Why Work With an Authorized Ricoh Dealer?

A nefarious threat landscape in the form of unauthorized dealers of office copiers and printers is perhaps not high on the list of concerns for most companies. But the threat is real, and the threat is dangerous to your business. Conducting business with unauthorized dealers can cause companies unnecessary problems that can range from minor inconveniences to significant roadblocks.   

Ricoh recommends that companies should only conduct business with Ricoh-Authorized Dealers. This recommendation is backed by Ricoh’s nine decades of experience, expertise, and industry insights. Ricoh firmly believes that conducting business with unauthorized dealers will be detrimental and that working with Ricoh-Authorized Dealers will be greatly beneficial. 

Beyond a multitude of issues that may arise from working with unauthorized dealers, Ricoh also believes that the true potential of their products and services can only be accessed and leveraged by working with Ricoh-Authorized Dealers and distributors. Before delving into why Ricoh so emphatically champions authorized dealers, let’s recap Ricoh’s story.

A Brief Overview of Ricoh

The Ricoh Company, the multinational electronics and imaging enterprise, was founded by Riken, which is also known as the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Tokyo, Japan in 1936. Ricoh is a giant in its sector and is acknowledged as a leader in the industry. 

Ricoh USA has been in action since 1962 and specializes in information management and digital services. Ricoh offers products and services all around the world and in a variety of industries that include everything from healthcare and education to financial services and retail. 

Its primary office products include office printers, multifunction printers, fax machines, wide format printers, production printers, interactive whiteboards, and copiers. Ricoh’s top services include document management, managed print services, IT services, and 360 image data services. These are just some hand-picked selections amongst a vast array of robust offerings including Ricoh imaging services.

Like any company of its stature, Ricoh prides itself on quality. That’s one of the reasons they put a lot of emphasis on having authorized dealers who can represent their products and services with integrity and the expected brand quality. All this sets up the following questions: what is a Ricoh-Authorized Dealer? What does it take for Ricoh to bestow its brand name onto a dealer?

What is a Ricoh-Authorized Dealer? 

A Ricoh-Authorized Dealer is a distributor of Ricoh products and services that has been thoroughly vetted by Ricoh. This process involves a stringent evaluation to ensure that a dealer meets the company’s strict quality standards and criteria. 

This criteria is threefold. The first feature of a dealer that Ricoh evaluates is financial strength. The second is marketing ability, and the third, and perhaps most important, is service acumen. Only if a dealer meets these standards can they get a Ricoh stamp of authorization. 

A Ricoh-Authorized Dealer can sell original Ricoh products and services. They can also provide parts, services, and accessories to those customers who already own Ricoh products. They have the infrastructure to hold sufficient stock and are also housed with Ricoh-factory-trained engineers to run onsite facilities that meet the Ricoh products’ servicing requirements.

The aforementioned characteristics are just some of the boxes that dealers need to tick to gain and maintain their Ricoh stamp of approval. But all this information focuses on Ricoh and its dealers. The reason that such emphasis and care is placed on authorizing certain dealers is that the benefits, such as years of experience, can help customers avoid headaches down the road.    

Top 5 Benefits of Working With a Ricoh-Authorized Dealer

1. Authentic Products and Office Equipment

A Ricoh-Authorized Dealer has access to genuine Ricoh products, services, parts, and other integral components. That might appear to be an obvious fact and something that doesn’t need to be stated. However, considering the number of unauthorized dealers with counterfeit products, it’s probably the most important advantage of using a Ricoh-Authorized Dealer. 

Ricoh-Authorized Dealers have product mainframes, spare parts, toner, assemblies, and various other trademarked supplies. The promise of products and services can only be fulfilled if they are from an authentic ecosystem. With an authorized dealer, a customer can be guaranteed that the Ricoh offerings that they are purchasing are the real thing. 

2. Robust Servicing and Support

The physical products and services aren’t the only thing that a Ricoh-Authorized Dealer has in its arsenal. Access to technical manuals, the Ricoh Technical Support Hotline, and in-field support round out the advantages of using an authorized dealer, ensuring that high-quality servicing and reliable support can be provided to any and all purchasers or owners of a Ricoh line of products.

It’s often a bulletproof infrastructure behind the products that differentiates good businesses from elite businesses. Elite businesses have servicing and support capabilities that augment their products and make maintenance easy for customers. Ricoh-Authorized Dealers are reinforced and elevated by the servicing and support capabilities of a multinational giant.

3. Warranties

A generous warranty can be a key differentiating factor between two similar but competing product offerings. With a Ricoh-Authorized Dealer, a customer can feel confident that a warranty claim will be treated fairly and that the warranty will be honored if a Ricoh product is functioning in a manner less than that promised. Repairs and replacements will be simple. Note,  that anyone receiving technical service or parts from an unauthorized dealer will also result in the voiding of certain warranties that Ricoh may provide. 

Unauthorized dealers have many ways to lure customers in. Lower prices are one of them. Customers need to be wary and cognizant of the fact that while cheaper price tags from unauthorized dealers might be appealing, an unclaimable or nonexistent warranty could prove more expensive, especially considering the fact that certain products could be counterfeit or flawed. 

4. Cybersecurity for End Users

The world of cybersecurity can often seem futuristic and akin to science fiction and techno-thrillers. It’s fair to say that printers and copiers won’t be exciting additions to that kind of fiction. That’s precisely why robust cybersecurity is required for those particular endpoints. Printers and copiers are susceptible to attacks and can easily be hijacked by malicious entities.

Quocirca's Print Security Landscape 2022 study uncovered that 68% of surveyed companies had suffered from loss of data because of print security failure. Security for end users is essential, which makes Ricoh-Authorized Dealers even more important. This is because they have access to Ricoh’s portal for firmware updates, which will fortify endpoints from a multitude of dangers.

5. Elite Technicians

No matter how much automation and other AI-powered technology advances, nothing augments a service like the hands and minds of elite technicians. Ricoh-Authorized Dealers have in-house Ricoh engineers and technicians who lend their highly specialized skill sets to ensure that operations are conducted with watchful eyes, business logic, and technical expertise. 

Unauthorized dealers are often staffed with technicians who aren’t equipped to deal with Ricoh products. Sometimes unauthorized dealers may outsource their technical services, which can further complicate challenging tasks. Products with questionable authenticity are a problem in themselves. Those products being handled by unqualified technicians is a recipe for disaster.

Conclusion

Ricoh has innovated for decades to sharpen its products and services to their current quality and reputation. Those offerings can potentially provide enterprises all around the world with a significant competitive advantage gap, something that’s priceless in today’s saturated markets. 

Detrimental to companies that are seeking a competitive advantage gap are unauthorized dealers, whose scams, counterfeit products, and false promises can cause numerous challenges, bottlenecks, and roadblocks. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is customer satisfaction. And unauthorized dealers are a likely cause for customer dissatisfaction. 

Working with Ricoh-Authorized Dealers will guarantee that companies are getting the unadulterated versions of Ricoh products and the full spectrum of additional services, perks, and add-ons. The benefits can be far-reaching and potentially transformative. 

It’s natural for companies to be curious about cheaper options. However, if lower costs come with the added price of inauthentic products and fractured services, it simply isn’t worth it. The wisdom of industry veterans can’t be overstated. Neither can their stamp of authentication, and that’s why it’s important to work with only Ricoh-Authorized Dealers such as Office1.