Since I am paying you for your service, please communicate with me the way I want.
3. Don’t think I am too stupid to realize that you need to make a profit. I know you need to make a reasonable profit. It is how you stay in business. If you can’t do it for my price, be honest and tell me so.
4. Don’t hide the price so that I’ll "call for more details." When I am shopping, I want to know if I can afford something very quickly. If I want a ballpark figure, surely you know what the average sale is going to be. Just tell me when I ask.
5. Recognize that I have likely done research. Ask me how much I know and never assume my knowledge level. If you assume too much, you’ll talk over my head. If you assume too little, you’ll talk down to me.
6. Clean up a little. Clean your bathrooms and your windows. Organize your shelves. Shave. Comb your hair. Respect yourself so that I know you can respect me.
7. Don’t answer the phone with such a long introduction. I don’t usually call wondering why I am calling. It is annoying when I have to hear, "Thank you for calling Bob’s Pizzeria. Are you calling about our $9.99 pizza special where you can get all the toppings you want and a cold drink for $9.99." When, "Thank you for calling Bob’s Pizzeria" will do.
8. If I am obviously the next person in line, don’t ask, "May I help the next person?" Ask, instead, "Hello, how can I help you?"
9. Don’t try and throw the wool over my eyes. I am educated and I understand things. I am smart enough to ask when I don’t understand something. If I don’t want to give you my budget it is because I have been screwed too many times by dumb sales people. You tell me what you can do and I’ll let you know if it fits my budget.
10. Go out of your way to be nice to everyone. Don’t be fake. Don’t talk bad about other employees or other customers to me. I can’t trust that you’ll be nice to me when my back is turned if you aren’t nice about others.

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Corey Smith is the Chief Web Architect for ProspectBuilder.net and is Editor in Chief for Office Product News - a news service for the copier, printer and document management industry.


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Tags: Common-sense, Customer Experience, Marketing, Sales