Printers are like toilets…

A wise woman once said to me

“Printers are like toilets…no one is ever bothered about them until it breaks”

The smile it brought to my face was a picture in itself. After nearly 20 years of convincing people all over the globe that my job was amazing – I had finally found the line that would resonate with potential clients and make them stand up and think…..(I have also managed to create my elevator pitch after all those years which was an added bonus).

The toughest challenge all of our team have on a daily basis is convincing anyone to talk to us about their print requirements. Let’s be honest, it’s not the most attractive thing in the office but without a fully operational device that doesn’t give anyone hassle, it can stop any operation from continuing to work. These things get missed by business owners, so it’s our job to provide them with some perspective.

When a device is out of action for anything longer than 4 hours – what distraction does that bring to the office? It’s a question that is asked by all our team and when customers say that “orders have not been able to be dispatched” or “we weren’t able to provide an invoice to the client”, it prevents them from being paid which affects cashflow and could cause a further backlog of issues.

• Why has someone printed that document twice?
• Who’s printed all these documents off and just left them?
• Why is that payslip on top of the printer?
• Why is that document in colour?
• How come that device still isn’t fixed after we called them yesterday?
• Where is the toner?

I can guarantee these questions are asked every single day throughout the world – it's what keeps us in business so long may it continue, albeit those questions won’t be asked by Spectrum clients.

Pain and Problems are music to our ears! But let me go on record by stating that if someone is happy with how things operate throughout their business and are happy with their current provider that’s absolutely fine. The best anyone can hope for there is that we are kept on their ‘shopping list’ for next time around.

Cost isn’t everything and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. We have offered 3 x kinds of service:

GOOD – CHEAP – FAST

• Good & Cheap won’t be fast
• Fast & Good won’t be cheap
• Cheap & Fast won’t be good

With the world starting to get back to normal, not all businesses have gone straight back to the daily commute and remote working is a part of everyday life. With that being said, Security should remain a key focus for all concerned. Therefore, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I happy with allowing users to print with no security attached?
2. What if their device breaks?
3. Who orders the toner and how do we keep that under control?

Hopefully, by now, anyone reading this is starting to stand up and ask these questions to themselves. It's what has got all of us at Spectrum out of bed for nearly 40 years I suppose – knowing that we can advise and assist everyone who prints. At the end of the day…printing should be just like breathing!

Lee Evans

Director of Sales