Martin Whalen Office Solutions Named a 2011 Elite Dealer

Martin Whalen Office Solutions tell us they are proud to serve a smaller market where personal relationships and community involvement matter while emphasizing the local angle and their rich 75-year history of providing office technology. 

75 years! Now that’s an achievement and although longevity in itself doesn’t make for an Elite Dealer, they must be doing something right to not only stay in business but maintain their independence in a landscape where acquisitions and mergers have become all too commonplace.

Honestly, we do love the way they are celebrating their 75^th anniversary and not only involving their customers but employees from throughout the organization in the festivities and various promotions. 

“For our employees we wanted to do something special and we rented a historical theatre and had a red carpet dinner where we thanked our employees and debuted our 75^th Anniversary video,” reports Marty Whalen, President.

For customers, the dealership threw a customer appreciation party and ran a promotion where they gave away three $7,500 prizes out of the more than 1,000 entries. We appreciate the scholarship essay contest that Martin Whalen Office Solutions is sponsoring for local high school seniors who answer the essay question, “What will the office of the future look like in 25 years?” Three $2,500 scholarships will be awarded to the winners. That contest is a natural since the dealership does a lot of school business and this is the ideal way for them to give back to customers and the community.

Big wins, well this dealer had a few in 2011, including a multi-school district for 40+ MFPs and 150 printers.

“We’re proud of this win because the original proposal called for just the copiers,” says Whalen. “Our total solution made sense for them to replace all of their print devices. It saves them money and helps cut their IT cost of labor every year going forward.”

But what really impressed us about this 75-year-old office technology dealership was the implementation of CEO Juice software, a program that measures their Net Promoter Score. This is a score used by companies across the U.S. to see what their customers really think of them. A score of 96 percent looks pretty darn good to us, especially when you consider that a company like Apple scores in the 70 percent range and the average company only scores about 10 percent. That backs up Martin Whalen Office Solutions’ claims about the quality of their customer service.

When one considers there aren’t many successful third-generation family businesses remaining in the office technology industry, Martin Whalen Office Solutions deserves a load of credit. This is a company that refuses to remain complacent and continues to change to meet the needs of customers, technology, and the economy. Finally, let’s not overlook the people who make this dealership Elite.

“We have always spent a great deal of time looking for good people and feel that our patience in hiring leads to good outcomes for our customers and our company,” notes Whalen. “Many of our employees have been here more than 25 years and they are as much a part of our family business as the Whalen family. We treat them well with industry leading retirement plans, bonus plans, and flexible working conditions, and they, in turn, mirror this care to our customers. It’s been a formula that has worked for many years and we think it will carry us to the fourth generation as well.”

(This Week in Imaging-October 7, 2011)