Survey Advantage Press

Jamestown, RI– September 9, 2009 – Survey Advantage Inc, announced today a partnership with printLEADER, the developer of commercial printer MIS solutions. printLEADER users now have the ability to generate referrals, identify areas to expand client share, and preserve recurring revenues through continuous customer feedback and reporting. By developing the necessary functionality printLEADER has enabled customers to implement the Survey Advantage Printer CustomerPulse™ program. On-line reports are delivered daily with sales leads, performance indicators, and printer customer loyalty benchmarks.

Survey Advantage’s services enables printers to keep a “thumb on the pulse” of each print buyer, and alert management when a print buyer is dissatisfied, is open to discussing other opportunities, or shares a referral. printLEADER offers a full suite of integrated print MIS modules for the commercial printing industry and is considered one of the premiere vendors of print MIS in North America. Survey Advantage focuses on the printing industry and their products give printers and graphics communications businesses a complete customer feedback process. CustomerPulse™ streamlines the entire process.

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At this year’s convention Survey Advantage will highlight two new programs;  CustomerPulse for Printer’s Plan 2010 and CustomerPulse for PrintSmith.  Survey Advantage now works closely with both MIS providers to help franchisee owners survey customers after print jobs are completed.  Survey Advantage has worked closely with franchisee owners of all Allegra Network’s the brands; Signs Now, Allegra Print & Imaging, American Speedy, and Insty Prints, offering  owners customer loyalty, lead generation, revenue retention programs that are affordable for the small business owner.  

Survey Advantage invites all attendees to visit us in booth 525  for a demo.

Yesterday I was speaking with the director of a state marine industry association who said something very profound.  He said that many have the wrong thought process because they are alarmed dealers are hurting and going out of business.  If they go out of business, they wrongly believe there will be less boaters. 

He went on to say that service is what keeps people in boating, not having access to buying boats.  Most boats are used anyway and what makes people leave boating is waiting too long for the boatyard to fix the boat or not knowing what is going on with their boat.  He went on to say that many boatyards don’t comprehend they are in the service business and need to keep customers in the loop when jobs are underway and they need to hit deadlines.  In the northern regions if it takes two weeks to get a boat fixed, that is 2 or 3 weekends out of 16 that they have to use the boat.  On average, a 40 foot boat costs about $5,000 to $10,000 a year just to maintain, get dockage, winterize, launch, insurance, etc.   Losing two weeks can be a reason to just get out of boating and start camping, golfing, or get into some other past time or hobby. 

So a lot rests on the boatyard’s ability to turn jobs quickly and effectively or the boating industry will suffer from people getting out of boating.  That is the real issue, not selling more new boats.

Jamestown, RI– June 19, 2009 – Survey Advantage Inc, announced today a partnership with Technique Group, the developer of commercial printer MIS solutions. Technique users now have the ability to generate referrals, identify areas to expand client share, and preserve recurring revenues through continuous customer feedback and reporting. By developing the necessary tools Technique has enabled customers to work closely with Survey Advantage to implement the CustomerPulse™ program. On-line reports are delivered daily to deliver leads, monitor performance over time, and benchmark with the industry.

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To learn about and obtain copies of the AMI Boater Satisfaction Benchmark report you may visit https://www.marinaassociation.org/ami-publications.php. The study benchmarks facility satisfaction, customer service satisfaction, customer loyalty, and marina services quality.

This weekend a colleague asked a myself and a few fellow business owners if our customers were asking for discounts after work was complete. His customers were telling him they could pay him immediately if he took another 20% off the bill or he would need to wait for payment. This is for work he already had done!! With the recession he added that his closure rates on bids went from 50% to under 10% and he was desperate. He is in a competitive, commodity market, but something isn’t right here. He is taking the 20% off the bills and discounting, but his business is not doing well. You could see the worry on his face and I am sure the customers are as well.

I suggest if customers are asking for discounts that you change the scope and give options. Give three different scopes of work with three different price points, but then hold firm on the work being done. You must do this to stay healthy and your customers should respect this. People love options and the customer will understand that with options there are varying levels of product.

There are typically three things to look at with any project scope; price, timeframe, and quality. Keep to these three sides of the triangle when bidding and discussing jobs with customers.

Before finding yourself in an unprofitable situation, the best businesses find ways to differentiate themselves and offer unique and special services and products. Customers will be happy and your business will remain healthy.

Last month Allegra Networks, a 400 plus unit franchisor, published an article in their quarterly franchise magazine, Connections, sharing lessons learned from around the network. The article explains how Eileen Rogers and Ted Raymond, owners of the Allegra franchise in Scottsdale, AZ, focused the business on multi-channel marketing, including variable data printing and personalized URLS, while making the shift to a marketing services provider. In addition, Eileen and Ted explain how customer feedback became part of their strategy.
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Jamestown, RI, March 23, 2009 – As part of its commitment to help printers develop profitable, highly responsive, customer-focused organizations, Survey Advantage ( www.surveyadvantage.com), a customer research and loyalty firm, has released a new report for all CustomerPulse™ customers. The report tracks customer loyalty and a referral rating continuously, and benchmarks real-time with other printers.

“It is great that the different printing industry MIS systems are incorporating CustomerPulse™ into their customer management processes. This enables printers to select jobs and contacts to send a survey in just five minutes a week. With low administration time the printer can now get the same customer intelligence the hospitality industry has been collecting for years. Now any size printer can obtain feedback after jobs are shipped helping them gauge loyalty, promote referral programs, and drive improvements.” said Michael Casey, president of Survey Advantage.

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Marine service providers are encouraged to compare how they are meeting the needs of boaters with others in the industry.

Jamestown, RI, March 6, 2009 – As part of its commitment to help marine service providers develop profitable, highly responsive, customer-focused organizations, Survey Advantage (www.surveyadvantage.com), a customer research and loyalty firm, has released their 2008 benchmarks for marinas and boatyards. This benchmark report was designed in cooperation with AMI and ABBRA, the two major associations serving the marine services industry. The report tracks four key areas: facility quality, marine service quality, customer service, and boater loyalty.

“We hope this benchmark will help marine service providers understand their competitive position in the market and set goals for expansion and improvement. Marine service providers now have the same customer intelligence the hospitality industry has been collecting for years. Any size operation can obtain feedback after jobs, transient stays, or from seasonal and annual customers to drive improvements and referrals.” said Michael Casey, president of Survey Advantage.

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Pictured from left, Joe Gardner, Michael Casey,
and Peter Gardner at Curry Printing

Four NAQP members were awarded top honors at the NAQP Owners Conference, held in Chicago, Illinois. The Survey Advantage NAQP awards recognize printers who offer the highest levels of service quality, product quality, customer loyalty, and client share as measured by clients and print buyers. The awards focus on how customer’s rate these four aspects of the customer relationship.

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