Our Annual Survey Offers Valuable Insights into What Dealers Think of Their Manufacturers
Each year in our Annual Survey we ask dealers to rate their primary A3 MFP suppliers as “Excellent,” “Very Good,” “Good,” “Fair,” or “Poor.” Occasionally, some dealers prefer not to rate their supplier. Historically, we have not counted those responses when tabulating our ratings. But in 2017, we concluded those blank responses were relevant to each manufacturer’s rating and included those in our ratings. We then awarded five points for “Excellent,” four points for “Very Good,” three points for “Good,” two points for “Fair,” and one point for “Poor.” We then divided the total by the number of dealers participating from that manufacturer.
Dealers’ views of their manufacturers in our last Survey (2018) remained relatively consistent with the previous year with the Big Six (Canon, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Ricoh, Sharp, Toshiba) averaging 4.36 out of a possible score of 5.0. In 2017, that figure was slightly higher at 4.40. Only two of the Big Six received “Poor” ratings from their dealers with Canon receiving four “Poor” ratings and Sharp one. As a result, Canon saw its rating drop from 4.1 in 2017 to 3.9 in 2018. Sharp’s rating compared to last year was not impacted by the single “Poor” rating, as its score rose to 4.4 in the 2018 Survey compared to 4.2 in the 2017 Survey. We attribute that to a greater participation of Sharp dealers in the 2018 Survey, and the number of dealers (35%) who rated Sharp “Very Good” in 2018 compared to 2017 when only 14% did.
In 2018, Toshiba scored the highest rating among dealers at 4.6, up from 4.4 in 2017. That’s not as high as Kyocera’s 4.7 rating in our 2017 Survey when only 22 Kyocera dealers participated. With 58 Kyocera dealers contributing to our 2018 Survey, Kyocera’s rating was 4.5, slightly better than Ricoh’s 4.47.
We also thought it would be interesting to share some of the comments provided by dealers to explain how they rated their A3 providers in 2018.
Canon
Rating: Excellent ““ “Complete product line, investment in R&D, training and support.”
Rating: Very Good ““ “High quality, generally good support, and few backorder situations.”
Rating: Good ““ “The level of support from Canon has been declining over the past few years. They need to support the dealer network better.”
Konica Minolta
Rating: Excellent ““ “Konica Minolta always makes the right decisions related to dealer support and growth. They are a great partner.”
Rating: Very Good ““ “They are better about keeping the branches out of dealer accounts.”
Rating: Fair ““ “Konica Minolta has been cutting programs in the past few years, co-op is gone, rep spiff points are gone, DDP programs are getting weaker, it’s not as lucrative as in the past.”
Kyocera
Rating: Excellent ““ “Kyocera helps the dealer succeed. Reliable product, very good pricing strategy, responsive and knowledgeable representatives.”
Rating: Very Good ““ “Dealer-friendly, but lacking at the high end of the product line.”
Rating: Good ““ “Solid product. Some support issues.”
Ricoh
Rating: Excellent ““ “Ricoh has been a great partner and has proven they are committed to the dealer community.”
Rating: Very Good ““ “They are easy to do business with and very supportive.”
Rating: Good ““ “They are responsive but invasive at times, wanting to direct my efforts their way.”
Sharp
Rating: Excellent ““ “Sharp has been a great partner and their latest product offering is excellent. The partnership with Foxconn has helped breathe new life into them.”
Rating: Very Good ““ “Sharp is incredible when it comes to helping us win deals. I feel our goals are aligned.”
Rating: Fair ““ “Having Tech-Data take over has been great logistically, but we feel we deal with them more than Sharp.”
Toshiba
Rating: Excellent ““ “Toshiba is an easy company to work with. They provide responsive support and appreciate their dealers.”
Rating: Very Good ““ “Toshiba is great at what they do, they just need to expand and do more. Their support is second to none, and the equipment they offer is the best I have seen, but they do not offer a full line. They need to invest in Toshiba-made A4 and production. We need the e-Bridge platform across the whole line.”
Rating: Good ““ “Good support and product.”
We would appreciate hearing how you rate your A3 manufacturer in our 34th Annual Survey, sponsored by TIAA Bank. Click here to access our survey form.
Access Related Content
Visit the www.thecannatareport.com. To become a subscriber, visit www.thecannatareport.com/register or contact cjcannata@cannatareport.com directly. Bulk subscription rates are also available.
