The ten questions we ask before we quote a copier

When somebody calls us about a copier, the first thing we do is ask questions. Not because we are stalling, and not because we do not know what to sell. It is because two offices that both say “we need a colour copier” almost never need the same machine, and the difference is usually something the caller has not thought about yet.

After a good many years of these calls the list has settled into ten questions. We ask them in the same order every time. If you are shopping for a copier or an office printer right now, here they are, along with why each one changes the answer.

1. What do you mostly print?

Invoices and forms are one thing. Proposals and marketing pieces that have to look right are another. Drawings and posters are a third, and they need a wide format printer, which is a different conversation altogether. This one question splits the field in three before we go any further.

2. Colour or black and white?

Plenty of offices think they need colour and print a dozen colour pages a month. Plenty of others think black and white is fine and then send their proposals out to a print shop. The honest answer is usually somewhere in the middle, and a colour machine that is mostly used for black and white is still a fair choice if the colour pages are the ones customers see.

3. What paper sizes?

Letter and legal covers most offices. If you ever print 11 by 17, whether that is spreadsheets, booklets or drawings, you need a full size copier and not a desktop unit, and that decides the whole class of machine.

4. About how many pages a month?

This is the one most people cannot answer, and it is the one that matters most. A rough guess is fine. One case of paper is 5,000 sheets, so think about how often a case comes through the door. A machine asked to do twice the volume it was built for will be in for service constantly, and one built for five times your volume is money you did not need to spend.

5. How many people will share it?

Five people on one machine and fifty people on one machine put very different demands on paper capacity, speed and the size of the toner cartridges.

6. Do you need to scan and copy, and do you fax?

Scanning to email and to a shared folder is now the most used function on most office machines, ahead of printing. Fax is still a daily tool in medical, legal and trades offices, and it is an option that has to be ordered with the machine.

7. Any finishing?

Stapling, hole punching and booklet making are done by the machine as the pages come out. If sets go out stapled today, somebody is doing it by hand. A finisher is an option on full size copiers and not available on desktop printers, so this question alone can rule out half the list.

8. How would you like to get it?

Managed service with one monthly amount, a lease, or buying it outright. There is no wrong answer. It decides whether we send you to our store to buy a self install printer, or put a written quote in front of you with the service cost and the lease cost shown separately.

9. How soon?

If the old machine has died, the answer is “this week”, and that changes which models we look at because it changes what is on hand.

10. What do you have now, and what is not working?

The old machine tells us more than any spec sheet. If it jams, we look at paper handling. If toner is expensive, we look at cost per page. If scanning is slow, we look at the document feeder. The complaint is the specification.

We built a tool that asks them for you

Those ten questions are now on our website as a two minute tool. You answer them, and it shows you two printers from two different brands that fit, with a button to request a quote that carries your answers with it so nobody has to ask them twice. If your office is small enough that a self install printer from our store is the right tool, it says so and points you there instead.

It is at ubmcanada.com/help-me-choose. It does not replace one of our experts coming out to count your pages and look at the room, and we still put two options in writing on every quote. It simply gets the first conversation done before the phone call, and gives you a shortlist you can argue with.

If you would rather read first, our longer guide on how to choose an office printer or copier covers duty cycle, laser versus inkjet and the three mistakes we see most. And if the price of the machine is what is on your mind, an inexpensive printer is not always cheap to run is the arithmetic.

Try the ten questions, and if the answer it gives you does not look right, tell us. That is exactly the conversation we are glad to have.