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You may not believe it at first thought but buying a printer for your business is a big investment that should not be taken lightly.
Printer/copier prices can range from the low hundreds to the high thousands, and if you’re not aware of what you need to look for in a machine, you could make a costly purchase that hurts your business rather than helps it.
We’ve sold office printing equipment for over 35 years now and have seen ill-informed consumers make the wrong purchase too many times because they either didn’t have access to the right information or made a quick purchasing decision with little research conducted.
At Strategic Technology Partners of Texas, we strive to deliver the objective and unfiltered information you need to know so by the time you’re ready to buy, you’ll know exactly what you’re looking for.
In this blog, we’ll be going over the five things you need to avoid before purchasing a printer to help you become aware of what you need to look for in your research process.
5 Things to Avoid When Buying a Printer
Here are the five things you need to be aware of before purchasing a printer:
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Avoid Printers That Don’t Meet Your Print Volume
The monthly print volume on your copier/printer is arguably the most imperative thing to consider when trying to get a machine that will provide your business with the greatest return on investment.
Many people have purchased a printer and either didn’t account for enough volume or accounted for too much of it. In both cases, they made the wrong purchase that ended up costing their businesses money that they shouldn’t have had to spend.
Let’s look at two hypothetical scenarios that will personify this point even further:
“I Underestimated My Print Volume”
John owns a local accounting firm, and because he is the penny-pinching type, bought the least expensive printer he could find on the Internet.
“We are a small, locally-run business, who are only busy during the tax season months of February-April,” said John. “I think we’ll be fine.”
What John didn’t realize was that his small workgroup printed and copied documents more than he had originally thought.
While the first couple of months were fine, when tax season rolled around, John noticed the machine was malfunctioning as usage heavily increased.
“I don’t have time to fix this,” John says begrudgingly. “It’ll be okay for now.”
A couple of months later, after countless copies of tax returns were made, the printer John purchased just a few months ago could not withstand anymore.
After consulting a local service team and learning that the machine is not worth salvaging, John takes a deep sigh, realizing he must now buy a brand-new machine, just months after going with the option he felt was just good enough.
“I underestimated my print volume.”
“I Overestimated My Print Volume”
Jill just opened a small antique shop and is the type of person who is overprepared no matter the circumstance, which is why she bought a machine that can handle a monthly print volume of well over 1,000 pages.
“I want to make sure I account for everything,” Jill says, “including my ability to make flyers for the shop and invoices for the customers.”
The printer Jill bought costs in the high hundreds every month and is built primarily for workgroups of 3-8 people.
A few months after the shop opened, Jill begins to realize that she is not even using a quarter of the recommended monthly print volume suggested for the machine.
“I’m beginning to think I invested too much into a printer,” said Jill. “I could’ve used that money elsewhere.”
Jill gets her shop’s monthly bank statement, takes a quick look at the machine, and comes to the unfortunate realization of a costly purchase.
“I overestimated my print volume.”
The Print Volume Test
To avoid the two theoretical scenarios above, it’s imperative to ask yourself these three questions:
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How many people use the printer every day?
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What is my current estimated monthly print volume?
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Will my team size be changing soon?
Once you have the answers to these questions, find the machine that best matches up with your workgroup size and your monthly print volume and begin your research process from there.
Determining volume is perhaps the most important part of the printer-buying process. Read our blog about why print volume is important when choosing a machine to learn more.
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Avoid the Cheap Printer Route
Think back to John’s situation in the previous example. What did he do wrong?
If you said he tried to save money by buying the cheapest option, even though he needed a machine more commensurate with his volume, then you’re on the right track.
Many people think of an office printer as an afterthought business expense when it should be thought of as a long-term investment for your company that not only meets your office’s function volume but helps increase productivity and office workflow.
Of course, there are certain scenarios where the cheaper Inkjet printers will suffice. If you’re looking for a printer for personal reasons or you have a small monthly print volume, then buying the cheaper option is the best option.
But buying the cheaper option when your volume is high just because you want to save on your initial purchase is not the right answer.
Buying a cheaper printer option from a retail giant like Walmart or Amazon will save you more in the short term but cost you more in the long run if you have a moderate-to-high volume.
As a general rule, the less expensive the printer is, the more expensive the toner and parts will be and the more expensive the printer is, the less expensive the toner and parts will be.
To learn more about this topic, read these blogs:
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Avoid Purchasing a Printer Without a Maintenance Plan
The first two steps were crucial to laying the groundwork for your research process, but you can still make a costly mistake even once you’ve found the right printer for you by choosing not to opt into a maintenance plan for your machine.
To help put this into context, think about the last time you bought a new phone. What was one of the last questions the employee asked you before purchasing?
“Would you like to add insurance for an extra $12 a month?”
You just spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars on a new phone and accessories, only to have to pay $12 more on your monthly phone bill for insurance.
Since you’ve already spent a large amount of money on the phone, you instinctually say no to the monthly insurance.
But what if a few months later you drop your phone in a pool of water and it’s unsalvageable?
You probably wish you opted into that insurance, right?
A maintenance plan for your printer works in much of the same way. It’s a monthly fee, usually around $12 a month, to ensure that you will have direct and timely access to service technicians to fix any issues that may arise during your printer/copier ownership.
Finding service technicians for a printer on your own can be difficult and costly; some technicians charge over $100 an hour for service, and there is no guarantee you will find one to work on your machine in an opportune manner.
Investing in a long-term printer/copier solution and following the recommended monthly print volume will make the machine a permanent fixture in your office space. But, as the machine ages, service issues could become more common, which means having direct access to technicians is critical to making your machine last.
You can also have a maintenance plan included as part of a managed print contract. Managed print allows for automatic-toner shipments and a direct point of contact for any questions or concerns you might have with your device.
Read our blog about the five reasons you need managed print services to learn more.
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Avoid a Printer Contract That Doesn’t Meet Your Volume
Yes, we’re back to talking about volume again, but this time, it’s in the context of your managed service contract.
Print vendors will usually specify how many prints or copies you will pay for a month in a contract after discussing your situation with you.
The price of the impressions (prints) accounted for will determine how much you are paying a month to print and copy documents.
For example, let’s say your vendor accounted for 10,000 impressions a month in your contract.
If that is too small of a number for you, and you go over 10,000 impressions a month, you will have to pay extra for the additional usage. Even if it’s only around $0.01 extra per page, those costs can add up, especially if you’re already paying other printer-related fees every month.
Conversely, if you accounted for 10,000 impressions a month but usually don’t make even half of that, then you’re spending too much on the number of impressions a month and could be saving that extra money you’re spending on prints you did not make.
If you followed the first two steps and figured out your estimated monthly print volume, make sure to keep that in mind when you’re accounting for impressions in your contract.
If you don’t, then you’ll either be spending extra money on over usage or spending too much money on impressions you didn’t need.
To read more about printer/copier costs, read these blogs:
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Avoid Passing on Professional Printer Installation and Training
So, you’ve researched your printer, found the model you wanted and started setting up your contract.
You might think all the costly decisions you could make are over, but there’s one final one that you need to keep in mind as you consider what to include in your printer contract.
Generally speaking, you should opt into provisions that will leave the installation and training for your copier/printer to a professionally trained technician.
Some may have the skillset to set up and properly use a printer, but most of the time, people who have not had the correct training will not know how to properly set up the machine in your workplace.
Setting up a printer improperly can lead to additional costs based on incorrectly setting up features or damaging the machine.
You just purchased an expensive machine that is set to act as a long-term printing solution for your business; don’t disregard the last step in the process and seek out the help of a trained analyst to not only set up the printer but also train employees on how to use the machine, which can be more complicated than you would think.
Read our blog about what to expect in the delivery process of your machine to learn more about how the installation process works.
Want to Learn More About Buying a Printer?
Buying a printer is like making any major purchasing decision; it requires thorough research and expert-led guidance throughout the entire process.
You wouldn’t buy a car without an expert’s opinion. You wouldn’t buy a swimming pool without professional consultation. And you shouldn’t buy a printer/copier without seeking out the advice of industry experts.
As a locally managed print vendor, we know how difficult it can be to find the right machine. And, unfortunately, we know how costly the wrong purchase can be for a business, as well.
We don’t make content to push the products we sell. We make content to inform readers of the issues that they either don’t know about or don’t understand the significance of.
If you would like another resource to help in your research process, read our blog about the top six things to consider when buying a printer/copier to find out more about what goes into finding the right printing solution for your business.
