Case Study: Lanier: Achieving Maximum Performance by Supporting Quality Products with Quality Services

Lanier, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harris Corporation, is the largest independent distributor of office equipment in the world. The company, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, has more than 1,600 sales and services centers in more than 100 countries worldwide. Lanier's product mix includes copy machines, fax machines, voicemail, dictation/ transcription systems, presentation systems, and other related office products and services. Throughout most of its corporate history, Lanier has been a sales-driven organization. The company was founded in 1934 by Tommy Lanier and his two brothers as the distributors of "Ediphone" dictation machines in the southeastern portion of the United States. In 1955 Lanier entered the copier business as an independent distributor of 3M "Thermofax" dry process copiers. Through the years, the company's product line has broadened, and it has experienced consistent growth and profitability. Lanier also has earned for itself an excellent reputation in the office products industry. Rather than manufacturing its own products, Lanier's business strategy has been to partner with companies like 3M, Toshiba, and Canon to develop a cohesive line of high-quality office equipment. The biggest challenge for Lanier has been to differentiate itself from its competitors. Although the company sells good quality products, its products are similar to the products sold by other office equipment vendors. To find a point of differentiation from its competitors, in the early 1990s Lanier decided to shift from a sales driven company to a company focused on customer satisfaction. The company realized that to make this shift successfully, it had to build a corporate culture that supported its products with quality customer service. Lanier worked hard to develop quality services to complement its products. To accomplish this, the company developed several specific quality-related programs. These programs included the following:

• Customer Vision

• Performance Promise

• 100 Percent Sold

• Lanier Team Management Process

The premise behind the Customer Vision program was to encourage each employee to see the company's business through the customers' eyes and respond appropriately. The Performance Promise program was designed to offer the industry's best performance pledge by guaranteeing total product satisfaction (or replacement at no charge); and by providing a 24-hour, toll-free helpline; free loaners when repairs are necessary; and a 10-year guarantee on the availability of service, parts, and supplies for all Lanier products. The 100 Percent Sold program challenged the company's employees with the goal of having every Lanier customer buy all of their office products from Lanier. Finally, the Lanier Team Management Process was a quality program that stressed a never-ending process of continuous improvement in quality, reliability, and performance in all things Lanier did at all levels within the company. In addition to specific programs to support service and product quality, the company also started to see itself as a consulting organization rather than a sales organization. By giving potential customers good advice before the sale, the company found that it could create a seamless stream of Lanier involvement in satisfying a customer's office product needs. The stream includes presale advice, the actual sale, and after-sale service. Lanier also has coupled its new initiatives with extensive training for its employees and incentive programs tied to the company's quality-related goals.

Lanier has been successful in complementing its quality products with quality customer service. As evidence of this, the company received several prestigious awards from its customers including DuPont's "Partners in Excellence Award," Pacific Bell's "Quality Partner Award," and Chevron's "Alliance Supplier Award."

Questions

1. Why was it important for Lanier to develop specific programs, such as Customer Vision and Performance Promise, to facilitate its dual emphasis on quality products and quality services?

2. What steps has Lanier taken to reinforce the importance of quality services to its employees?

3. Do you believe that Lanier continued to be successful? Why or why not?