TRAINING DAY
By hiring personnel dedicated to training customers, dealers are allowing their sales and technical personnel to focus on the things they do best.
By Scott Cullen
In an era where office equipment has taken on the moniker of “solutions” and “systems”, and operating those machines means more than just pushing buttons, dealers are finding that it takes more time to train customers to use the equipment properly. As the amount of time devoted to training rises, some dealers have reached the conclusion that it’s no longer productive to have sales reps and technical service people involved in all phases of customer training. Rather, some dealers are hiring customer support specialists who can take over this critical function. And for those naysayers out there who feel their dealership can’t handle another salary on the payroll, consider that better trained users are more likely to use more of the equipment’s features, leading to an exponential rise in clicks.
This is the approach used by Fraser Advanced Information Systems in Reading, PA for training customers on its color products. At Fraser, a color specialist assists reps on sales calls, shows customers how to operate the equipment along with the more popular graphics programs, and also provides graphic arts services to customers. According to Fraser’s president Bill Fraser, the majority of training is reserved for business customers who are a lot less savvy when it comes to using color copier-printer technology and graphics programs than the company’s print shop customers. Although training is involved at those locations too.
As much as 10-12 hours may be required to train a customer although Devon Myers, Fraser’s graphic designer, who is responsible for this color training, notes that on average she spends about 1-4 hours training a customer. Among her responsibilities are assisting customers on the basic operation of equipment, educating them on popular graphics programs, and showing customers how to bring the technology and the design components, which are so critical in the color arena, together. Because of Myers’ graphic design background--she’s a recent college graduate and versed on an array of popular color graphics programs—she’s especially adept at handling the application portion of the training.
It was about three years ago when Fraser had the epiphany that he needed someone in house to assist with the various demonstrations and perform the training that Devon currently does. “You can get customers trained on the equipment but not the output quality desire unless you can get people to come in and train those customers,” explains Fraser. “We felt if we could get this in place we’d have something that none of our competitors have. And they don’t to this day.”
In addition to having a graphic designer available to help train customers, Fraser also has a digital lab for demos and for doing specialized design work for customers. Among the design services provided by Fraser are publication design (brochures, newsletters, magazines), advertising design (direct mail, marketing brochures, catalogues) and corporate identity design (logos, business cards, collateral materials).
It’s here where Myers replicates virtually any color print or copy job required by prospective customers during the demo. “This is our value-add proposition,” says Fraser. “How many dealers have digital labs to handle all their customer’s files and then can send someone out to train them?” he asks rhetorically.
Fraser is considering adding a specialist to handle the company’s other products as well. “Our service department is getting called into training issues more than they should and we’re giving it away,” he says. “We need to think about charging.” Fraser is toying with the idea of charging customers $65-$85 for this training. Fraser currently charges clients for color training.
Ultrex Business Products in San Luis Obispo, CA has found that Customer Support Representatives (CSRs) have been especially valuable when it comes to training customers. The company uses a variety of personnel to train customers on the latest Panasonic and Kyocera Mita digital products. While sales reps often handle the initial training once the device is installed, Ultrex’ in-house IT specialist typically conducts the training on networked products. CSRs provide additional training support to sales and IT personnel. “They get involved from the initial cold calling to finalizing of training,” notes Rolf Berkefeld, president of Ultrex. The typical training session runs approximately 1-2 hours although Berkefeld explains that it often takes longer than that when training customers to use the device for electronic records management.
CSR’s also provide follow-up training, perform modest maintenance such as cleaning machines, running test copies, clearing paper jams and just making sure that customers are generally happy with the equipment. “This is something our sales people used to do, but now they’re too busy,” says Berkefeld. “We’ve found CSRs contribute a lot to the overall efficiency of a customer’s office.” If there’s a problem, customers can call the CSR and the problem is often resolved.
Ultrex has three locations and each one has its own CSR. The company has been using CSRs since 2000 because Berkefeld felt it was important to maintain consistent contact with customers and retrain new employees on the installed equipment. “Seeing a face from a distributor like us helps relieve the apprehension of what the equipment does,” says Berkefeld.
Whether it’s relieving apprehension, allowing sales reps and technicians to focus on their areas of expertise, or just plain providing the dealership with a value add, dedicated trainers are helping these dealers capture more clicks and compete more effectively in an increasingly digital world.
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