Facing the Fax
Ever heard people say things like “paper is dead” or “black and white printers are a thing of the past”? Truth is, some technologies don’t die fantastic deaths but transition and adapt. Enter “the fax.” I always thought that faxing was something “low-tech” folks who couldn’t just kick the habit did - until I was a partner in a start-up. We sold to more than 800 boutique-type stores throughout the country. While most of our customers would use the internet to view our catalogue, few were willing to place their orders online. So our fax machine became our most important “order” piece of equipment. We tried internet faxing for a while but that just seemed to pile-up in someone’s (mostly the person who happened to be out of the office) inbox and we never knew if they’d been read or processed. So we ditched that. Technology didn’t triumph over information. Having a paper document sent to you that you could make notes on (special requests), modify (such as blacking out the credit card number for security reasons) and communicate to your customer (order confirmation on their original document) was priceless. So, while some may mock, I was pleased to see that of the 7 printer products we launched last month, 5 can fax…
All the best in your business.
Cheers
Paul Herman
Business Strategy, North American Resellers
Xerox