Canon – where customer service is prime!

Canon India is trying its best to get the pulse of the industry through their structured road shows and participation in exhibition in smaller cities. Keeping service as their USP, the company is expanding its reach by educating customers on the benefits of digital printing. Here, Puneet Datta, director of professional printing products group, Canon India, shares their future plans with Varsha Verma. The Professional Printing Products business is set to cross Rs 100 crore this year, shares the enthusiastic Puneet Datta,. “We are very successful with ImagePress C800/700, which is catching attention and the segment which Canon was eluding is now 70-80 percent addressable with this machine.” With technology derived from the award-winning Canon series, the 80 ppm C800 and 70 ppm C700 deliver excellent print quality, enhance productivity and enable versatility in both commercial and in-house print environments.

Puneet Datta“Besides, we have gained tremendously in terms of print service providers as our partners who have expanded their geographical reach and are replacing their older machines from competing brands with Canon machines,” told Puneet.

As an attempt to reach out to more customers, Canon is also looking forward to exhibit is smaller exhibitions in cities like Ludhiana, Kolkata, Kochi in Kerala, etc. “We are focusing to go out to more customers. We are planning to conduct small format road shows and technological forums in B-class cities like Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore, Pune, etc. Since our price range is appropriate, entrepreneurs can also look at installing these machines,” he adds. “We can also showcase applications from metro cities to educate customers on the versatility of the machines.”

What’s more? Canon is now looking at launching a third product in early December – ImagePress C600, a 60 ppm machine.

Trends…

Puneet firmly believes that people print more as printed product is 70 percent more readable and recognised than digital products. “In western countries, focus is more on digital but it is now seen that a hardcopy mailer is more effective than online ones. Print will continue to be there, especially in segments like photographs, invites or new communication to customers.”

On asking about the trends in the printing segment, Puneet replied, “Earlier, digital printing was optimistically growing at a rate of 25 percent but in the last three years, it slowed down to 12 percent This year, the market is upbeat as with the stable government and GST (goods and services tax) in place, times are conducive. Printing is a capital intensive industry and even banks have eased their loan processes, which is bound to fuel the printing industry.”

But, he also feels that commercial printing has yet not taken to digital printing to the extent it should have. “Canon as a company would like to get to the further pulse of the industry and take a lead in this transformation. A lot of book printing through digital printing has started with bigwigs like Repro India, Sanat Printer, Thomson Press, Replica Press, though there is a long way to go,” he added. Looking ahead… Nevertheless, Puneet is optimistic about the industry and confirms that the industry was bound in slow economy, but now they are geared up and industry will grow by creating value additions for customers. “Printers need to focus on creating value and not price war. They need to understand customers better and educate them,” he said. “They need to adopt internet as a good source of knowledge and use it for cross-media communication and generate more print sales,” he added.

On asking about Canon’s future plans, Puneet shared that they are appointing sales staff in five important locations like Lucknow, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Ludhiana/Chandigarh w.e.f. January 1, 2015. “We are not taking the inexpensive channel partners route as service has always been prime for Canon and we wish to serve our customers directly,” he concluded.