i have a sales staff that is pretty computer savvy. Alot of times when the equipment is delivered they can set everything up and give training without someone from the IT staff. Unfortunately, everytime a customer adds someone or a computer they expect the sales person to come and set scan, ip etc. They dont have the time. Any sales people have a good way to handle this without pissing off the customer? Currently, we refer to IT and charge them. Or sometimes our sales people take care of them on their own time. They feel obligated?

Our service staff is trained to do this and we usually do it at no charge hoping it will add volume to the machine.

Our general rule is we give them 2 hrs of free support upon installation, after that we charge. Of course there are exceptions, depending upon possible revenue gains, etc.

I try to talk the customer through it over the phone if they have the patience.

Goodness. If you're not charging for this (After intial sales set-up and training) you're missing out on a decent revenue stream.

Why wouldn't you charge for this? It's a service call just like any other ...

Our general policy is to set up one or two workstations (or 1 server and 1 workstation) at installation and will train the customer's IT (or closest thing to IT) person. I am more inclined to set up more to print than scan (since this is usually easier and may increase print volume). We may negotiate further setup to be included, but any later setup (additional workstations or fixing installations) is an IT service for additional fees.