How UX and CX influences print

At the intersection of user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX) we find managed print services (MPS).

Document services and MPS are now highly regarded in the enterprise value chain. Because of this, the connections between documents, processes and users that directly impact print are of interest to every company stakeholder.

Driving customer loyalty with CX

If part of the customer buying journey involves coming into contact with documents and processes, they’ll also experience the benefits - or otherwise - of the multifunction devices you have in place.

Choose the best, most intelligent devices, and they’ll contribute directly to a positive customer experience.

This drives customer loyalty in a number of ways:

1. Customers benefit from having their forms and contact information accepted at the point of service or during first contact.
2. The quality of documents is consistent, professional and therefore appealing.
3. Customers can receive printed documents exactly when they need them.
4. Traditional, paper-bound processes can be identified and digitised, resulting in a breakthrough customer experience.

Proof, if it were needed, that the devices you rely on day-in, day-out extend their benefits far beyond the four walls of your business.

The secret to employee happiness and productivity

We all interact with office printers and scanners, and it never seems like a big deal - until something goes wrong.

Every interaction with an MFP should result in a no-hassle, intuitive user experience; if these devices do exactly what is expected of them without causing drama, employee happiness and productivity should increase.

Great UX is driven by hardware technology and software capability, which is why the latest printers and scanners often feature a large, capacitive touch screen interface that mirrors the tap, swipe and ‘pinch’ of the smartphones experience.

With the steps required to perform repetitive jobs reduced, the ‘time-on-task’ also decreases, and thanks to immediately-familiar UX, users can guide themselves from start to finish during even the most complex of jobs.

Lastly, we shouldn’t forget management, who benefit from great UX design in applications such as User Analytics, which enable them to identify bad printing behaviour and educate users.

Defining the new UX standard

Before we wrap up, let’s summarise the new user experience standard for office devices:

• all users should have access to the functionality they need with feature access control;
• user interactions must be reduced and clear instructions given when an issue is encountered;
• reliability should be improved with application defaults that ensure jobs are printed as expected;
• users should be able to manage their own jobs and customise their printing experience;
• seamless importing should be available for existing contacts to enable fast document sharing.

The latest office technology delivers newfound time and more support for the enterprise. Thanks to great UX and integrated CX, printers are evolving from dumb output devices to intelligent workplace assistants.