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Service and related programs are estimated to contribute over 30% of revenue to every office equipment dealership and considerably higher margin than hardware. Without service, devices cannot function reliably and profitably, and customers become dissatisfied. That’s why it’s important that dealers continuously evolve their service business to ensure efficiency.
Something that shouldn’t be ignored is modernizing the service department, and there are many facets to this. Firstly, in recognizing that the skilled technician is the service business’s most valuable asset, it is important to constantly upskill that workforce with new tech and training—to keep them motivated and abreast of the latest developments. A skilled worker is one that is tough to replace.
Secondly, the industry is going leaps and bounds to provide an automated service process. Predictive and preventative maintenance are essential tools today; coupling them with data analytics is the minimum for modern day business practices. The rate at which service calls are being resolved remotely is also rising rapidly, and dealerships would do well to watch the competition to stay relevant.
Thirdly, service tools that incorporate newer technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) are emerging to support the service model. These will help to not only provide service and new educational methods but also to attract new talent to this mature industry.
Keypoint Intelligence’s research into print service providers and dealers has allowed us to develop some top-level strategies (backed up by some key statistics) that should prove useful to any service department.
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