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Copy America
Copy
America-Copiers, Printers, Faxes, Networking and More...
Service
Solutions for
Businesses and Independent Dealers
Copy
America offers quality copiers, faxes, and printers at a price
no one can beat. “Our motto is Lower prices and
Best Service, GUARANTEED! No one will under sell
our prices,” says CEO and founder of Copy America, Roland
Tolan. He went on to say, “We’ll match or we will beat
prices!”
“The
whole idea was to bring a manufacturer on board to authorize
us for a dealership. I brought Okidata on board in 2001. I
became an authorized dealer with Okidata and we sold their
color copiers, system color copiers, color printers as well as
their fax machine lines. Our main goal is to service and sell
copiers, printers, and fax machines while also providing
networking solutions,” says Roland. A complete listing of
product lines they have brought on board include: Xerox,
HP, Panasonic, Okidata, Sharp, NEC, and Toshiba.
Installation and delivery are other services that may be
requested and a full line of paper sorters and consumable
supplies are also available.
Copy
America doesn’t just sell you a copier or fax machine, they
sell you a solution. According to Tolan it works like this,
“The industry is shifting to a different type of a sale; it’s
no longer a sale of a printer or a copier, it’s more of a
complex solution sale. If you can educate a customer and talk
to them intelligently about how to eliminate costs, you’re not
talking about a copier; you’re talking about a solution that
can integrate a copier, a fax machine, and a printer in the
same box. This will lower all the supplies costs as well as
paper consumption.”
To add
to this solution, copy America’s technical support sets them
apart from the rest. They offer to buy service contracts from
businesses that are too busy to handle customer service calls
themselves. And what is more, they bill the over-loaded
business, not the end user. They also provide integration
support on UNIX/ Novell/ Windows NT/ Windows 2000 and
consulting services for small to large business on automation
needs. All of Copy America’s products are backed by a
guarantee.
“Our
guarantee is that when you have experienced business with us,
you’ll be our customer for life,” says Roland,
he went on to say, “What
distinguishes us is the ability of the employees to make a
decision, the best customer service, response time,
availability of product, and the large variety of services we
offer. We like to be known as the one stop source for all
your office equipment needs.”
Beginnings
Roland
Tolan started the business after working for Staples for eight
years. There he ran the sales division on the west coast. “I
put all those annoying sales people on the street with a
catalog in their hand with next day free delivery,” he said
with a chuckle. Roland was tired of the big business
bureaucracy and decided to start operations built on a
different principle, decision making ability for the customer.
“What
customers don’t like today is when they call you to get an
answer and nobody can give them an answer. And that’s why the
big guys are losing ground today. They cannot give anybody an
answer; they go from voicemail to voicemail. Numbers and
bottom lines are everything and they come before the
customer. A lot of the big guys are converting because they
don’t have the decision making capability, they are converting
because they have to go to approval to approval to approval to
approval and department to department to department head. By
the time they get the final approval, they lost the customer.”
“I
wanted to create something that I have done for big corporate
giants but on a different level, offering better
customer service,” said Roland. He incorporated with Jordan
Frasier at a lunch meeting in March, 2001. His partner is a
very energetic 76- year-old whose many accomplishments include
inventing the pacemaker, the kidney dialyses machine, along
with the first ambulance. In the next couple of months he is
coming back to work at Copy America out of retirement, this
will be his 7th time leaving retirement throughout
his life. He just can’t seem to keep busy enough at home. “He
wants to come back”, added Roland.
They
started with just three employees, the two and a secretary in
Costa Mesa, California (where they are
still located today). They now have grown to about 15
employees, with major annual percent growth rates (800% the
first year, and 400% the 2nd and 3rd),
“We are hoping to level out in the next two years,” Roland
continued, “Our sales have created this excellent growth
rate.” The key for Copy America is the authority it gives its
customer service staff. “This operation is ran like a
corporation. I don’t have to be involved personally with
every decision with the customer. Every customer service
person has the ability to make a decision instantly with the
customer.”
They
have also grown with advertising, “Through marketing in ENX,
we have grown our Wholesale Division, that’s the only way we
have marketed on a wholesale level. ENX made us take off as a
distributor,” said Roland. Copy America has also been
recognized by NEC as their number one distributor nationwide;
they accomplished this in just 6 months of doing business with
them.
Future
Endeavors
Copy
America wants to put the personal touch on the industry
through teaming up with small, independent dealers. “It’s the
same approach that banks were taking 20 years ago where they
wanted to create a small bank where everybody would call you
by your first name,” founder Tolan says, “This is what’s going
to separate us from the rest of the industry.”
“Our
plans for the future, first we are going to grow our retail
division very aggressively within the next 2 years. We
completed two acquisitions this year and we are working on a
third acquisition which is not complete yet. Our goal is that
within 24 months we going to be a 25 million dollar division.
We are following our plan very diligently and closely,” Roland
explains, he went on to say, “If you are a smaller
dealership, do you want a bigger piece of the dealer pie? If
your answer is yes, then our goal is that you and every owner
and operator of such acquisitions, stay on board with us and
be a part of the big picture.”
For
more information on Copy America call:
Toll
Free: 866-464-3262
T.
714-241-0341
F.
714-424-1943
www.ecopyamerica.com
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