Survey Advantage Press

I like to believe that most people in sales and service try hard to help customers and prospects make good decisions, but sometimes the people serving me use the same approach they do with everyone else. Why? Because they are not communicating with me the way I want and have a one size fits all mentality. They are not conscious of the other person. We all do it at one time or another, but the answer to this problem is “Style flexing”. I learned this in a leadership training back 20 years go and it really helped me with managing my team.

Style flexing is an easy concept to grasp, but difficult to do. Style flexing is not manipulative, but other centered. You need to concentrate on the other person’s needs and how they want to be communicated with when making decisions. One way to break this down is to look at each person’s leadership style. We are all leaders in some way and leaders make decisions. We all make decisions. There are four types of leaders; Peer Oriented, System Oriented, Boss Oriented, and Goal Oriented. We all know people who lead with one of these styles, but the best leaders are able to style flex when working with others and don’t get stuck in one leadership style all the time. By the way, we all use each of these orientations at some point, but have a predominant style. When we are under stress, one of our predominant styles jumps out in front and it is beautiful or ugly. Let’s see how this helps in selling and servicing customers and prospect.

Peer Orientation. These people for the most part need support and love badly. They need support, need others to make decisions for them, and decisions are made by committee. They love to chat and know how you are doing, they hate getting right down to business, and they want to get to know you extremely well. The problem is they have difficulty making decisions especially if it could hurt anyone or leave someone out of the decision process. Let’s have a group hug! A few things to consider when working with this group:

• They need assurance that this is the right decision.
• Don’t stress alternatives and variables. Simplify
• Help make the decision easy.
• Be friendly and polite
• Slow down
• You need to help or make the decision for them.

System Orientation. This group is very set on what has proven to work in the past. They are very conservative and systematic about decision making and are risk averse. At one point some of the major defense contractors got caught off-guard by new, more nimble competitors. They kept the management philosophy that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You would hear things like “We always did it that way”. In the computer industry names like Data General, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Wang found out the hard way that being conservative can put you out of business. The motto of this group is “Let’s go find the play book”. A few things to consider when working with this group:

• Answer all questions they have and get into the details
• Provide more facts than you would think necessary
• Encourage evaluation time
• Don’t let their skepticism get you down
• To close on an idea, be patient, but firmly by presenting facts

Boss Orientation. This group is great at making decisions and feel that everyone likes that they take control. Sometimes that is the case, but after the 20th time hearing “Just do what I say” can beat you down. The early 1900’s was big into this style of decision making. Entrepreneurs are typically this way since they don’t have time to think before making decisions since they are blazing the trail. They want control and it must be their decision. OK Boss, whatever you say! Here are a few pointers.

• Don’t let ego get in the way. Give in.
• Be prepared for a tough contest, don’t be sensitive, and no touching!
• You must provide facts, but let them develop the answer and make the decision.
• Give bottom-line answers and concentrate on high points
• Let their ego come through, let them feel important.
• Don’t feel rejected by their bluntness and don’t apologize.
• They will make decisions quickly which is great. Don’t close, they will close for you.

Goal Orientation. Everyone says they are goal oriented, but this group feels that you are OK and they are OK, but we have that mountain to climb. They understand compassion, but don’t let that get in the way of the big picture. They are long term thinkers and are able to balance priorities with decision making. They will get input from others, but not let them drive the ship like a peer oriented person. And they won’t get stuck looking at how things have been in hopes it gives them answers to the future. They will balance the approach with the end in mind. Here is how to work with this group.

• Be open and take time to explain the objective or hear it from them.
• Appeal to team involvement to make the best decision.
• Communicate vision and long term benefits. They will get it.
• Return on investment is always in the discussion. Be prepared.
• Share excitement. They are very positive and love driving goals.
• Have a well defined plan of action with appeal to future needs.
• The two of you will collaborate on the best solution.

In summary, a challenging aspects of Style Flexing is consciously analyzing the situation and how the person wants to make decisions. One size does not fit all. The second and most challenging part of this is that they are not going to change their style for you. You must change yours for them! Sound tough and uncomfortable? You may be reading and thinking you are more of a boss style person. Well, then if you are working with a high peer person you can’t get right down to business the way you love to operate. You will alienate them, they will feel they haven’t been served, and you will lose a customer or prospect. Style Flex to give others what they need to comfortably work with you and feel good about it. It is all about serving others and truly understanding them.

ABBRA or the American Boat Builders and Repairers Association is now featuring articles on customer service. Here is the July issue of the ABBRA Newsletter for Boatyards and Marinas. We wrote an article to help boatyards drive their customer service, loyalty and retention. July, 2010 ABBRA Newsletter

July 8, 2010: Today Survey Advantage exhibited and participated in the AlphaGraphics Technology Expo held in Tucson, AZ. During the expo Survey Advantage unveiled a program designed with PrintSmith(TM) and AlphaGraphics to help their owners drive customer retention, preserve recurring job revenues, and identify up sell and cross sell opportunities within their customer base. Implementing a referral program for loyal customers has already started generating solid referrals to help owners expand their customer base.

Survey Advantage and PrintSmith worked in partnership to create the necessary reports and survey process to streamline the customer feedback process. By leveraging Report Writer, all AlphaGraphics locations can now benefit from leveraging customer information within PrintSmith to stay connected with customers continuously.

This program complements the selling and customer service efforts by giving customers another way to stay connected with their printer.

The Survey Advantage Program starts at $49/month with a one time $100 start-up fee to ensure the survey questions, process, and reports are tailored to the printer’s business. There are no long term commitments, cancel anytime, with a 100% guarantee. We know we need to perform each month to earn your business. See on-demand demo.

Any printer shipping to at least 60 unique customers a month would benefit from this program where typically 20 to 30% response rates are achieved continuously with the proven database de-duping and filtering technology developed by Survey Advantage to maintain a positive survey taking experience for repeat buyers. View several printer case studies, testimonials, and program details.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Michael Casey, Survey Advantage
401-560-0311 ext 103 mcasey@surveyadvantage.com

Middleboro, MA– June 21, 2010 – Enterprise Print Management Solutions(EPMS), announced today a newly developed customer survey process with Survey Advantage , a service provider offering customer loyalty and lead generation programs. Enterprise Print Management Solutions offers a full suite of estimating and production software modules for the commercial printing industry and is considered one of the premiere vendors of print MIS in North America. Now EPMS users have two ways to administer an early warning and alert system to preserve recurring revenues. In addition, the program identifies sales leads within each account and generates referrals. EPMS has developed a Survey Advantage report utility to reduce the survey administration time to less than three minutes a month.

“Our customers now have an effective way to leverage customer information to drive sales and preserve revenue.” said Craig Andersen, Chief Operating Officer of EPMS. “We are excited about the idea of offering our customers this new option which collapses the administration time to 3 minutes a month while offering a more robust fully managed solution. The nice part is that this approach enabled us to cut the price to our customers in half. ”

“The EPMS team responded well to customer needs by standardizing and streamlining the report generation process. We can now monitor and drive the process from our side.” noted Michael Casey, President of Survey Advantage. Survey Advantage’s CustomerPulse™ service enables printers to keep a “thumb on the pulse” of each print buyer.

This new utility automates the time-consuming and tedious tasks associated with maintaining an ongoing customer feedback and reporting process. Starting at $49/month this low cost, fully managed service gives printers another way to keep lines of communication open.

To view a recorded demonstration of EPMS CustomerPulse visit CustomerPulse Demo or contact Michael Casey at 401-560-0311 ext 103 or mcasey@surveyadvantage.com .

About Enterprise Print Management Solutions

Founded in 1988, we have continually evaluated industry changes and issues, and have rewritten and updated our EPMS product lines to reflect the changing times and technical innovations embraced by our industry. Since our inception, we have been providing effective solutions to problems that printing companies of all sizes and types face in their daily businesses. The strength of commitment to product development is evident in the depth and scope of our integrated product suites and e-commerce solutions, in use worldwide by over 1,000 printing companies.

About Survey Advantage

Survey Advantage is the leading provider of customer research, customer retention, and lead generation programs for the graphic communications industry. CustomerPulse™ and MarketPulse™ were designed in partnership with the industry to improve productivity by helping operations manage their customer relations and overall operational effectiveness. Additional information may be obtained by visiting www.surveyadvantage.com/printers, emailing info@surveyadvantage.com, or calling 401-560-0311.

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Michael Casey, Survey Advantage
401-560-0311 ext 103
mcasey@surveyadvantage.com

Printers Software™ Announces Partnership with Survey Advantage™ to Help Printers Preserve Revenue and Generate Leads

Sarasota, FL– June 10, 2010 – Printers Software Inc.(PSI), announced today a partnership with Survey Advantage, a service provider offering low cost customer loyalty and lead generation programs. Printers Software offers a full suite of estimating and production software modules for the commercial printing industry and is considered one of the premiere Print MIS vendors in North America. Now Printers Software users have an early warning and alert system to preserve recurring revenue if customer loyalty is slipping. In addition, the program identifies sales leads within each account generating referrals. Printers Software has developed the necessary functionality so users may use the industry leading CustomerPulse™ program offered through Survey Advantage.

“Our customers now have a way to effectively leverage customer information to drive sales and preserve revenue, two areas on the minds of every printing executive today.” said Nick Grieco, Vice President of Printers Software. “We are excited to partner with an industry leader like Survey Advantage, whose full service approach helps increase the effectiveness of client management for our users.”

“Printers Software did an excellent job streamlining the solution. The whole process takes users less than 5 minutes a month to administer. It doesn’t get any easier than that.” noted Michael Casey, President of Survey Advantage. Survey Advantage enables printers to keep a “thumb on the pulse” of each print buyer. The partnership with Printers Software streamlines the entire customer feedback process.

CustomerPulse™ automates the time-consuming and tedious tasks associated with maintaining an ongoing customer feedback and reporting process. Starting at $49/month this low cost, fully managed service gives printers another way to keep lines of communication open.

To view a recorded demonstration of Printers Software CustomerPulse select demo or contact Michael Casey at 401-560-0311 ext 103 or mcasey@surveyadvantage.com.

About Printers Software

Since 1979, Printers Software Inc. has empowered leading printers to maximize profits through easy-to-use, proven solutions and world class support. They are the first and most experienced company to provide software systems for printing management. Presidio™ is the latest version of our award winning, fully integrated system that improves efficiency, reduces costs and increases profits.

Their Estimating, Job Ticket, Job Control, Data Collection, Inventory, Accounting, and eCommerce applications are among the most widely used by commercial and in-plant firms of all sizes. They are a recipient of the coveted NAPL Industry Award.

About Survey Advantage

Survey Advantage is the leading provider of customer research, customer retention, and lead generation programs for the graphic communications industry. CustomerPulse™ and MarketPulse™ were designed in partnership with the industry to improve productivity by helping operations manage their customer relations and overall operational effectiveness. Additional information may be obtained at www.surveyadvantage.com/printers, emailing info@surveyadvantage.com, or calling 401-560-0311.

Trust, Credibility, and Rapport. Customers don’t care if you have the best technology, have the best location, or hang out with movie stars. You won’t survive if your foundation is weak. If a customer catches you lying just once they question everything you say in the future. If your advice is out of date, they ask your competitor. If you just don’t quite gel with them and talk their language, they rather not spend time with you. Establish trust, credibility, and rapport to create your network of great customers.

Over the past two weeks while attending the MFSA(Mail & Fulfillment Services Association) and IPMA(In –Plant Printing & Mailing) Annual Conferences I noticed sessions were focused more on customer relations and less on technology. Keynote speaker, John Foley, President of InterlinkOne, presented at the MFSA Conference in Charleston, SC and stressed the importance of social networking to share knowledge, help others, and stay connected. John is successful because he lives by the three foundational principles of trust, credibility, and rapport. Next stop was IPMA’s annual conference in Albuquerque, NM where the keynote, Bill Farquaharson, President of Aspire, explained why customer loyalty isn’t dead, unless you do it to yourself. He stressed the importance of you showing customers how much YOU care. Show them the love!

Yes, you are only as good as their last experience with you, but build up an “emotional bank account” or reserve with your customers. You make a deposit in this emotional bank account every time you go the extra mile, give great advice, connect with a customer in special ways, or whenever they feel unique and special. You withdraw from your account every time you stretch the truth, miss commitments, give poor advice, have awkward communications, or ask them to jump through hoops.

Trust:
Trust involves your honesty and integrity. Trust takes much time to earn and little time to lose. Just ask Tiger Woods. Compare Tiger Woods to John Wooden. Both sports super stars, yet in my opinion, complete opposites. Today while flying back from IPMA I am reading all the John Wooden testimonials and stories in USA Today. During his 99 years with us he touched so many lives in special ways. Tiger is incredible to watch on the course, but John Wooden had such integrity and honor. What a remarkable person. What an emotional bank account he established with so many! What are you doing to build trust? Are you ALWAYS honest with your customers and employees, leading by example under ALL instances, both personal and in business. Trust goes a long way toward building that emotional bank account. Sounds simple, yet how many of us are challenged to remain trustworthy when under stress to perform? Don’t waiver on this core principle. Stay strong!
How can you build trust?
* If you mess up, claim it.
* Always explain facts and don’t stretch it
* Respect confidentiality under all conditions
* Don’t gossip or others will wonder if you will gossip about them

Credibility:
Credibility is a proficiency issue or how good you are. This involves being proficient at your craft, is measured through performance, and expressed by the company you keep. Pick your friends wisely and do things right. Know your customer’s business or industry to help add credibility and be more helpful. Roll out services and products only after you perfect them or have piloted first. Tell the guinea pigs that they are just that. Show honesty and set expectations upfront. Credibility is conveyed to customers by offering great advice, and delivering quality products and service. How can you drive credibility with your customers?
* Continue to learn. Never stop.
* Invest in education and show them what you are doing.
* Hang out with people who are credible
* Offer advice in areas you are proficient.
* Get to know your customer’s business and internal processes

Rapport:
This is extremely challenging and what is called the soft stuff. You want customers to like you and want to be around you. Most know what trustworthiness is and how to be credible, but rapport building doesn’t come natural to most. Rapport is how you connect with your customers and communicate on their wave length. Style flexing is changing your communication style to meet the needs of each customer. Not easy. Don’t show sensitivity toward George Steinbrenner when the Yankees are losing, or don’t get right down to business with Woody Allen. What can you do to build rapport with customers?
* Get good at style flexing. Practice.
* Get good at reading people and adjusting your communication style
* Change your mindset from one of “customers just need to get to know me better” to “I need to know how my customer is wired to be effective”.
* If you can’t style flex, then pick customers who appreciate your one size fits all
mentality.
* Don’t expect customers to change their communication style to fit yours.
* Get psyched about your customer’s business and get personal.

In summary, deliberately watch your emotional bank account with customers. You must earn their trust, prove you know your stuff, and be someone they connect with. Get all three in line and everything else falls into place. Don’t forget the best way to monitor these foundational principles is to ask customers through an effective, ongoing survey process.

Jamestown, Rhode Island – Survey Advantage, a leading provider of customer loyalty and market research services, will be offering two educational sessions at the upcoming Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association’s Annual Conference being held June 2-5, 2010 in Charleston, SC. The session, “Leveraging Customer Feedback” will highlight how mailing and fulfillment operations are preserving ongoing revenue and identifying opportunities to sell more to existing customers. Survey Advantage president, Michael Casey, will be delivering the session on Thursday morning and Friday afternoon. Michael will discuss how mail and fulfillment operations are differentiating themselves from their competitors and how these businesses are implementing strategies with their customers to drive revenue. Three different customer feedback approaches will be discussed.
Survey Advantage will be exhibiting the latest mail and fulfillment programs including MarketPulse and CustomerPulse at booth # 7.
More information on the annual conference: MFSA Conference:
For more information on Survey Advantage: Mail & Fulfillment Programs

You may survey customers regularly, but how frequently do you analyze the results? Even more importantly, have you implemented any changes based on the feedback?

Bottom line is that you must take action on the results or don’t bother surveying. Surveying should be conducted for process improvement and expansion. It shouldn’t be to get that ISO auditor out your door and do it just to say you do something! Surveying is not an event, but an ongoing process.” Below are the top 5 questions we are asked when printers are setting up a print buyer feedback process.

Should I survey customers with every print order?

For repeat buyers we suggest surveying no more than every 90 days. If surveyed too often, regular repeat buyers will become annoyed and you will drive down loyalty. Also, in your email message state something like “You won’t get this survey more often than every 90 days if you buy from us regularly.” Tell customers upfront so they won’t assume the survey process is going to turn into a spam issue. If you are correctly managing the frequency of surveys to repeat buyers, you can anticipate a 20% to 35% response rate on a continuous basis. Let the feedback flow and let customers know that the survey is just another way to stay connected and responsive.

How many questions should I ask?

Keep the survey to less than 30 seconds (5-7 questions maximum). State In the email invitation that it will take less than a minute of their time and stick to that promise. Don’t say that it will take 30 seconds and then ask 30 questions. You may want to change the questions regularly and the invitation email to keep it fresh and inviting.

When considering the number of questions, be aware that there are two types of surveys. A strategic survey helps to map out necessary investments during the upcoming year. Customers appreciate this type of survey. If it’s positioned correctly and you promise to share the results with them, they will give you 5 minutes and answer around 20 questions. The second type of survey is the post-job survey or the 90-day pulse type survey to keep connected in an ongoing fashion. We suggest doing both because one is strategic and one tactical, but if budget and time is a constraint, go for the tactical survey asking customers for 1 minute to answer 5 or 6 questions and keep communication open all the time.

If I can only ask one question, what should it be?

“How likely are you to recommend us to colleagues and friends?” This is the ultimate question and there is an entire book dedicated to this question called “The Ultimate Question.”

What are the biggest mistakes I should avoid when surveying customers?

1. Waiting too long between surveys. I spoke to a printer last week that hadn’t surveyed customers in 10 years. He got good results, but when I asked why he waited 10 years he said it took too much time. Using today’s technology, surveying should not be that time consuming. Just read Lori Fuller’s case study from University of Nebraska at www.surveyadvantage.com/printers
2. Making the survey too long.
3. Making the process too complicated so it isn’t done continuously.
4. Assigning the wrong person to manage the process. I have seen “gaming” of the system where an internal person doesn’t survey certain customers because they don’t want to hear complaints. That’s a bad reason not to survey. You need to hear from everyone.
5. Not continually monitoring the process. If management doesn’t watch the process and the person assigned looks at surveying as an optional task, it might not get done regularly. Or it may stop and management never realizes that it has stopped. Gathering and monitoring customer feedback starts at the top and must be part of the culture of the operation — not just another task thrown out there.

Once the information is gathered, what should I do?

The best, most successful printers contact every customer who responds to the survey. That is right, every one. There is a story behind every survey even the glowing ones. Thanking those customers with great comments shows you listened and appreciate their comments. If you get a referral call, thank them so you get more referrals. Thankfulness breeds more good work. Those who are neutral about the experience should be asked how you can change to get top marks. Comments that are positive should be acknowledged and once again respondents should be thanked for their time and candidness. Negative survey results are typically the ones that gain the most attention, but there is usually more opportunity to sell to those customers who are happy and will share with you other services that they buy elsewhere or provide a referral. Remember contacting respondents builds loyalty, and they are more likely to fill out the survey once again later in the year.

The best, most successful printers also share the glowing comments with their teams to build moral. Post it on the lunchroom bulletin board. Managers can tell an employee that their efforts are appreciated, but it means so much more to get it from the customer directly. Approximately 95% of survey comments are positive. Don’t bury them in the customer feedback database. Share them. In addition, the best printers put questions on the survey that probe for other selling opportunities. Keep the survey to around 5 questions, but build one question in to learn what services they are buying elsewhere or to ask for a referral.

Don’t just look at surveying as a reactive, passive process. It can be a selling process as well.
Take the compiled information and do something with it. Just today I spoke with a printer who had 30% of his customers share what they bought elsewhere. Sadly, he hadn’t followed up on any of them because he was so busy in production. He did say over the next few months he is going to make a conscious effort to pursue those leads to expand client share. The good news was that he followed up on every referral and closed two new accounts.

Another great strategy is to print out the survey results weekly and review them with your team. Discuss what customers are saying and together come up with a game plan. One printer does an annual survey and then goes through all the nearly 300 responses, does his own SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats), and delegates at the account level and strategic execution level. This printer has done this for 4 years now and has had tremendous success even in a weak Michigan economy.

If sending out a survey is the first and last step, you are dropping the ball at the most important time. Put the information to work for your business. If conducted properly, surveys are indispensable tools for growing your business, enhancing performance and making informed decisions about the allocation of resources.
For more information, read printer case studies at http://www.surveyadvantage.com/printers

Jamestown, Rhode Island – Survey Advantage, a leading provider of customer loyalty and market research services, will be presenting new ways of preserving and expanding revenue to members of Printing Industries New England ( PINE). At the PINE Vendor Showcase – Hilton Garden Inn, Waltham, MA, Michael Casey, Survey Advantage’s president, will be speaking during the educational sessions, April 8th. The event is dedicated to helping PINE members grow their businesses. Michael Casey’s talk “How to keep customers coming back,” will offer advice on how to leverage technology and processes to improve revenue preservation strategies and expand business with existing accounts.

“We are excited to be invited to speak,” said Casey. “PINE is the premiere association serving the New England Graphic Communication industry and provides support to help members be more successful. The Vendor Forum and educational sessions help support that mission.”

Survey Advantage will be exhibiting at the show along with Heidelberg, Xerox, and FedEx. The company will showcase two graphic communications services, CustomerPulse™ and MarketPulse™, two turnkey services making it possible to know when customers are interested in other services, loyalty is slipping, and customer needs are changing. Survey Advantage has helped hundreds of graphics communication businesses over the past six years.

For more information on these services or view printer case studies visit www.surveyadvantage.com/printers

Today Printer’s Plus released a second way to support the Survey Advantage CustomerPulse program.  Besides launching directly from Printer’s Plus, printers now have the option to let Survey Advantage manage the process for them.  Please view the new process by reading the recent document released by Printer’s Plus. Printer’s Plus Release