There is often a feeling that there is no escaping a “bad” contract. You’ve made an agreement with another party and you are bound for the duration. Only then, can you look at other options. However, this isn’t necessarily true. A contract should be beneficial for both parties, and if the customer isn’t happy then they shouldn’t have to be locked in. This was the predicament that charity, Dogs for Good (formerly known as Dogs for the Disabled) faced with their photocopier and print contract. That was until Managed Technology got in touch.
Sarah Knight, Office Manager at Dogs for Good, knew that the contract that they were in was a bad one:
“We were ‘stuck’ in a six-year contract for our three photocopiers with a large UK company who were not only expensive, but also lacked any customer service skills.”
The contract was one that Sarah and her team inherited meaning that they had no real say in what was required. To make matters worse, the photocopier providers had been brought out by a larger company, where communication was worse than before and there was a sense it wasn’t going to get any better.
“We would get a new Account Manager every month or so,” Sarah continues. “In fact, at one point the Account Manager phoned a few months after first introducing himself, to introduce himself again, forgetting that we had already spoken! It was clear there was a lack of care for their customers from their side and we needed a change.”
Easier said than done. Despite this clear and obvious need for a new contract, none of the companies that approached the charity could release them from their current one, which still had two years to run. The team decided to ride out the contract and reconsider their options come 2018.
This was when Managed Tech came to the rescue.
Unlike all the other providers, Managed Technology drew up a proposal that meant that they could get Dogs for Good out of their pricey contract and move across to Managed Technology. After a couple of meetings, a “grilling from the team” and a concise proposal, the charity decided to sign a new contract with Managed Technology and the installation of three new photocopiers and a new printer. It was, as Sarah describes it, “seamless”.
What has also impressed Sarah and the team is that it wasn’t just those initial meetings that Managed Tech put the effort into but ever since 2016, the year the contract started, the provider has been on hand to communicate and to solve problems.
“You can actually phone up and speak to somebody,” Sarah explains. “We even got a direct line to Dominic! It was a real contrast to what we were used to and it’s massively time-saving which is priceless.”
And it is not just the time that is being saved. Dogs for Good is set to save £16,250.00 over the term of the contract, a significant amount for a charity that relies on donations, fundraising and volunteers. It costs £3m a year to run the charity, which supports people with a wide range of disabilities including physical disabilities, autism, dementia and learning disabilities through the help of specially trained dogs since its inception in 1988.
Thanks to Managed Technology, Dogs for Good won’t be chasing their own tails when it comes to print costs.