Buying a copier locally will likely be a better fit and provide better service for your business.
What’s not to like about visiting a local farmers’ market and buying produce fresh out of the ground or off the vine? Not only does it taste great; the feeling of supporting the local community is nice too.
Supporting your neighbors down the street or the people you see in church on a Sunday is a good feeling.
Buying copiers is, a little, like buying vegetables from a farmers’ market versus going to a grocery chain. The freshness, service, and local support are hard to match.
Buying local is appealing, no doubt. That hometown feel is hard to get when dealing with a faceless corporation located “somewhere else.” From a copier standpoint, a local dealer doesn’t have to get permission from the mothership at corporate and can make decisions based on what’s best for the customer, not what’s best for the corporate spreadsheet.
There are a number of ways to purchase a copier:
- Online at eBay or other sites
- Your local office supply store (an OK option if all you need is a single multifunction device for desktop use)
- A local authorized dealer – like Datamax Texas
- Manufacturer-owned local branch
Obviously, we’re a big believer in the third option. Here’s why.
Time on Task
As it turns to football season (Go Baylor!), a phrase the quarterbacks use comes to mind, “Time on task.” That means the time spent throwing to their receivers to get to know them, how they run routes, catch the ball, and all the nuances that make for a great connection on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
Local copier dealers often have great staff longevity – sales, service, and technicians – so that they KNOW the company and their customers. There’s often more turnover at manufacturer-direct branches. That know-how is then turned to your advantage in speed of service, contract flexibility, and higher levels of customer satisfaction (check out our Raving Fan numbers).
Options
Local dealers often have relationships with multiple copier manufacturers. This obviously means a wider selection of equipment and capabilities to fit your business needs. A manufacturer-owned “local” dealership is, by nature, a one-trick pony. Not only is this important with the machines, but also with the software relationships and the apps on the equipment itself.
Support
I’ve written before about the value of fast and accurate service for office equipment in general and copiers specifically. The way support and maintenance often works in a manufacturer-owned dealership is that the bare minimum is done as a cost saving measure. There are also often multiple layers of decision-makers who balance cost versus service before signing off on needed fixes, repairs, or updates. This up and then back down the chain of command makes responding to your needs slower.
The other big advantage of local support is to help with billing questions. As your business grows and you acquire more scanners, copiers, and printers to support your business; your invoice will grow as well. Billing questions do arise in every dealership everywhere (I’ve spoken to enough of my peers to know that!) – your local company helps you sort those out quickly. We’ve even sent someone from our billing department to customers to walk them through their invoice – that’s better than calling someone in New York.
Buying or Leasing Local
When you buy local, one cost savings is that you’re not shipping your copier, which can be expensive. Support, as mentioned above, is in your neighborhood.
And, going back to our farmers’ market analogy, it “tastes” good.
Service accountability is key. You want someone who will care for your technology throughout the term of the lease. You want the same company that works with you to develop and acquire your technology solution to provide the services for that solution’s care.
That’s what we do. Accountability is embedded in the business relationship.
