When you look at the items in your office supply closet you might just see supplies, or you might see stacks of dollar bills; hard-earned money, spent on purchasing it all. Some people in your office will never think twice about the cost of these supplies, and that’s OK. You, on the other hand, worry about expenses and always look for ways to save money. A great way to save money in the office is by focusing on your copier supplies.
Here’s 4 tips to help save money on printing supplies:
#1 Don’t get fooled by “Toner Pirates”
What’s a Toner Pirate? We have a great blog article found here where we discuss this topic in detail, but in short, they are supply scammers. They call your company probing for any information they can glean about your copier or printer. Then they call again, trying to make it sound as though they are your office equipment or supply provider. They might tell you it’s time to order more toner toner, or that they have special pricing for a limited time.
Let’s do some simple, quick math about their deceptive tactics. Let’s say a single toner costs $100, that means a case of 10 should cost roughly $1,000. If a Toner Pirate tells you they have a 40% discount special on a “case” they lead you to believe that you’ll be paying $600.00 instead of $1,000.00. Normally that would be an AMAZING deal. Well, when the two toners show up at your office you’ll quickly realize that you’ve paid $300.00 each. That’s 3 times the amount you should pay per toner in this scenario. In some cases they will even send you toner you never explicitly ordered and pressure you into paying for it.
The bottom line is this: Toner Pirates prey on well-meaning employees who are not aware of these scams. The best thing you can do to protect your business from becoming a target is to educate your employees about it. And remember, a reputable supply vendor will not call you to pressure you into purchasing supplies.
#2 Find a dealer that offers maintenance contracts that include supplies
First of all, a service contract will help you avoid Toner Pirate scams. If someone calls your business and says they have a great deal on toner, pretending to be you’ll easily know they are lying because your maintenance contract includes supplies.
More importantly, your office equipment dealer will negotiate a great cost-per-page rate up front, which includes parts, labor, and toner. That rate won’t change during your contract, and you lock in the savings for the entire life of your contract. On average customers with service contracts on their copiers save between 20-30% over customers that purchase toner and service separately. The best part is never having unexpected expenses resulting from your copier. Learn more about our service contracts.
#3 Use the appropriate copy and print devices for the job
Copy/print devices come in all sizes, and speeds. This is because there are a wide range of applications, printing needs, and environments. On one side of the spectrum, there are devices that are designed to be un-boxed and set up by the end user. This is great if you are only going to occasionally print. Occasionally meaning, a couple pages every other day or so. If consistently you rely on that printer, then you’ll quickly find that the replacement supply costs can rapidly outpace the initial cost to purchase the printer. It’s just like that great razor you got at the drug store for $7.00. You know, the one you used and loved for a little while, until you had to buy replacement blades and learned that they cost 3 times what you paid for the razor. Frustrating, right?
It’s imperative to purchase the right copier for your needs depending on all of your unique needs. otherwise you could end up paying a pretty penny for every page produced. Working with a knowledgeable copier vendor can help you accomplish this because they can match you with the right equipment based on things like the types of documents you’ll be printing, your average monthly volume, the number of users in your office, and much more.
For organizations with multiple copiers and printers, Managed Print Services (MPS) is a great option to save money on print costs. MPS includes a comprehensive fleet management strategy and ongoing analysis to address of of the variables that can drive print costs up. In fact, businesses who utilize Managed Print Services save an average of 30% on their printing costs.
#4 Change Print Defaults
This is perhaps the easiest way to reduce print costs in your office. All it takes is a second of your time, and a little education for everyone on staff, and you’re on your way to savings. First, make sure everyone in your office is printing double sided. It seems so simple, but you can literally cut print costs nearly in half this way.
Second, you should be printing in black and white whenever possible. If you have a color machine, you might be surprised to learn that even when your document LOOKS black and white, it’s usually a mixture of all the toner colors. When you default your color copier to print black and white only, it will only use black toner, reducing wasted color toner. Learn how to change your default print settings.
We hope these 4 tips for reducing toner costs has been helpful for you.
If you’re in the market for a new copier, we have just one more idea for you. Consider one of the great copiers in the Sharp Color Advanced or Color Essential lineup. These copiers feature a Toner Auto-Eject function, preventing toners from being removed before they are completely empty.
On average, toner cartridges have 15% of their toner remaining at the time they are removed. Sharp’s new cartridges will make sure you get every penny out of your supplies and make toner replacement fool-proof for everyone in your office.
