An SOS from AOS Raises the Performance of its Service Operation to the Next Level

By Scott Cullen

Ask any office equipment dealer what sets them apart from competitors or why customers like doing business with them and service will inevitably be one of the first things mentioned. Having an efficient service operation is critical to the success of every office technology dealership, including American Office Solutions (AOS) in Clarklake, Michigan.

Founded in 1969, AOS serves Lansing, Jackson, Adrian, and the surrounding areas and has a reputation for placing customers first. True, that’s something most dealerships claim to do too, but AOS consistently delivers on that promise.

“When AOS makes a commitment, whether it’s price of new equipment, service or a solution, we live up to that commitment,” says AOS President & CEO Ted McEldowney. “There are no surprises, no hidden costs, no fees. We do what we say we’re going to do for the price agreed upon.”

The company offers the obligatory selection of office technology with its primary vendors Sharp and HP. Understanding that an office technology dealership can’t survive on hardware alone, AOS also offers an array of services and is a HP certified printer servicing dealership.

As important as service is to AOS, and as good a job as AOS was doing, it was clear to McEldowney that it could do much better. They didn’t have written procedures for technicians to follow, nor did they have performance guidelines for technicians, both important for creating a top-notch service organization.

“The biggest obstacle was confirming the daily actions and job descriptions of our service staff from the delivery person to the service manager to make sure that the quality of service was at the highest standard possible,” explains McEldowney.

The writing was clearly on the wall that improvements were in order based on the data AOS was getting back from BEI Services, a provider of copier and service department benchmarking solutions.

“As we reviewed some of the reports from our ERP as well as NEXTGEN, Lacrosse, and MWAi, we found we didn’t know which reports were important to us and our goal of improving service for our clients as well as the profitability of our service operation,” recalls McEldowney.

Once these issues were confirmed in black and white, McEldowney realized he needed outside help to get his service operation back on track. He turned to Strategy Development who came in and showed AOS which measurable reports to use and assisted them in creating a total call procedure, which when followed correctly greatly improved the quality of service. In addition, Strategy Development helped define technician job responsibilities as well as implement a formal performance management process focusing on continuous improvement.

“They made it very easy by creating an action plan for us to follow,” adds McEldowney. "The plan includes all the reports and documentation to support that decision with a description of how all this information should flow together daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually.”

Sharing information and progress with service techs was also instrumental in moving things in the right direction.

“We worked with dispatch and the service techs by showing them the reports we were getting from NEXTGEN and BEI so they were aware of how their time was being accounted for,” says McEldowney. “Once we showed our techs what reports we were going to use to measure their performance, the improvements began immediately and every tech is still moving their numbers in the right direction.”

For McEldowney the most helpful recommendation he received was to focus on the total call procedure. Part of that involved sending AOS’s service manager into the field to follow techs on random calls.

“Our service manager was in the office because our ownership thought that’s where he needed to be,” notes McEldowney. “We were wrong. With our service manager in the field two days a week, he gets an opportunity to hear directly from our clients what they really think about our service.”

That feedback isn’t always positive, but McEldowney says it is better knowing than not knowing.

“Now we can fix things,” he says.

Implementing these changes was a cultural change for techs and for the most part the reaction was positive.

“We have a great group of techs and all have recognized that there are going to be changes, and fortunately some of the immediate changes showed improvements right away, so it wasn’t hard to get them to buy into our improved service department plan.”

That’s not to say it wasn’t a challenge. The biggest was making techs aware of how valuable their time is.

“The culture change has gone really well because everyone has bought into the new culture, from our delivery person, to our facilities manager, to our field technicians, to dispatch, and most important, our service manager,” says McEldowney.

Updating the dealership’s other managers—sales and administration—on the progress of the service department has also helped so when good things happen, it’s recognized within the entire company, which makes the service team feel even better about the job they’re doing.

Customers found this new approach to service positive as well.

“This is funny because it’s rare that a client contacts us directly to tell us how well our service techs did repairing a copier/MFP,” says McEldowney. “Since implementing these new strategies, we’ve had more than 10 clients in the past six weeks take time out of their day to contact us via e-mail, phone, or at a business meeting and tell us about their experience with our service. To us that’s a great start.”

The expectation is that this will increase AOS’s level of support on every call, which will then translate into a longer business relationship.

With a whole new attitude and approach to service, AOS is well prepared for future success and truly set themselves apart from competitors from a service perspective.

“We now have more tools to measure performance, spot trends, and make good decisions based on what we see happening through our daily report activity,” states McEldowney. “We pride ourselves on these improvements and it’s our plan to make sure we use all the tools to the fullest. In addition, the timing for AOS was perfect because we were able to implement many of these service tasks, goals, procedures, and measures as we continue to improve our MPS strategy.”



Scott Cullen has been covering the office equipment industry since 1986. Scott is Publisher/Editorial Director for Imaging Solutions Reseller; Editorial Director/Managing Editor for OfficeSOLUTIONS and OfficeDEALER; Editor for PC Solutions; and a contributing writer and Editor for Independent Dealer, OFDA, Mercer Business, ENX, BERTL’s iTchat, Repro Report.