AlphaGraphics owners from Texas, Illinois, Georgia, and across the country shared how they are leveraging feedback to drive customer loyalty, retain business, and generate sales leads. Setting up and managing an ongoing customer feedback process is now easy and effective with this new, trial tested, service. Last week an email was sent to owners asking for thirty seconds to answer the question, “How are you using customer feedback to coach your team, drive performance, and engage your customers?” I hope you appreciate the unedited, in-the-trenches, e-mail responses shared by these owners.

Owners Share Process and Benefits

Sherry Perry, Dallas TX
“As I receive each reply to a survey, I respond to the client, thanking them for taking the time to complete the survey. If they’ve responded with any feedback other than checking the appropriate buttons, then I’ll address that also. In the survey we’ve listed other products and services we offer that they may or may not purchase from us. In the response email I ask for an appointment to meet and discuss these areas with them. I just met with a client today who did not know we did anything other than print, and I am now pricing marketing items for her because of the survey. I doubt that I would have had the opportunity to discuss as many other products and services with her without the survey.

I share with my staff both the positive and negative feedback from customers. This is a good way to recognize employees for a job well done when a customer compliments them. When there is anything negative, we address it immediately inside the center and with the customer in hopes of rectifying the situation and keeping them as a customer. Without the survey responses, I may not know of customer issues. I think this is a valuable service to obtain customer feedback as well as letting customers know of other products/services, and getting the opportunity to discuss these options with them. Hope this helps!”

Sherry received the highest customer satisfaction scores of any AlphaGraphics location in Q4, 2010 with a score of 89% selecting “Very Likely” to recommend to colleagues and friends when taking the survey.

Steve Adams, Mesa AZ
“I just implemented the surveys for my other 2 centers this month after trying it out in my Mesa center for the last 5 months. We are very happy with the results. It allows us to identify any customer service problems we may be encountering quickly and it gives us a chance to have a discussion with our customers about additional work we can perform for them. My salespeople and managers love this service. I really do think that all AlphaGraphics centers should use this or a similar service.”

Matt Haar, Kansas City MO
“Here’s my 30 seconds— It’s a cost effective way to:
• Stay in touch with customers.
• Follow-up without being obtrusive
• Shows we care
• Provides opportunity to cross sell products.
As far as how we use it.
• We share all responses with our staff in our daily meetings-both positive and negative.
• Gives staff a better understanding of how our customers perceive us which I think is KEY.
• We assume we always know what customers think, but we don’t really.
Hope that helps-Matt”

Lynn Chatwin, Denton, TX
“Perhaps the biggest benefit to us has been the feedback I can give to my staff, both collectively and individually. I generally review results of the survey with the staff in our daily Work in Process(WIP) meeting. When an individual survey response praises an employee, I frequently will simply share that with the employee. We did have one response praising our shop dog, Hank. I did not review it with him as he would have expected a dog treat. We have been fortunate that there has been very little negative feedback which required a change on our part. The negative responses do allow us to give proper feedback and follow up to our customers. Overall, we have achieved outstanding results in our customer satisfaction. This is a confirmation to us that our business and customer service policies are sound. Regards, Lynn Chatwin.”

Lynn received the highest customer satisfaction scores of any AlphaGraphics location in Q3, 2010 with a score of 91% selecting “Very Likely” to recommend to colleagues and friends.

Franchise owners to learn how to preserve recurring revenues, maintain customer loyalty and generate more sales in each account.

The presentation by Michael Casey, President of Survey Advantage, is part of the annual regional meeting to be held March 4th and 5th in Greenville, SC. The event is focused on helping Allegra Print & Imaging owners grow their businesses. Michael Casey’s talk will offer advice on how to leverage technologies such as Printer’s Plan™ and EFI Printsmith™ software to improve revenue preservation strategies and expand business with existing accounts.

“We were excited with the invitation,” said Casey. “Allegra and Survey Advantage have been strategic partners for over five years helping their franchise owners drive customer loyalty and expand revenues. What sets Allegra apart is their dedication to supporting their owners in the field through Allegra University programs.”
Survey Advantage will showcase two graphic communications services, CustomerPulse™ and MarketPulse™, which are turnkey services focused on improving print buyer awareness of all services offered, warning the printer when loyalty is slipping, and identifying changes in customer needs. 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

The internet has changed the game when it comes to voicing your opinion. Everyone has free reign to get on a blog or forum, post a complaint on one of the thousands of regional and national complaint sites, and destroy your reputation. If you don’t manage your reputation online, you may wake up with a brutal comment on top of search results when typing your name in the search bar. Ever go to one of the complaint sites and type in industry keyword and select your town or city? Many businesses have dozens of reviews. I typed in a business name into Google and links to three complaints were in the first ten listings for this company. They made the first page. Not very flattering.

I recently stumbled onto a white paper published by Positivesearches.com that highlights several practical ways to protect your brand and company from malicious content. Many potential customers, investors, and employees will do an online background check before working with you, and while a best practice is to monitor performance and constantly deliver beyond customer expectations., things happen and there are those out there out to get you. Be prepared.

The problem with complaint sites is that complaints are never removed. Take a look at the mission of RipoffReport.com, one of the top complaint sites with over 610,000 reports. They state “Some people have criticized this policy as being unfair, but we strongly feel this policy is essential, fair, and far better than the alternative – rampant censorship.” They have been sued by Fortune 500 in both state and federal courts and ripoffreport.com has won 20 of 21 times. You probably should consider another way to combat ballot stuffing or removing bogus content.

Protecting yourself involves posting positive content to drive down any negativity or garbage content when searching your company. Try searching your company and see what you come up with. It is amazing how many businesses have a .com business listing service site such as Manta.com on top of the first page search results. Here are a few things you may want to consider to drive up positive results when people are learning about you on the web. The goal is to have positive information on the first page of search results.

• Google Alerts tells you of new results for your keywords.
• Facebook to increase your ranking using both Fan Pages and Groups
• YouTube since video gets ranked higher for SEO
• Twitter because shortly this is going to become visible as Google implements real time search
• LinkedIn is great for controlling your image and they rank high on search engines
• Flikr.com for the Yahoo community and great for images and video
• Start a blog to drive up ranking and your voice on the internet
• Join Yelp! to place your own reviews and become part of the community
• Google “Free Press Release Distribution” to get press releases out.
• Google Maps to put you on the top of the search criteria
• Post Job listings since they get high ranking as well especially on Google searches

You don’t need to do all of these, but most are free. Even doing a few and sticking to it will help keep positive things out in front on the internet.

By leveraging PrintSmith’s powerful Report Writer module and Survey Advantage’s proven print buyer feedback process, the two have created a customized solution to make managing the customer feedback process painless and effective. Larry Furlong, owner of Alphagraphics-Phoenix, AZ, had this to say about the new service. “Survey Advantage’s team of experts do all the work identifying customer problems early, helping us maintain top notch customer service. Their service is easier and more effective than using off-the-shelf survey software or postcards. We are also closing new business from the leads they generate. At $49/month it delivers solid ROI.”

A webinar will be held on February 21st, March 2nd, and March 9th from 12:00 PM to 12:30PM Eastern Daylight Time explaining how printers are getting a solid ROI from the service, examples of how printers are using customer feedback, and how the service works.

This weekend I was asked to take a survey after spending thousands of dollars on replacement windows. It was a big surprise to feel intimidated giving feedback.

Background:
On December 3, 2010 I placed an order for replacement windows with one of the big two home improvement centers (Lowes, Home Depot). I don’t want to throw stones here so will just leave it at that. The sales reps were great and overall I am happy, but they could have done a few things much better. Here are the strengths and weaknesses of this transaction through the eyes of the consumer.

Strengths:
* The sales rep who came out to meet.
* The quality of workmanship while installing.
* Availability when I called the center for help.

Weaknesses:
* Inconsistency in information flow.
* Timeliness of information and installing. The windows finally went in January 29th, 2011
* Their survey process was intimidating and left a sour taste in my mouth.

Let’s focus on the way they tried to gather candid feedback. It is great that they had a process, but clearly the fox is watching the hen house here. Ever buy a car at a dealership and hear the plea for a top rating so they get their bonus? Well, that happened here.

First Interaction for feedback.

The installation person pulls out a survey form at the end of the installation, hands it to me, and asks 5 Yes/No questions I could not answer until I went around to each window. That would take 30 minutes to check to make sure I could answer the question. The good part was that it forced me to do this. Then the 240 lber. looked me in the eye and asked the dreaded question “You are going to get a call in a few days from the local store asking you to rate me. Is there anything I could have done that would stop you from giving me the highest rating of 7 when they call you? Then corporate will call you in two weeks. Is there anything holding you back from giving me a 7 at that point as well?” I could not blame him for asking, but boy was that uncomfortable. Here is why.

* He had been in the house for the full day and I had a rapport with him now.
* He explained the fact that these surveys are critical to his contractor status with them.
* My first thought was “Yes, I do have a problem and here is why.”
* I was told the windows came in weeks ago and you were suppose to call me.

*The center was surprised you did not call me when I finally called after 6 weeks.

* You were suppose to be here Friday, called me that day to say you weren’t coming.

* You made me change my Saturday schedule to stay home another day for you.

*This job took 30 days longer and you knew this was a rental property that is holding up the tenant.

But, instead I just smiled at the 240 lber. and said “NO”. We are all set.

Second Interaction for Feedback:

On Monday I listened to a voicemail message on my cell phone from the center that came in Saturday asking if he showed up and if I was all set. That was odd since I thought they would know. Then I noticed another message from the person’s manager calling Monday morning with the following message ” Hi, this is Joe, I noticed Sally called you a couple times this weekend for feedback and you haven’t responded. This is the last time we will call and assume everything is OK”. I only got one call so thought this was very strange so I called Sally. Sally explained how important these surveys are and after I explained how uncomfortable I was with the way the survey went with the installer she just explained how important it was and that is the way it goes. She only asked me one question about being satisfied and was done, but did explain that corporate may call in a couple weeks and to please give a 7 rating. Again, a plea for them to save their job. Frankly, this is not a process improvement initiative as much as a way for corporate America to keep tabs on the troops as a top down watchdog. Something seemed broken.

Lessons learned:
1) Make surveying a comfortable safe environment for the consumer or buyer of the service.
2) Make the process easy to give feedback and try to pull the human element out of the equation.
3) Don’t get defensive when getting feedback and look at all feedback as a gift.
4) Be careful not to bonus employees in an unnatural way with your process or you will not get meaningful feedback.

I wonder if I will get that corporate call in a couple weeks. Wonder how that will go.

How many customer e-mail addresses do you have in your database? Where do you keep your customer data such as e-mail, phone and mailing address? How do you keep your customer database clean so you can market effectively to your clients? It is amazing how many businesses I work with who lack a good grasp of their customer database. It is time to manage your database, to market effectively. You need to do better if you are going to survive and connect with your customers in an efficient and effective manner, or if you are going to keep your name in front with your customers. It is time to make this a priority.

Recently I had the opportunity to work with five business owners who are part of an executive group. Basically they get together every six months to help each other with strategic planning. The group decided to survey customers to find out how they were doing, benchmark performance with each other and probe into several marketing areas. The goal was to use the data as they plan for 2011. Online surveying is a great way to get customer e-mail databases. It is shocking how many businesses still don’t put a priority on managing e-mail addresses, but actively manage phone numbers and mailing addresses. I know our phones don’t ring like they used to, but e-mail volume has more than made up for that. We all get a continuous flow of e-mails from clients and prospects. Welcome to the Internet Age.

The basic requirement to any e-marketing or e-surveying process or project is to export your customer database out of your production, invoicing, or customer relationship management system. The one place with all customer data may vary by industry, but the key decision markers are typically in one of these three areas.

Enter the buyer’s e-mail address into the system when entering an order. It is amazing how many businesses don’t do this, instead burying customers’ e-mail addresses in Outlook, ACT! or some other disconnected system. How do you leverage the customer information if the data is fragmented and on a laptop or in an individual’s e-mail address book? You must have a central place, and it all begins with order or transaction entry. Granted, there are other decision makers you want to track, but many times, people responsible for the next order are included when entering the order or transaction.

Now, back to the peer group project. When starting this project, all the businesses felt it would be easy to get their customer list. After four weeks of hard work they finally got their lists together. It was painful and a wake up call for some of these businesses. One business got the list to us right away, and it was very clean as they already had a well greased process with discipline. Another business had over 30% of their customer database with bad e-mail addresses and this was a customer list! The great thing about e-mailing surveys is you get feedback on the undelivered e-mails and don’t need to wait for the Post Office to send you the report and undelivered pieces. It is immediate and you also learn why the e-mail was not delivered so you can correct it or investigate. The best-run businesses are getting under 10%, and 5% is stellar. How do they do this?

Here are five tips:

1. Start at order or transaction entry. All the MIS systems have a field for e-mail address. Many businesses are not entering anything into this field because, with most systems, the team doesn’t e-mail out of the system as with Outlook. There appears to be no reason to enter this information. Educate your team on why e-mails must be entered with orders. Over a 30-day period you will be thrilled at how many e-mails you will have. Then start using the information. Start now.

2. Educate your team on the value of entering e-mail addresses into the system. Give them the big picture. Many businesses are entering the Accounts Payable people, and this is important. The buyer’s e-mail address is just as critical. The best way to help sales teams be more effective and efficient is to leverage e-mail to send marketing messages and complement what they are doing face-to-face or over the phone. You must work as a team and have corporate messaging going out to help sales people. They can’t be everywhere, all the time, but a focused e-mail campaign or project feedback survey can really help them retain customers and expand opportunities. Have a team meeting.

3. Assign someone to keep the database clean. E-mail management is different than phone or mailing address management. Most people have multiple e-mail addresses, move around a lot and change e-mails. E-surveying and e-marketing services inform you if someone is not getting e-mail. You need to know this and call the customer to find out what is happening, or delete them from the system. Someone needs to police this and manage a process to keep on top of it. Set 10% as your goal for bad e-mail addresses and you will be in good shape. 5% would be even better.

4. Have an e-mail management and e-communication strategy with discipline. Engage everyone in your business about the strategic importance of managing e-mails in one central place. I prefer the MIS system or tech support system, as that is where the orders and transactions are flowing, and I know it is easier to earn more business from existing customers than to chase prospects. There are two different messages going out depending on whether they are prospects or customers. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems sometimes integrate with the MIS, but if they don’t, set up a system to de-dupe or filter out customers so you don’t over communicate.

5. Make it a priority. Too often I hear that this is something we are going to get to, but then it never happens or it takes over a year to get done. Starting with order entry can quickly get data flowing into a system so you can leverage it in 30 days. It should not be a major project, but set up baby steps to get there over time. Start small. Maybe for the first month you have 30 e-mails in the system. Then you can promote something to those contacts, know they are good e-mails and know they are customers. Don’t procrastinate.

Good luck with your customer base hygiene efforts as you push ahead in 2011.

A few minutes ago I called for help. Boy is Frank good. And this business, American Stairway, good. They have been around since 1909 and now I know why. I have one of their retractable ladders in my garage and the spring assembly let go and needed replacing.

Anyway, I looked at the bottom of this 20 year old ladder and noticed a caution sign with 11 tips on installing and maintaining, complete with diagrams and pictures. All on a well designed 5 by 6 inch red sticker. Someone at this business took the time to think like a customer. Then I saw their phone number in big font. I guess I could have gone on the internet, but felt like calling this morning. I had a few questions and felt like speaking to someone. OK, I am old school sometimes.

I called at 8:05AM and the simple front menu directed me to customer service. One ring later I had Frank. He was such a down to earth person who just wanted to help. Also he knew his stuff.

I explained that I needed a spring assembly, and then he asked some questions and explained why I had the problem in the first place. That was a surprise since I just thought he would either say they don’t sell parts separately or that he would just take the order. Instead he wanted me to know why it broke so I could take care of the spring on the other side and maintain better in the future. You see, you need to oil these every few years. The red sticker said this, but what American reads the directions? Germans, Yes. Americans, No.

Frank said he could send out the assembly right away for $17.50 plus $15 shipping. They took credit cards and in 10 minutes it was done. Perfect.

Why Frank was so good.

1) He did not judge at all and was totally other centered through the entire call.
2) He was humble and just asked the right questions to figure out what I had and what I needed.
3) He was efficient and explained the entire process as he was going.
4) He went the extra mile without me even asking and added those few things that made me feel unique and special and not just another number.
5) He was trustworthy and I felt I was talking to the owner and designer at the company. Maybe I was? Think about your CSRs. In the customer’s eyes they are the CEO.
6) He had credibility with his questions and answers.
7) We got along. I felt we had a rapport.

Don’t underestimate the power of customer service.

In January, 2011 American Printer launched an archives page listing all articles written by Michael Casey, President of Survey Advantage. Articles focus on customer loyalty, customer service, print buyer research papers, and case studies. Feel free to read the couple dozen articles focused on this important subject.

http://americanprinter.com/casey

Calyx™ users may now tap into Survey Advantage’s CustomerPulse™ service to preserve recurring revenues from referral partners plus generate referrals from borrower & listing agents, borrowers, and closing attorneys. Keeping the pulse after each settlement is the only way to ensure customers are thrilled, will come back to the lender, and refer them to others. Survey Advantage and Calyx™ standardized the process enabling Calyx users to offload the customer feedback and lead generation process to Survey Advantage. Prices for this fully managed service start at $69/month. The program pays for itself typically within a month with the quality of customer feedback and the referrals generated. Dean Harrington, CEO of Shamrock Financial, adds “Keeping lines of communication open reinforces loyalty, referrals, and future selling opportunities. The online reporting and real-time alerts help us react quickly and improve performance.”

To watch a short on-demand demonstration or learn more about this Calyx™ program click here or contact Michael Casey at 401-560-0311 ext 103, mcasey@surveyadvantage.com for details.

Loyalty is measured by asking one question: “How likely are you to recommend us to colleagues and friends?” If a customer is not “very likely” to recommend you, then they are not loyal. The best-run printers achieve over an 84 percent rating

Do you really know how loyal your customers are? Or, do you just feel you’re doing great?

Last year, the owner of a printer in Colorado shared how he dodged a bullet saving one of his established large accounts. What surprised him most was that the two of them sat together each month at the local Rotary meeting, but the customer never said anything to him face to face. The customer could not tell him face to face that he was blowing it, and only when the printer owner received a filled out survey did he uncover the issues.

We all have stories in which our loyalty to a supplier slips to the point where we turn elsewhere, and we did not share our dissatisfaction. Many of us would rather just slip into the sunset than invest time in situations where we no longer have skin in the game. We all do it, but it doesn’t have to end that way.

How do you measure loyalty?
Loyalty is measured by asking one question: “How likely are you to recommend us to colleagues and friends?” Let’s first look at a couple competitive industries—life insurance and airlines.

For life insurance companies, customer loyalty is in the low 20 percent range, and for airlines it is worse. But still, State Farm (35 percent) and Southwest Airlines (52 percent) achieve high customer loyalty and, not coincidentally, are more profitable than their peers. Read Fred Riecheld’s best seller—“The Ultimate Question”—to learn how businesses achieve success by measuring customer loyalty and taking action.

Study after study show that customers participating in a survey have the potential to be loyal if complaints are corrected. The entire feedback system reinforces itself, both with the customer and supplier.

The ultimate question should be asked to customers in a safe environment to drive candid feedback. If a customer is not “very likely” to recommend you, then they are not loyal. It’s that simple.

The best-run printers achieve over an 84 percent rating, or 84 percent of their customers are very likely to recommend them. These printers benefit in several ways:

• Customers become an extension of their sales force through positive word of mouth testimonials and referrals.
• Customers will turn to the printer they are most loyal to when searching for new services or projects.
• Loyal customers are quicker to adopt new services the printer rolls out.

The benefits go on and on. It takes long-term thinking to understand the life time value of a customer and how it impacts growth.

How do you know where you fall in the pack?
All this loyalty stuff sounds so basic, but you will be surprised to learn how individual printer performance varies. Let’s try categorizing printers into three buckets. Putting printers in boxes is dangerous, but humor me.

Best of Breed (>84 percent): These printers consistently achieve high scores, feel they still have room to improve, live by the rule “good enough never is,” are paranoid about losing any customer, and strive to preserve their hard-earned reputation. They feel reputation is critical to their success and doing the right thing is in their DNA.

These organizations are ripe for growth, continuous improvement and innovation. You would think they would become complacent, but they keep pushing ahead to preserve their reputation in the market, reinventing themselves when necessary, and investing in their team and infrastructure.

Middle of the Pack (74-84 percent): Most printers are average. That is why my stats teacher said there is a bell curve. Everyone can’t be on top. This group either strives to get to the next level, feels that being in the middle of the loyalty pack is fine because product quality is more important, or they service their top accounts with white glove service while others get second rate service.

Be careful thinking that quality drives loyalty. Quality is just a prerequisite to being in the printing industry. It is expected. The white glove player may need to figure out how to say “no” to those customers or jobs that are not a fit or they will continue to have mixed loyalty. Reputation is at stake with mixed loyalty Be careful. Those looking at how to get to the next level are well on their way.

Bottom Feeders (<74 percent): Bottom feeders are either ignorant to how to serve customers, have processes poorly defined for consistent performance, are in denial and feel negative feedback is what to expect, or management is plain burnt-out or checked-out. This group must look in the mirror and seek help. Typically, a bad reputation is already out of the barn and tough to turn around.

A few years back, I worked with a person who bought a printer. What would make them do such a silly thing? They were changing careers and wanted a challenge. They got a challenge alright. They were unaware the past owner had checked-out long ago and customers were ticked off. They conducted a survey and discovered they were a bottom feeder. It took six months of customer presentations and PR to prove to the community and customer base things were different. “Under New Management” blasted from the mountain tops! They did a great job turning around the business, but it was painful.

While 84 percent percent of print buyers being very likely to recommend a printer may seem low to you, be careful about throwing stones. Go out and ask the question to learn how your customers truly feel and, more important, how you can earn and retain their loyalty.

This article was published on Printing Impressions BLOG, Pressing Ahead, written by Michael Casey, President of Survey Advantage. It was posted on December 9th, 2010.