Moving parts break, jam or wear. Multifunction printers (MFPs), or copiers as they are often called, have a great many moving parts. It only makes sense that they are regularly going to need servicing.
Anyone who has ever worked in a can testify that there are few things more infuriating at work than going to print off a document to find the MFP isn’t working… again. Most employees have learned to live with this reality to the point where there are thousands of memes mocking the devices and their apparent inability not to break down often, and at the most inopportune times.
Since there no 100 percent uptime MFP on the market, we need to look to copier servicing to minimize the lost productivity and maximize your device’s uptime.
Increased interest in managed service contracts that include preventative maintenance represents a step in the right direction. But even with a strict preventative maintenance routine established, there will still be times when you need a well-trained technician to solve a hardware problem now. Finding a copier/equipment service provider offering an excellent service response time is key to avoiding the extraordinary costs of downtime.
As a result, third-party copier/equipment service providers tout their response times and use the attractive figures as a hook to lure in office administrators who want to make sure their copiers, printers, and other equipment is well taken care of.
But there are limits to how useful an average response time can be. Finding a trustworthy provider is key to making the right decision.
Average Response Time for Copier/Equipment Service Providers in Canada
Canadian office equipment and managed service providers tend to converge on four-hour response times for urban customers. These response times tend to quickly drop when dealing with rural customers, giving rural businesses incentives to choose reliable service providers located as physically close to them as possible.
But the four-hour response time is more myth than reality. It is telling that office equipment providers tend to declare average response times instead of guaranteed response times. This is a critical distinction that office managers and administrators often overlook.
Guaranteeing same-day service of any kind is a significant business challenge. A great deal of investment must go into implementing sophisticated scheduling software and equipping sufficient highly trained technicians to complete jobs on-time, with the certainty to extend same-day service to an entire customer base.
This is why efficiency-oriented office managers looking to reduce downtime need to pay attention to more than just their providers’ average copier/equipment response time. They need to ask specific questions to their providers and get answers on at least four key areas:
What If a Service Call Exceeds Four Hours?
This is where the distinction between average and guaranteed response times is essential. Find out if your provider offers any compensation if its technicians fail to respond within their promised timeframe.
What About Average Resolution Times?
Fast response times are great, but what you really need are fast resolution times. If a technician shows up in less than an hour but has to leave to get replacement parts and won’t be back for another five hours, you are still stuck paying for almost an entire day of downtime and lost productivity.
Are Feedback Channels Available?
The best service providers ask for their customers’ opinions and use those opinions to improve their services. Find out how your employees can give feedback on service technicians’ work and find out how comprehensive their service calls are.
Are Remote Monitoring and Maintenance Solutions Included?
One of the best ways to reduce copier/equipment service response times and resolution times is using remote monitoring and maintenance. Eliminating the need for technicians to travel to your office physically will significantly speed up office equipment service calls and reduce costs.
Take the Next Step: Customized Copier/Equipment Service
Ultimately, office administrators can take their technical service call strategy to another level by customizing their copier/equipment response time needs. This means assessing the importance of different IT assets in the office and determining which ones require the fastest service.
For instance, you may wish to establish high-priority equipment service agreements for your most critical IT assets. There are many devices for which four-hour response time is simply too long. For this equipment, the cost of downtime is so expensive or damaging that office administrators will gladly pay a premium for immediate emergency response.
On the other hand, there are other systems for which four-hour response time is not necessarily required. Next-day on-site service is perfectly adequate for a wide range of redundant storage systems and other non-critical IT assets.
Variable support coverage allows office administrators and employees to prioritize their most critical IT assets. This allows copier/equipment service agreements to align more closely with real-world business priorities, generating value right alongside the equipment in question.
Office Interiors Offers Best-in-Class Response Times
Our team of 28 highly trained service technicians live and work in communities spread all across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island so that we can offer competitive response times to customers, urban or rural.
For urban customers, we expect our service technicians to be on site, getting you back up and running in less than four hours. For rural customers, the process takes less than one business day.
Do you have any questions about service response times, rates or how the process works? Let us know! We are here to help.
Cory Porteous
Marketing Manager
Office Interiors
