Reasons to Hire a Professional When You Need Copier Repairs

Most office copiers perform multiple functions. They may be used for scanning and creating digital files that can be emailed or saved on hard drives or networks. They may also function as fax machines. These systems also do a lot of copying. When you are in need of copier repairs in Las Vegas, here are three reasons why it is best to turn to a professional first instead of trying to fix it yourself.

Maintain the Warranty

If you try to service your own copy machine, this might invalidate your warranty. If you are leasing the machine, it could violate the terms of your lease agreement. Hiring a professional repair technician to diagnose the problem and fix it with original equipment manufacturer parts is the best way to make sure that the repair is completed correctly.

Less Mess

Trying to access the inner workings of a copy machine could create a big mess. The toners and inks contained within the machine often leave a residue on the mechanical parts. This stuff stains, and it could ruin your clothing. It could also leave residue on your skin, and the residue may be difficult to wash off in the office environment.

Reliable Results

Many people have started a repair project only to find themselves too deep into the situation and unable to finish it. When a professional does the work, it will be done on the timeline specified in the work order. Amateurs doing their own repairs often mess up something else when fixing one thing. A professional will not leave any loose ends when they make a repair. This means less downtime for your copy machine, ensuring that your office can return to full productivity as soon as possible.

Three Ways to Market Your Business By Mailing Custom Postcards

While a lot of businesses have converted their marketing budgets to mostly digital marketing strategies, managed print services in Las Vegas should still be a part of a successful marketing campaign. Snail mail and print ads can reach a segment of the population important to your business. Consider these three ways in which printed postcards could increase your brand awareness, visibility, name recognition, customer loyalty and sales.

Social Greetings

Sending postcards to your customers as a type of social greeting could yield a big boost in loyalty, customer confidence and sales. One way to do this is to send a “happy birthday” postcard with a coupon offer for the month of the customer’s birthday. You could also send New Year or other seasonal greetings with coupons or special offers when the postcard is used.

Reminders

It is easy for a busy person to lose track of when they need to have a certain type of service performed. For example, eye doctors could benefit from sending postcards reminding patients to schedule their annual eye exam. Gutter cleaning companies could send spring reminders about cleaning out gutters in order to avoid house problems during summertime thunderstorms. Mechanics could send reminders about oil changes, tire rotation and other routine car maintenance services.

Special Events

Many businesses have a special event. Sending out a postcard to remind customers of the event is a good way to capture their attention. For example, some businesses host a summertime barbecue. Others may host an annual trade-in of old items for a discount on new items. Other common special events that a business might hold include a shredding day, hazardous waste recycling, open house, warehouse sale or sidewalk sale. Sending a postcard to the base of customers helps them be aware of the upcoming event.

File Formats for Scanning Documents

Copy machine repair in Las Vegas may be more important now than ever. Copiers aren’t just used to make physical duplicates. They’re also used to email documents and create digital copies of documents for other purposes. Many scanner users wonder if they should be choosing a particular file format rather than sticking with the default.

Personal Document Format

Most experts agree that when in doubt use PDF. It is a universal format that is highly versatile. Converting to PDF is fast and convenient, and if you ever need to do anything with your digital document beyond its current state, PDF arguably provides you the most options. Not surprisingly, many scanners and copiers do default to PDF, but many still default to PNG or even TIFF. If your default is not PDF and you can set that value, then you should consider that change.

Web Developers and Graphic Designers

Perhaps the best way to evaluate the alternatives to PDF is to consider the groups of people who may be using those documents now and in the future. Designers generally scan for the Web or other presentations. TIFF, which we mentioned earlier, is a decent option when the images are black and white. If the images are color, then JPG is the superior file format.

Content Creators and Financial Professionals

What these groups have in common is that they reuse the files they create often. If documents need to be edited or stored in a document management system, then PDF remains an excellent choice. However, formats like OOXML and XPS can be even better choices depending on the scenario.

Marketing and Sales Professionals

For these groups, documents need to be screen-readable, platform-agnostic, encryptable and trackable. PDF is once again an excellent default choice. However, XPS often delivers a higher level of sophistication and is natively supported by platforms common to sales and marketing.

Are CPC and MPS Synonymous?

When it comes to printer services in Las Vegas, businesses can often choose between two approaches: cost per copy and managed print services. While they may seem similar, they are not the same print strategy, and companies should understand the differences in order to determine which approach is ideal for their particular needs.

Cost Per Copy

Cost per copy or CPC is a service agreement based on the number of copies you expect to print in a particular period, such as a month. So, if you expect to print 10,000 pages a month and want to pay $.002 per page, you can enter a contract with a provider to do just that. Contracts vary but can include equipment, maintenance, repairs and even supplies.

Managed Print Services

Managed print services or MPS generally encompasses all that CPC has to offer but expands into print management. Your provider helps you evaluate and reevaluate your entire fleet. It can help you analyze your volume. It can help you determine if equipment usage is efficient. It can even help you establish print rules so that your printing is more productive, cost-effective and secure.

MPS and CPC Are Superior to DIY

In practically all cases where significant printing is being conducted, both MPS and CPC will be superior to a do-it-yourself approach. You know what you have to print and what you want to pay, but it can be difficult to achieve an ideal level without the resources a print services provider brings to the table.

Choosing MPS or CPC

MPS is often the superior choice to CPC over the long-term, but it is not inherently so. There are many factors in play such as the size of your company, print volume, consistency of workload and so forth. Often, a consultation with a provider is the best way to determine your ideal strategies.

What Is the Break-Fix Repair Model?

Many copier repairs in Las Vegas could have been avoided if those business machines had received preventative maintenance. But is such proactive maintenance always the right choice? The break-fix repair model takes a different approach and suggests that businesses should wait until issues arises before taking action.

Proactive vs. Reactive

Determining which approach is optimal for your business really comes down to whether a proactive or reactive approach to copier repairs will be more cost-effective over the long-term. To determine this, you must consider the cost of the machine, cost of maintenance, cost of repair, failure rate of the particular machine and the effect that you can expect proactive maintenance to have.

Lower Overhead Through a Managed Approach

Generally, managed print services will reduce your overhead. It can make copiers less expensive to maintain, and as those costs lessen, the risk-reward of break-fix seems a lot less appealing. This can be true also if you have an in-house IT staff that can perform maintenance and the like on your copiers.

Complexity of Your Machines

Something else to consider is just how complex your copier machines are. State-of-the-art copiers are highly complex. Not only do they have many moving parts, but they are essentially computers with valuable motherboards, memory modules, solid-state drives and more. With such devices, the break-fix approach is rarely the more cost-effective option long-term because of the cost of the labor, the cost of replacement parts and how total expenses can be exacerbated as problems worsen.

The Small Business Exception

Small businesses can be an exception. Perhaps you are not using a modern, sophisticated copier. Perhaps your copier is much more basic and would not seem out of place for use at home. It is in such scenarios where the break-fix repair model still makes sense. After all, basic copiers have less parts to be replaced, and those parts are generally much less expensive.