Promoting Professionalism

Imagine watching a computer technician attempt to remove leftover adhesive from the piece of tape used to identify your laptop while it was in for repair.

This “haphazard methodology” for identification wasn’t doing British Columbia-based Simply Computing any favors in terms of customer service. It had also tried various bins and slipcovers to no avail. But then a company vice president saw a unique solution at a trade show that could easily be adapted across the Apple specialty store’s six service depots: Epson’s TM-T88VI ReStick POS printer.

“It seems like such a small thing, but it’s a big deal in terms of efficiency,” says Kyle Bennett, Simply Computing’s director of technical services. Labels can now easily be made with the customer’s name, work order and contact information, which prevents technicians from having to go back through the POS system. The ReStick POS printer features unique silicone rollers that don’t hold residue (which traditionally can cause label printers to jam over time) as well as a redesigned paper path. When paired with modified, liner-free paper, it can produce 60 percent more labels than die-cut that can be removed without leaving an adhesive residue.

Barry Wise, Epson’s senior marketing consultant, says the labels were originally introduced to the quick-serve restaurant industry. Epson also has been making inroads in book stores and libraries for hold and reserve materials. Thanks to “relentless” engineers, Wise says, the product went through nine months of rigorous testing “to make sure it could achieve” a high reliability rate.

A recent quarterly report shows that, since the roll out, professionalism has risen from 87 to 94 percent in Simply Computing’s satisfaction ratings; similarly, documentation rose from 85 to 94 percent.

“So we saw measurable gains in two areas that would likely be affected the most by bringing” the printers in, Bennett says, and “it’s way cooler than writing out five digits on a piece of masking tape. ... It sounds inherently nerdy, but it’s kind of neat.”