Atlantic sails
on satisfaction
IN BUSINESS FOR NEARLY A HALF-CENTURY, SOLUTION
PROVIDER IS OBSESSIVE ABOUT PLEASING CUSTOMERS
The solution provider is selling
and installing all the hardware for the
eHealth project, as well as managing
the IT support services. The project,
which is about halfway to completion,
will earn Atlantic about $5 million
between the hardware involved and
the services the solution provider has
agreed to provide through an SLA
(service-level agreement).
Weiss said a big growth area for
Atlantic is providing soup-to-nuts
By Herman Mehling York and three in New Jersey. network services with SLAs. The net-
Every product that atlantic In the 1990s, the company trans- work services business is growing
Tomorrow’s Office ships carries the formed itself from a copier dealer after at a double-digit rate every year and
solution provider’s Seal of Satisfac- identifying an opportunity to also sell accounts for about 20 percent of the
tion, guaranteeing the customer a whole range of computer hardware company’s revenue, he added.
certain levels of service. products, said Weiss. “We noticed Atlantic, Weiss said, delivers the same
The seal’s language assures the that because everything was becom- level of service to all companies—even
customer a technician will be on-site ing digital and networked, we could the smallest—and is always trying to
within 4 hours of a call for support. offer to support a customer’s entire make improvements.
If a technician fails to show within 8 network,” he said. “We do weekly re-
hours, Atlantic promises to credit the Atlantic had revenue views of all midsize
customer’s account an hourly rate. of $40 million in 2006 and large customers
And to show how serious the company and expects to increase and try to do reviews of
is about its promises, Atlantic prints the that by $10 million this the smallest ones every
phone number of its president, Larry year. It is one of the 90 days,” said Weiss.
Weiss, on the seal and encourages cus- largest Ricoh dealers “We try to meet or talk
tomers to “talk to the top” if they are in the New York-New to each customer once
unhappy about a product or service. Jersey region, with a month. We believe in
“The seal is the customer’s insur- thousands of custom- feet on the street.”
ance policy, guaranteeing 100 percent ers in the area. Each year, Atlantic
satisfaction,” said Adam Weiss, son of Stephen Pacicco, sends out a customer
Larry Weiss and the company’s vice CEO of eHealth Solu- satisfaction survey to
president of sales. “We put down in tions, in New York, Weiss: “We put down in black and each of its 15,000 cus-
black and white what our responsi- said Atlantic’s com- white what our responsibilities are.” tomers, said Justin
bilities are toward our customers. Not mitment to service has Schwartz, the com-
many companies do that.” been essential to the virtually glitch- pany’s vice president of health care
The solution provider’s service free rollout of an electronic medical sales.
obsession translates to customer satis- records system for 4,000 users in 24 “This is our way of getting feed-
faction, which Weiss said translates in nursing homes in New York state. back so we can improve our service
turn to new business referrals. “We’ve never heard them say they offerings,” Schwartz said. “In 2006,
Atlantic has been around long can’t do anything or can’t get to a loca- customers gave us an average of 3. 65
enough to boast that it knows how tion,” Pacicco said. “Atlantic is always on out of 4.0. We had 97.8 percent uptime
to serve customers. Founded in 1959, top of everything. We need this level of for all customers.” ´
the company has grown from a five- service because a failure in the system
person photocopier dealer based in could be critical. Serious downtime, for Herman Mehling is a freelance writer based
New York to a 200-employee IT ser- example, could result in patients not in San Anselmo, Calif. He can be reached
vices provider with two offices in New receiving timely medication or care.” at hermanmehling@sbcglobal.net.
