Apr 16 2012

 

Ray Morgan Company | California Canon Copiers | Document Technology Solutions

With my five year anniversary quickly approaching at RMC, I look around at the many cubicles and offices throughout the corporate office here in Chico, California and can’t help but to notice a pattern - - most of these employees have been here just as long as me or longer. I’m sure high employee retention is one of the many reasons Ray Morgan Company is the largest independent  dealer in the western United States.  Each employee takes great pride in developing personal relationships, not only with our customers, but also with colleagues. It is not one person who makes RMC a successful business built on trust and honesty: it is the teamwork of every individual within the company. 

One of the many great things about Ray Morgan Company is that CEO Jim Scarff greets each and every employee in the building on a daily basis, making each person feel acknowledged and important to the business. 

With her millions of alerts to double-check contracts ensuring that the customer accounts are set up properly, Billing Manager Trish Lucero always goes above and beyond to provide uncommonly great customer service. She also takes a personal interest in her department alongside CFO Bob Quadros to make sure all employees are treated fairly and that operations flow effectively in a positive work environment. 

RMC is truly committed to operational excellence; being known as a great company and a great place to work.  It goes without saying that RMC employees feel less like coworkers and more like a family.

 

 

 

By Tiffany Aiello | Billing Administration - Chico

Apr 05 2012

Canon Copier tutorial how-to remote user interfaceFor any company, accurate data entry is important. In regards to meter readings, accurate meter reports are important to ensure that Ray Morgan Company can keep track of your equipment and the supplies needed to keep you up and running.

By educating our customers about their office equipment, we can help them understand the ease of use of their Canon machine and relieve some of the frustration that having a new copier or printer can bring. It's just another way we provide "uncommonly great customer service and support." 

With both Canon Image Runner and Advance multifunctional devices, users can access the systems remotely to read the correct meters, and to determine supply levels such as toner and paper.  Remote access also allows users to monitor mailboxes and set up user ID’s, right from thedesktop. The Remote User Interface (RUI) is accessed via the IP address associated with each device’s hard drive.
 
Download this handy tutorial on how to access the Remote User Interface. It's easy to do and will save you many trips to and from your copier! 
 
 
 
By Edgar Abarca | Canon Color Technician - Chico
 
 
 
Apr 05 2012

 

Copier Meter Mystery | Redding copiersAs a meter coordinator in the Chico Corporate office, my main goal is to ensure that meter readings are submitted by customers on a timely basis. I work with Contract Coordinators to make sure meter readings are accurate for our customers. On a daily basis I have my share of hurdles gathering meters from customers that do not answer emails, phone calls, or have “lost” their machine. 
 
One customer in particular had not been successful in submitting their meter readings because they could not locate that particular machine in their building. The customer had many machines located in several buildings and did not have the time or the resources to look for the machine. I did some research and concluded that a service call was performed on the machine less than a month ago. After calling our Customer Service department, I obtained the name of the Canon service technician that visited the site: Steve Rosen from the Redding office.
 
I called Steve and after explaining my predicament, he offered to go to the site and investigate further. Although he was very busy in his daily schedule of servicing machines in the field, he said it was only a 20 minute drive to the site. He called back the same afternoon and explained where the machine was located and gave me a meter reading.
 
Steve proved Ray Morgan Company’s value of “we promise our clients to continuously look for ways to reduce their costs and improve the productivity of their operations.” By having Steve visit the site, this not only helps the customer by doing the leg work of finding the machine, but obtaining accurate readings so they won’t be overcharged for their maintenance agreement. 
 
I look forward to working with Steve Rosen in the future for any other “meter mysteries” that need to be solved.
 
 
 
 
By by Linda Burton | Meter Coordinator - Chico

 

Mar 30 2012

 

Ray Morgan Company Canon office technology solutionsVince Lombardi once said,"Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."
 
At RMC “Ensuring ongoing trust and loyalty by providing uncommonly great customer service and support" is an everyday thing!
 
Two weeks ago we were in the process of moving the Fresno Branch to our new location. One of our customers called in the middle of our move and asked for our on-site assistance to get their Canon equipment  printing and scanning. This call for help came from the their IT Director who was in the middle of handling a server upgrade while managing a great deal of grief from his end users. The call came to me on a Thursday at 3 pm. I got Mark Lasinis involved, our IT support specialist, and without a hitch, he said I could inform the customer that he would be on-site at 9 am next day (Friday). Mark was quite busy with our own server upgrade for our branch move, as well, while handling the phone conversion and running network cable. Regardless, Mark called me at 9:30 (Friday) to let me know that he was able to get the customer's Canon MFPs up for printing and scanning.
 
The following Tuesday I was scheduled for a 90-day account review with this customer. The review started with the customer bringing up the subject of their recent customer service and support experience. The words from the Decision Maker were, “You and your company got to be heroes for us, thank you. This took a load of pressure off our IT Director and our users got back to business as usual with the Canons.”  Immediately, he asked if we could discuss my proposal to upgrade the Kyocera color machine from 6 months ago! For the past 6 months I was asking the customer to upgrade an owned Kyocera color unit and since the unit was owned with a low cost of service and doing a good job, they didn’t want to upgrade. He pulled the proposal out and asked me if the numbers were still good. In reviewing the numbers I noticed a need for a slight increase to the lease payment and service payment. The new figures were good enough for the Decision Maker, so he asked if I had the paper work (fortunately, I carry blank documents with me). In a matter of minutes, the deal was signed.
 
It’s amazing how the customer viewed and communicated this recent experience to be, “uncommonly great”! This from providing support to a problem not difficult for us to solve. Showing up promptly, no questions asked, and fixing the problem swiftly was exactly what our customer needed from us.
 
Great Job AGAIN, Mark Lasinis!
 
 
 
Written by Tim Kent | Strategic Account Manager - Fresno, CA | tkent@raymorgan.com

 

Mar 23 2012

It's great to hear stories about how our employees go above and beyond to help out our customers. Joe Jellison in our Reno office had this excellent story to share about teamwork:

"One of our local service customers (a print shop) was attempting to complete a job for another client of ours. This was a big job consisting of the printing of time-sensitive materials for a bid response that the client was involved with. The bid response was due by 11:00 am the next day, so it was a tight deadline. Unfortunately, the print shop ran into a Fiery communication error on their Canon imageRUNNER C4080i due to an unforseen software incompatibility. To make matters worse, this was an issue that couldn't be resolved right away. Taking our motto of uncommonly great customer service to heart, I immediately offered to produce the packets for them in our office.

All seemed fairly simple until about 6:00 pm that night. I was laying out and printing the documents when I noticed a "rainbow" on the side of each of the printed sheets, making them useless for our clients. On a desperate attempt, I called Jim Loyola, one of our service technicians, hoping that he would answer his cell phone after work hours. Jim did answer! After listening to my description of the problem, Jim knew what needed to be done and patiently described the procedure for changing the drums over the phone to me. With Jim's guidance, I managed to change the drums and continue with the print job.

Considering the urgency and importance of the packets, I arranged to meet with the client at a Raley's grocery parking lot around 7:00 pm that night. This allowed our client enough time to trim, bind and package the documents for their client in time for their bid response deadline the next day.

The communication issue on our client's equipment has since been resolved. If it weren't for Jim Loyola being available after hours to assist me with the quality issue I was having on our copier, our client would have failed to provide the needed end-product for THEIR client who, in turn, would have missed their bid submission deadline.

Teamwork is a wonderful thing!"

 

By Joseph Jellison | Sales Support - Reno | jjellison@raymorgan.com

 

Mar 15 2012

 Ray Morgan Company | Redding Canon Copies | Paul CavagaroHappy 25 Year RMC Anniversary to Paul Cavagnaro!

 
A fixture of the Redding branch office, Paul is a veritable icon of the Ray Morgan sales team.
We asked Paul what the key was to his 25 year success at Ray Morgan Company. 
 
Can you briefly describe a couple of career highlights you are proud of from the last 25 years?
When I began in 1987, Jim Scarff was in charge of the Marysville Unified School District account which had several machines from RMC. It took me about three years, but I was able to land the Fall River School District (still an RMC customer after 20 years!) with a 10-machine deal. I was finally a "big time" sales person! 
 
In the mid-'90s we lost Mercy Hospital to a major big-box competitor. I was crushed. But, with the help of Greg Martin and other RMC members, we were able to work together and devise a plan to recapture the business. In 1995, we took the business back for a total of 130 machines. Mercy Hospital remains a very satisfied customer to this day.Ray Morgan Company | Redding Canon Copiers | Paul Cavagnaro
 
What has compelled you to work at RMC for so long?
I really enjoy my customers, many who have become friends with which I enjoy golfing, fishing and other activities after a day at the office. Also, I have had the pleasure of working with a great staff in the Redding office which has made my work enjoyable for the past 25 years.
 
What is your favorite thing about coming in to RMC every morning?
I always look forward to enjoying a cup of coffe with my officemates every day. It helps to start my day off with a "zip!"
 
Your favorite quote that gets you through the day is:
"The cup is always half full."
 
They key to Paul's success, I think, is his positive attitude and friendly personality. Glad to have you on the RMC team, Paul!
 
 
 

 

 

Mar 13 2012

 Ray Morgan Company | Chico office equipment | St. Jude Kids

One of the most heart breaking experiences in this life is seeing a child suffer from cancer.
 
Well, we can do something about that. 
 
Here in Chico, get ready for the Country Cares for St. Jude Kids Radiothon March 22nd and 23rd, sponsored by 95.7 The Wolf and local businesses including the Ray Morgan Company.
 
The Ray Morgan Company is very pleased to announce our sponsorship this year of the local radiothon fund drive in support of St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. We are proud to join forces with the Country Music community and Radio Chico to help finance the extraordinary work of St. Jude’s Hospital. As many of you know, St. Jude’s provides cancer treatment for children from around the world, all at no charge. Ray Morgan employees will be helping with the phone banks during the radiothon which takes place all day March 22 and 23. The radiothon will be broadcast each day on The Wolf, 95.7 F.M. Join us!
 
About St. Jude Children's Research Hospital:
 
Fifty years ago entertainer Danny Thomas started St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a facility that treats children with cancer, for free. 
 
Thousands and thousands of kids have received life-saving therapy, children from across the country, and around the world. Today, St. Jude’s is the leading pediatric cancer care hospital in the world, freely sharing research and breakthroughs with physicians everywhere.
 
You can be a part of this life-giving effort. 
 
Please plan on joining us for the upcoming Radiothon, and plan on giving generously to this tremendous cause . . . because, no child should suffer cancer . . . and no child with cancer should go without treatment. 

 

Mar 09 2012

 

Ray Morgan Company prides itself on building personal relationships with customers and providing exceptional customer service. That is one of the things that separates us from competitors- it’s the real person on the other line and the friendly voice. Well, Tawnia Haydon is the billboard for building relationships with customers.
 
I have the privilege of working closely with Tawnia. Tawnia is the Collections Coordinator, and if you’ve ever done any collections work before, you know it is most definitely not an easy job. Collections is not one of those jobs that you imagine being very pleasant, especially during these difficult economic times. Tawnia, however, absolutely loves her job and having the opportunity to work closely with customers.
 
When she first became the Collections Coordinator, she sent a personal message to customers letting them know that she was there for only one purpose- to help them and to make sure that paying their Ray Morgan bill became manageable for them. Since then, customers who were difficult to get a hold of not only call her to discuss their current pay status but also about work and their personal life. She knows the personal struggles that some customers are going through and she works with them financially by setting up payment plans that are tailored to the customer because she sincerely cares about them.
 
Tawnia always goes the extra mile for the customer. I look forward to continuing working closely with her and learning from her exceptional ability to connect with customers even in the most difficult of situations.
 
 
 
By Lauren McKee-Elliott | Accounts Receivable Coordinator - Chico

 

Mar 02 2012

Ray Morgan Company | Document Technology | Communication tipsAround 15 years ago I started coaching youth football to 5 and 6 year old kids. I figured I had been in management for nearly 10 years, so how hard could it be to manage a football team? I quickly learned it was like hypnotizing chickens! I stood in front of them at every practice telling them what I needed them to do and how to do it, but never got the results I was looking for.

It finally happened in our 6th game of the season. We were in a tie game and only needed three yards to score the winning touchdown. I called a timeout and had the team huddled around me as I told them we were going to run “52 ISO,” a play we had run a hundred times before. I turned to my right guard who had been getting beat most of the day to let him know it was his job to pick up anyone coming through his gap. As I was speaking to him, I noticed that he was looking at the ground and not listening to anything I was saying. I called his name to get his attention at which he looked up at me and said, “Today’s my birthday coach and my mom brought cupcakes for everyone, including you.” I realized right then and there that I had spent two hours on that day telling him how to block but didn’t give him an opportunity to say anything back. I stood up and let them all know that I wanted them to talk to each other and run what they thought they needed to run. We won by a touchdown!
 
The dictionary defines communication as the following:
 
com·mu·ni·ca·tion - (noun )
 
  1. the act or process of communicating; fact of being communicated.
  2. the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs.
  3. something imparted, interchanged, or transmitted.
  4. a document or message imparting news, views, information, etc.
 
After that day on the field, I define communication as:
 
com·mu·ni·ca·tion - (noun )
 
  1. the exchange of speech, writings, signs, and listening!

 
I found the following tips to be helpful in my personal life as well as business. Both require communication to exist: 

 
  • Face the speaker - Sit up straight or lean forward slightly to show your attentiveness through body language. 
  • Maintain eye contact to the degree that everyone feels comfortable.
  • Minimize external distractions - Turn down the ringer on your phone. 
  • Minimize internal distractions -  Keep your thoughts and opinions to a minimum. Simply let them go and continuously re-focus your attention on the speaker. 
  • Respond appropriately to show that you understand - Nod. Show facial expressions. Say words such as “Really,” “Interesting,” as well as more direct prompts like: “What did you do then?” and “What did they say?” 
  • Focus solely on what the speaker is saying - Try not to think about what you are going to say next. The conversation will flow as the person speaking makes their points. 
  • Keep an open mind - Wait until they are finished before you make assumptions about what the speaker is thinking. 
  • Avoid letting the speaker know how you handled a similar situation - Unless they specifically ask for advice, assume they just need to talk it out. 
  • Even if the speaker is launching a complaint against you, wait until they finish to defend yourself - They will feel as though their point had been made. They won’t feel the need to repeat it, and you’ll know the whole argument before you respond. Research shows that, on average, we can hear four times faster than we can talk, therefore, we have the ability to sort ideas as they come in. 
  • Engage yourself - Ask questions for clarification, but, once again, wait until the speaker has finished. That way, you won’t interrupt their train of thought. After you ask questions, paraphrase their point to make sure you didn’t misunderstand. Start with: “So you’re saying ­­­_______ ?"
 
As you work on developing your listening skills, you may feel awkward when there is a natural pause in the conversation. What should you say next? Learn to settle into the silence and use it to better understand all points of view.
 

Ironically, as your listening skills improve, so will your aptitude for conversation!

 

 

By Casey Cagle | Territory Logistics Manager

 

Feb 23 2012

 

Ray Morgan Company | Canon copiers | Document Technology | Inspirational StoriesWe received this inspirational story from none other than Greg Martin's (our company's President) father. He was touched by our blog entry "Love & Business Don't Mix...Or Do They" which illustrated an emotional movement during our annual Sales Kickoff in Sacramento earlier this year.
 
Jack Martin writes:
 
"Your story about Bob Beamon's record setting long jump brought a recollection of when I was a high school senior. I went out for the football team, mostly at the insistence of my Geometry teacher who was also a great football coach, as well as the track coach. Well, my football career ended on the practice field when, the night before the first game which I was going to start in, I broke my arm--which almost ruined my senior year in wrestling, too.  My track season was about as illustrious as a mile runner. Every time I ran the mile I would chuck my cookies. One of my heroes was Glenn Cunningham, who I googled and added the story below. What a great story about determination!"
 
Mr. Martin is right. Read on to be inspired!
 

A Story of Determination: Glenn Cunningham
by Burt Dubin
 
The little country schoolhouse was heated by an old-fashioned, pot-bellied coal stove. A eight-year-old boy named Glenn Cunningham had the job of coming to school early each day so that he could use kerosene to start the fire and warm the room before his teacher and his classmates arrived. One cold morning someone mistakenly filled the kerosene container he used with gasoline, and disaster struck.
 
The class and teacher arrived to find the schoolhouse engulfed in flames. Terrified on realizing that Glenn was inside, they rushed in and managed to drag the unconscious little boy out of the flaming building more dead than alive. He had major burns over the lower half of his body and was taken to a nearby county hospital. From his bed, the dreadfully burned, semi-conscious little boy faintly heard the doctor talking to his mother. The doctor told his mother that her son would surely die – which was for the best, really – for the terrible fire had devastated the lower half of his body.
 
But the brave boy didn't want to die. Glenn made up his mind that he would survive. And somehow, to the amazement of the physician, he did survive. Yet when the mortal danger was past, he again heard the doctor and his mother speaking quietly. The mother was told that since the fire had destroyed so much flesh in the lower part of his body, it would almost be better if he had died, since he was doomed to be a lifetime cripple with no use at all of his lower limbs. His mother refused to let the doctors amputate.
 
Once more this brave little boy made up his mind. He would not be a cripple. He would walk. But unfortunately from the waist down, Glenn had no motor ability. His thin, scarred legs just dangled there, all but lifeless.
 
Ultimately Glenn was released from the hospital. Every day afterward his mother and father would massage his little legs, but there was no feeling, no control, nothing. Yet his determination that he would walk was as strong as ever.
 
When he wasn't in bed, he was confined to a wheelchair. One sunny day his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some fresh air. This day, instead of sitting there, he threw himself from the chair. Glenn pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him.
 
He worked his way to the white picket fence bordering their lot. With great effort, he raised himself up on the fence. Then, stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence, resolved that he would walk. He started to do this every day until he wore a smooth path all around the yard beside the fence. There was nothing he wanted more than to develop life in those legs.
 
Ultimately through his daily massages, Glenn's iron persistence and his resolute determination, he did develop the ability first to stand up, then to walk haltingly with help, then to walk by himself – and then miraculously – to run.
 
Glenn began to run to school. He ran for the sheer joy of running and being able to run. He ran everywhere that he could. The people in his town would often see him run by on his way to who knows where and smile. Later in college Glenn made the track team where his tremendous determination paid off. He eventually received the nickname the "Kansas Flyer."
 
In February 1934, in New York City's famed Madison Square Garden, this young man who was not expected to survive, who would surely never walk, who could never hope to run – this determined young man, Dr. Glenn Cunningham, ran the mile in four minutes and eight seconds, the world's fastest indoor mile! Later that same year in a prestigious outdoor track meet, he shaved another second off his record to run the world's fastest mile to that time.

Note:
To verify this amazing true story, see the Glenn Cunningham article on the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame's website at this link. Cunningham was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974.