Yea! It's the Copy Guy!

[fixthecopier]

We have read and a lot of us have posted on threads about the terrible things customers have said or done to us, but what about the ones who love us. I thought of this when I was doing service on a Bizhub 600 at one of my favorite customer locations. It is a closed office with only 2 people who use the machine. They have taken great care of my machines for 9 years and I give them the best service and keep it spotless. Rod commented that when he died that he wanted to come back as one of his wife's lap cats or as the copier in that office. He said he would be well taken care of either way. Cris said he wanted to come back as Jenifer Aniston's underwear.

I have had lots of people cheer and say they love me, but the one that caught me by surprise was when I walked into a classroom and a 6'3'' 260 pound Special Forces master sergeant exclaimed "Thank God you are here, I love you man" and threw his arms around me and hugged me.


So what have customers done to make you feel welcome?

[blackcat4866]

A few years back I had a Canon NP-6050 in a law office. The front desk secretary would call me whenever they had any special stock to feed, and there were several.

And she had actually read the operators manual. Yes, the whole 500+ pages. Each time I came out to service the machine she would pick out some obscure feature and ask me how it worked. It sure kept me on my toes.

Other than the editor that translated the manual from Japanese, I think she is the only person that actually read the operators manual.

At another location, the owner of this print shop had a cup of hot tea made for me immediately, and would not let me start on the machine until we sat down and caught up on current events. This gentleman knew something that very few customers do: that a happy engineer (he always called us engineers. I think its a British thing...) would go way over and above the minimum requirements of the job. On several occasions I have done service calls for him at just about any time of the day or night, no complaints. It's kinda nice to be appreciated for a change. =^..^=

[TonerMunkeh]

Aye, it's a British thing.

I like it when customers are nice too. It's just a shame that you follow on from engineers who have the IQ of a newt, who replace nothing in the machine and then the customer has a face like a smacked arse when you arrive. It's like they tar you with the same brush, but if you fix the machine at least you're known by the customer as someone who can help them out. That's always nice to know.

[prntrfxr]

Yea! It's the Copy Guy!

Yeah...I used to get a customer that always sent my office couple dozen doughnuts after I worked on their machine, but although we all enjoyed them I'm not so sure it was a good thing cause all us techs got bigger (and I'm not talking taller). I had customers that would only ask for me or give complements to my boss about me, which was always nice. Makes up for the morons.

[CopierTechofOmens]

Most of our customers are glad to see me. One older lady has a Diet Coke waiting for me every time I show. (I hate Diet Coke) I had a restaurant owner offer me a beer while I was working. (Then he wanted a discount) After standing between the owner of a consulting firm and an angry female who was pissed I parked in front of the dumpster. The female owner actually grabbed me by the arm and told me not to move my car. (She bought me lunch) While working at a social workers office one of the Homeless women asked if she could stay with me.

And the place I am most loved is at the Alcoholic Women's ten step program. They aren't allowed to see men while they are in the program. "I got something you could service right here". Knowing I could easily get a love starved older alchoholic woman is always an ego boost.

[Shadow1]

Other than the editor that translated the manual from Japanese, I think she is the only person that actually read the operators manual.

Then she's the only one who ever understood it - but only because she asked a tech to translate the translation...

I serviced a machine in a small rural hospital - not even my account, Tech was on vacation - anyway the purchasing agent was EXTREMELY good at her job (read: anal bitchy tightwad) and decided to give me a good ass chewing because she caught me working on a machine that she had not put in a service request for. I put on my best syrup sweet "Pain in the ass customer face" and told her in my nicest voice complete with puppy-dog eyes that I had already fixed the machine she called about as well as 2 others, and since all the machines were under contract it didn't cost anything extra to give the staff machines that actually worked. The woman was speechless and walked away like I was kryptonite.

One of the nurses asked me "You do know who that was, right???" They had never seen anyone win an argument (usually a shouting match) with her.

I told her who I was (my wife worked there on the night shift) and said I knew who she was, "and now she'll remember me."

Imagine my reputation with the staff.

[dudley]

After 20 years of copiers, the best advise I can give a starting tech is " a smile doesn't cost a dime!" I tell my custumers, I'm either the most loved or most hated guy when I walk in the room and there is usually very little in between! Don't be afraid to get to know your custumers and their needs.

You do have to learn to read a custumer and also to listen. The custumer usually knows their machine better than we do and when they asy it doesn't sound right... they are probably right.

[nmfaxman]

I have always been the love him or hate him type of tech.
I see it as the people that care about their machine will do little tricks/minor tests love me because I will take the time to teach them about the machine.
The people that hate me don't care about the machine and expect me to rush right out to clean the scan glass.
Two sides of the coin, but various levels in between.
I tend to treat them like they treat me.
If they are cool with me they get freebies.
If they are jerks I charge.
I have the power of the pen, and that includes numbers with a dollar sign.

[Zoren]

i dont know about you guys out there but i love this part of the job...

have you ever had a nice looking woman make a move and teased you while doing your work.... i was so young then it was late afternoon everybody left the office except for three ladies waiting for someone to fix their copier..
as i was doing my work, one lady suddenly moved in my back and grab onto my shoulder so that i can face her and said "are you gonna fix this machine or not? coz if you dont you wont get out of here alive!"

after she said that, it really started to shake my whole body and the only words that came out of my mouth was "thats fine, as long as i die happy...." then these other two ladies just laughed....

and the best part of it was, when this woman made her moved and my face was barely an inch in front of her cleavage...... gosh i can still reckon her scent.

[fixthecopier]

I have always been the love him or hate him type of tech.
I see it as the people that care about their machine will do little tricks/minor tests love me because I will take the time to teach them about the machine.
The people that hate me don't care about the machine and expect me to rush right out to clean the scan glass.
Two sides of the coin, but various levels in between.
I tend to treat them like they treat me.
If they are cool with me they get freebies.
If they are jerks I charge.
I have the power of the pen, and that includes numbers with a dollar sign.

You got that right! I went in with pneumonia one day, feeling like shit and some one had jammed a toner bottle wrong and jacked up the machine. As they stood around making stupid statements, their bill was like a taxi meter, just kept getting bigger and bigger.

[montana]

hi there.our customers here are nice people.untill when we get finish the job then we will see the different people. i always try to choose my customers carefully the one who appreciate the kind of service &efforts.i think the first thing to be successful technician depends on the deal between the good skilly tech & the nice smart customers.
thanks guys.i wish agood luck for all

[claudioterrible]

yeah is the copy guy!

conversation between a nice secretary and me ...
she:_what are you doing?
me: repairing your copier ...
shechanging her voice to the sweetest that you ever hear) and after job...?
i love these kind of clients!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Alternate]

I remember my favourite customer...

I was working on a machine that wasnt printing, and after i was done asked if the receptionist could do some test prints.

I went back to the machine, grabbed out the paper, and it was her phone number. Booyah!

Pity i was engaged at the time

[mrwho]

I met my wife when she was working at a copy shop from a customer of ours.

[imthinman]

Bread cast upon the water

We are heavy into churches and shelter type of customers. It seems the poorer ones always have the worse machines. When we replace a richer customers machine, the replaced machine which the richers ones were replacing is usually better than what the poorer ones had. I started a project when I could to replaced the crappy machines with these swap outs (no cost except delivery). Here is what happened the poorer ones were so appreciative that they would sing our praises and we got many sales leads and actual upgrades (in better times), My owner asked if I was crazy before before the leads turned into cash. I convinced him that we would save money on the contracts because of less service calls and more clicks because the machines worked longer and better. I get pies and cookies often and I'm thrilled with the win/win.
Imthinman