'Good' is not good enough for office equipment buyers
By Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 11/18/1999
To corporate buyers of office equipment, a top-performing supplier is one that is conscientious about serving customers. After all, service is one of the more important criteria purchasing managers use to select suppliers of office copiers and facsimiles.Other important criteria buyers use to select office equipment suppliers: quality, price, total cost, reputation, technical expertise, ease of doing business, brands carried, and geographic scope.
Generally, suppliers of office products are keeping customers happy. Ninety percent of corporate buyers responding to a recent Purchasing Magazine survey rate office equipment supplier performance as "good" or "excellent." Ten percent say suppliers are doing a fair job at providing their companies with copiers and facsimile machines. Not one respondent says suppliers are faring poorly.
Corporate purchasing strategy for copiers and facsimiles include leasing (45%), buying (17%), and a combination of the two practices (38%). For many respondents, the latter means the leasing of copiers and the purchasing of facsimiles.
Sixty percent of respondents source copiers and facsimiles through dealers or resellers; 20% buy or lease equipment direct from the manufacturer; and 20% use both channels of distribution. Copier buyers have been managing these relationships with suppliers for an average of seven years; many respondents say agreements have been in place for as long as 10 years.
"I have no complaints about our current supplier," says one corporate buyer, who says that the company that provides his organization's offices with copiers and facsimiles merits a "good" rating. "Whatever we have asked, they have met our expectation."
Still, some suppliers of office equipment are not measuring up to many office equipment buyers' rigorous performance standards.
For the most part, buyer complaints about supplier performance center around service issues. Respondents' biggest gripe: timeliness of technician response to service calls.
One buyer in the Midwest states his problem with supplier performance succinctly: "Quicker response time when machines are down."
As survey respondents see it, each minute that a copier or fax isn't performing, worker productivity suffers. So when a piece of office equipment is down, buyers want supplier service personnel on the scene as quickly as possible.
Likewise, Teresa Lowrey's biggest gripe with suppliers is the "time lapse when calling for service and when the technician usually arrives." The purchasing manager at Heartland Building Products, Booneville, Mo., says that copier suppliers would make her job easier if they would simply "state the facts, give better warranties, and, if the equipment is as good as they say, they should be like Xerox and stand behind it."
A director of purchasing from a company in Texas believes that "regular preventive maintenance at no cost for the warranty period should help" to alleviate some of his troubles with his equipment supplier regarding service issues.
Another buyer wants suppliers to "keep equipment running as they approach the end of the lease." His solution: "Dependable equipment and prompt service."
While some buyers would like suppliers to occasionally check in with them during the length of the agreement, others find the constant communication a distraction. Communication between buyer and supplier, in fact, is another performance issue that purchasing has with office equipment suppliers.
Some buyers say they hear too much from their copier suppliers, complaining that sales personnel call them even when they ask them not to. Others say they don't like salespeople calling on other functions in the organization. These buyers adamantly want suppliers to stop such "back-door" selling techniques.
A purchasing manager from Providence, R.I., wants suppliers "to talk with purchasing first," and "to lay out all costs." He is unhappy with suppliers making "back-door visits and not defining all leasing costs."
"Too many offer basically the same thing," says one buyer. "There is little product differentiation in copiers and fax. What's more, some still feel they have to undersell the competition. I want suppliers to leave me alone until I contract them. They know the lease length but keep on calling."
On the other hand, some buyers gripe that they don't hear from suppliers often enough. They say all these suppliers want is to make a sale. Then, they don't hear from them--ever. Others say they cannot elicit a response from suppliers even to request for proposals (RFPs).
C. Ed Keeler, purchasing manager, TNCO, Inc., Whitman, Mass., says his company "receives no support after the sale, experiences long leadtimes on supplies, and is not kept abreast of new technology."
Another corporate buyer lists these complaints about supplier performance: "Not keeping promises, service after the sale, not responding to RFQs, getting them to quote on new units."
How do suppliers know which customer they are dealing with? Buyers say this is easy. Many suppliers need to improve on their knowledge of customer requirements--and of the equipment they sell.
"They just want to sell me the most expensive item, regardless of how it would fit into our company," says one purchasing manager. "By understanding our needs" supplier performance would improve significantly. "If they could make us happy, they would get more business. They tend to concentrate on making 'one big sale' and then losing interest in the customer."
Suppliers "try to sell more than we need, and have an inexperienced sales force," says a buyer from the Midwest. His remedy: "Know our users better."
Another area frequently mentioned by buyers as one that suppliers could use some improvement in is account management. Buyers, especially those with large accounts, would like to receive consolidated billing statements from suppliers.
"We like to receive one invoice and believe that suppliers should have a standard service plan and expertise nationwide," says one buyer.
Lisa O'Grady, a buyer with Metachem Products, New Castle, Del., says she has difficulty "negotiating a cost-effective contract amid an increasing myriad of buy options, which, unfortunately, are not fully discussed and often are misrepresented by some salespeople."
Other buyer gripes with office equipment supplier performance:
- "Supply OEM brand supplies at a better cost and availability."
- "Getting suppliers to demo their equipment without a commitment."
- "Technology is changing too fast."
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