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.

By now you should have at least started your 2011 planning cycle and engaged your customers, asking them what they need from you in 2011. What better way to show you are not like any other supplier, but a partner. As you push into new services or products it is great to connect with customers as a litmus test that you are going in the right direction If you think you need to improve in a specific area, they will tell you in the survey to make more grounded decisions and investments.

Any strategic planning book stresses that the first step is analyzing customer and marketing data to make more grounded decisions. Well, why not go out to your customers and ask them strategic questions? Position the survey as a planning tool to help you serve them better. Look at each survey as a gift and a road map for when you meet with each customer to plan together. The survey results and trends will help you have more meaningful, focused planning meetings with your customers and staff.

A well designed annual strategic survey typically yields 30% response rates for B2B clients or high end B2C customers. This information is invaluable to connect at an individual level as well as uncover trends when planning for 2011. Here are a few areas to consider:

* Improvement areas for next year.
* Services to consider rolling out.
* Consideration for other services you offer.
* Sourcing for different services.
* Percentage of business awarded to you.
* Awareness of different services you offer.
* Quality of products and services.
* Budget or spending trends for 2011.
* Supplier decision making process.
* Marketing communications effectiveness.

Customers will share with you if you ask in a thoughtful way. Take the time to do it right. Customers will appreciate this. Connect with your customers early, change the game and position yourself above the competition as you approach 2011. It starts with putting your house in order, so consider running an annual survey to get that foundation. Good luck in 2011.

We should praise those companies that go above and beyond. A couple weeks ago I went to Kent’s Alignment in Newport, RI and was amazed at the level of service, flexibility, and honesty. They fixed the car and when I pulled out the plastic they explained that they did not accept credit cards to keep prices down, but I could just leave to go down the road to get money and come back. Trust. They explained what was wrong and did not rotate my tires since it would be a waste of money since one of them was bald. Cool, that is honest service.

Check out this comment that came in today from a fishing listserv I am active on. WOW, this guy is one of the few that goes out of the way to promote a business. You can’t pay enough to get this kind of positive marketing done. It went out to thousands of New England fisherman. Check out what Brian said on the Southern New England Angler’s listserv a few minutes ago.

“Yesterday for the first time I went to Jamestown Distributors in Bristol to buy some parts for my boat. The staff there went out of their way to make sure what I was buying would work for the project I was doing. If you’ve never done business with them, check them out, they have a huge online catalog.

Another company I had a recent experience with was Attwood Marine. I needed a new scupper flap on the boat. I had seen a posting in the Seaswirl owner’s forum to contact Attwood for the replacement. I followed the email link, it was answered promptly asking for the size etc. The rep then mails out two flaps to me free of charge. Brian”

Thank you Brian for sharing a positive experience. 1,000s of people reading this from a trusted source. Nice referral without doing anything. Attwood and Jamestown Distributors just did the right thing and treated him with respect and he was “WOWed” and compelled to tell everyone.

Back in the 80s an HP study shoed that for every dissatisfied customer they tell 20, yet a satisfied customer only tells 3. Brian beat the stats here and maybe the internet will balance out that statistic in favor of the companies going above and beyond.

Remember that Seinfeld episode where the arrogant cook had such addicting soup that people waited in line putting up with his arrogance just to get “the soup”? Everyone called him the Soup Nazi. I met the Banana Nazi last week while vacationing on Block Island, RI. My son was excited to go on a banana boat ride which is water tubing on steroids where 10 people hold on for dear life! My son was eager so I sucked it up.

The Encounter

The Banana Nazi starting barking out orders right from the start.

Banana Nazi: “You need to shower before you get on the boat, give me your glasses, hat, and anything else you have.” (No smile. Stone cold.)

I started thinking this lady must have had a rough summer and couldn’t wait for it to be over. She acted like the owner so I let her slide on this one. Maybe she was having a bad day.

I went on to say, “I can’t see without my prescription sun glasses so do you think I can wear them as we drive out to the tubing area? Also, I am a little light in the hair department so can I wear my hat to avoid sunburn of the head?” All said while chuckling a little to loosen things up and maybe brightening her day.

Banana Nazi: “Well, you are better off leaving your glasses here and being able to see the rest of the day than losing them aren’t you? The hat needs to go. I will do you a favor and put your stuff in my car so nothing happens.”

Again she was stone cold looking at me like I said something offensive or idiotic! I starting boiling a bit and thinking “She didn’t really say that?”. I couldn’t go on that boat blind no matter how she felt about it. I handed the Banana Nazi my stuff while white knuckling my glasses before she left me blind!

Banana Nazi: (No reaction as she took my stuff).

I was thinking “I don’t need this abuse and arrogance. I’m leaving.” Then looking at my son I had a change of heart. For my son’s sake I sucked it up and said “Thank you.” With a smile of course!

At that point we met two other people working the boat. They were great! Very polite and made the trip a memorable one. The driver with dread locks was awesome and fit the part perfectly, looking like he grew up water skiing and knew how to throw people! They explained to me right out of the gate why I could not wear my glasses on the boat. It made perfect sense since I was getting dragged out on the tube from the dock! Why didn’t she say that?

Customer service people make or break the deal. They got lucky this time.

Lessons learned:

1) Be careful with who works directly with customers. They may be blowing deals before you have a chance to know about it. The best customer service people are other-centered, patient, and listen to customers. What employees work directly with customers, but are not trained in customer service skills? Be careful.

2) Don’t assume prospects and customers know the reasons you do what you do. I now know why I could not bring my glasses and hat, but she did not listen to me, explain and communicate the reasons! Do customers know why you do what you do?

3) Customer Service people must start with communicating before we can show what your product or service does. It all starts with connecting and communicating the way your customers prefer. Be flexible and change your communication approach to fit your customer.

4) No product or service is so good that customers will put up with arrogance to get the goods. The Soup Nazi found this out the hard way and hopefully the Banana Nazi figures this out before it is too late.
Is your business just pumping out product? Are you in the customer service business? The end product is important, but customers want to buy from those they can connect with.

Thousands of business owners and executives participate in peer groups, typically comprised of six to eight people who meet every 6 months. The goal is to drive business by learning from each other and to leave with fresh ideas from a respected source. Usually the best-run businesses in their industry participate in peer groups because these owners continue to invest in themselves and their business, and they are open to criticism, objective feedback and fresh ideas. Each member benefits from:

*Learning what others are doing.
*Leaving with fresh ideas.
*Being held accountable for results
*Networking and cultivating friendships with successful people.
*Trending and driving performance over time.
*Hearing candid feedback and opinions from industry experts.
*Specific, expert advice from owners dealing with the same issues.

Standardizing Customer Loyalty Metrics

Most peer groups standardize on reports to pinpoint opportunities for improvement and growth. Many use benchmarks similar to those published by their industry; benchmarks such as wages, pricing, and financial benchmark studies. The best peer groups benchmark customer loyalty and share at each meeting a standardized SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) based on customer feedback. Benefits of implementing customer feedback into peer groups include:

*Customer-centered goal setting.
*Increasing customer loyalty levels with all members of the group.
*Challenging peer group members to drive improvements based on facts.
*Disciplined, focused discussions around marketing, customer service and sales efforts
*Quantified, fact-based decision making tied to customer needs.

Standardize on the customer loyalty question(s), the way customer feedback is obtained and how it will be shared. Make each owner responsible for bringing one improvement area and one opportunity for growth identified from customer feedback. Each owner brings his or her customer loyalty scores to the meeting, and those scores are displayed, side by side, to help during discussions.

We all stress how important loyalty is to our survival and growth, yet we know we can do a better job measuring, monitoring and leveraging customer information in a disciplined, deliberate way. Standardizing on how customer feedback is shared during peer group meetings and setting better, customer-centered goals is one more way best-in-class businesses continue to distance themselves from their competitors.

We are asked quite often to create a quote follow-up survey. We are asked to launch the survey to all open quotes that were sent out between x and y days before. It is a great idea, but response rates are very low. It is one thing for a customer to share after buying a service or product from you, but what is in it for a prospect or customer to tell you that they did not buy from you because they got a better deal, found a more perfect fit, you messed them up before, or they decided not to buy. Will they really click a survey link and fill out a form? I think it must be easier and more straightforward than that. Don’t make them jump threw even a little hoop to give you feedback on quotes.

The best way to follow up on quotes it either to call them directly. If you don’t have the resources then send out a simple, to the point e-mail blast. Smaller businesses sometimes have a difficult time following up on quotes so I recommend a very simple, personal, direct email Leverage your estimating and quoting software to pull all “open quotes” for a date range. Leverage the fields you have in your estimating system to use variable data and personalize the mass follow-up eblast.

Dear (first name),

This is a follow-up to the quote we sent to you on (quote date). Thank you for giving us the opportunity. We are very excited to work with you, but have not heard anything. Could you please give an update or status? Thank you.

Sincerely,
Your name
Title
Phone
Website.

Nothing fancy. It should be short, to the point, and ask the one question. You already quoted and maybe spent time with them understanding requirements for the work. Now is the time for them to decide or engage. Nothing is more effective than calling, but in these economic times you may not have that luxury and may need to batch process in a disciplined, automated way using technology.

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

It is easy to hear the success stories of businesses that have gone to the moon, but most of these business owners have lived through tough times as well.  Just read a book on Edison’s life and you will see the # of failures he had before his great invention.

Recently a business owner closed his doors, but shared his lessons learned with “What They Think”, an organization focused on sharing lessons with the printing industry.  Below is an interview and details.  Any business owner dealing with this economy can take some valuable lessons from this.

The Rise and Fall of Mallard Press

By Cary Sherburne
Published: October 12, 2009

The recent closure of Mallard Press caught our eye. While I don’t know Bob Gay or the company personally, a review of its web site revealed a company that appeared to be on the right track and making the right investments for the future.  Bob Gay was kind enough to speak frankly with us about the factors that led to the demise of the company.  Perhaps there are lessons here for others in the industry who may be teetering on the edge or worried about the future. Mallard Press was an independently owned and operated commercial printing business that had been in operation in the Chicago area for 30 years.  At its peak, it brought in revenues of over $5 million.  Here’s what Bob had to say. In Part One of the article, he discusses what happened; in Part Two, we move to what perhaps should have happened.

WTT: Bob, what would you say was the major contributing factor that led to closing the business?

BG: My biggest problem was that I had taken on too much debt.  I had made investments that were required to take my business where I wanted it to go, and I had about three and a half years to the finish line.  We were doing fine until about December of 2007, which was our first bad month, with sales off 18%. I remember seeing those numbers as if it were yesterday.

WTT: What were some of those investments?

BG: We had invested in Canon color and black & white digital to the tune of $10,000 to $15,000 per month.  We were into Komori for about $14,000 per month.  And the KBA press, which is a marvelous press and probably the most versatile printing press in the world, bar none, was an $11,000-per-month investment.  That is a lot of debt service for a company with $5 million in revenues.  We were building to grow, but any downtick in revenues was painful because of that debt service.

WTT: When you saw the December 2007 results, what actions did you take?

BG: We did make some adjustments to the business, and as a result were able to go through the spring of 2008 fairly strong, although the June through September period was below average, down 15-20%.  It gets tough to recover from four months of consecutive losses.

WTT: To what did you attribute the revenue decline?

BG: To a change in customer buying habits.  We did an analysis of our client base.  We were not losing clients; they were just spending less, due to the economy and possibly to more use of electronic media.

WTT: So what did you do next?

BG: We then looked at increasing our client base through acquisitions.  AGS, a die cutting operation, was basically closing its doors and we made a deal with them that would keep their company together, because the services they offered were services we were outsourcing anyway. There was also another company that was closing its doors and we purchased some of their assets as well. This was about $2 million in business and we took 10 of their 18 employees on board. As a result of all of that, we had a terrific December.

WTT: Then what happened as the new year began?

BG: From January through now, everything tailed off.  Sales were down 27%.  We again looked at our customer base, and it was the same Top Ten customers, but their sales volumes were down.  We even had some loyal print brokers that were getting less work for the same reason—their customers were also dialing down.

WTT: I am sure all of this must have led to some painful decisions.

BG: Absolutely.  We made some first quarter adjustments to get things in line, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be enough.  After the second quarter, I really needed to make some deep cuts.  This was extremely painful, because people who had done nothing wrong were losing their jobs.  The remaining staff took pay cuts to keep their jobs.

WTT: In hindsight, would you have made staff cuts earlier?

BG: Yes, but I was slow to do so because it is just not in my nature.  These people worked hard, and I was optimistic that the services we provided would help bring the business back.  This is how we had always survived before—because of our diversification.  If one area was not performing, the other two areas could pick up the slack.  But with the decrease in sales and additional 10 employees, I increased payroll by $400,000 but only increased sales by 1.5%. I was operating as a man in business, not a businessman.  A businessman would have made the cuts sooner, but the man in business had hoped it would come back.

WTT: What else did you do to try to salvage the situation?

BG: We went to the equipment finance companies, Wells Fargo, GE and IKON Financial, and working with them was tremendous; they were all on board to help us. We were able to negotiate six months interest only payments to help us weather the storm and work to get our sales up.  We also went to our landlord to see what they would be willing to do.  We let them know that others were participating and we weren’t just coming to them for help.  They were a bit reluctant to help and I basically had to sell my soul a little to get their cooperation.  They gave us six months at half rent, but the negotiations gave them the full right to kick us out if they didn’t think I was going to perform after these six months.

WTT: I take it that resulted in the crowning blow, then.

BG: About three-quarters of the way through the process, we provided the landlord with a financial statement per the agreement.  It was a bad June and we were not making any headway.  They performed their fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders by exercising their right to evict.  We looked around for other spaces and looked to our lender for some additional support.  Even though we eliminated 12 employees and took some other steps that brought us back to break-even, our lender decided not to extend our line of credit or to provide us with the funding to move the business to a different location.

WTT: Why was that? Presumably you had been doing business with them for a long time.

BG: Yes, but their position was that we were maxed out on our line of credit with no good outlook for being able to pay it all back, and they were simply not in a position to lend us the $100,000 or more it would have cost us to move.  This was on a Friday afternoon, and rather abruptly, the next Monday, per the request of the bank, the company went into receivership in order to pay down the line of credit and the other creditors as well as take control of all receivables.  That obviously brought the business to a screeching halt.

WTT: Why do you think the banks took that position after working with you for so long?

BG: I have probably always been the exception when they have discussions in their board room.  I can just hear the discussions:  “They are out of factor, but Bob has a passion for the business and we believe in what he is doing. He has built a unique company that has advantages over standard printing companies, and he will be a survivor.  He has done it before.” To be honest with you, in 2008, I was swinging back and forth between being three to five months behind in rent.  I never thought 2009 sales would still just not materialize. Clients are simply buying differently, and I don’t know if those levels are going to continue to decline or whether they are even going to continue to use print in many cases.

WTT: What about all of the government talk about bailing out small businesses, stimulus, TARP and all of that?  Did you try for any of that money?

BG: Sure did.  I asked about an SBA loan that could spread the short-term debt over a longer term with a lower interest rate and I couldn’t even get that. Now 38 people are without jobs. So much for economic stimulus.

Read the second half of this interview

Recently there was a discussion between business owners who were concerned with surveying their customers and causing a negative reaction. They shared how much they hate getting surveys. In a Business to Consumer relationship many times we get pounded with surveys and get numb to them hitting “delete” as quick as we can. But, I would warn you not to generalize. Know thy customer!

Depends on the relationship one has with the specific supplier, how important that supplier is to their business, how long the survey it, and most importantly if the company responses quickly the first time the customer shares their thoughts. If I have a good ongoing relationship with the supplier as a partner, they are important to my well being, the survey is short and covers points most interesting to me and not you, and the company responds quickly maybe even call me, then I feel it is a way to get things changed and get a reaction. I will fill out surveys for them.

Example, if I have a partnership type relationship with my printer, rely on them to perform to drive marketing efforts, the survey takes a minute, and they call to discuss, then I DO NOT get survey burn-out.

If you are just another printer, who puts out average work with no skin in my game, the survey doesn’t respect my time, and you do nothing when I gave feedback of any kind in the past, then I hate to get your survey, wouldn’t take it, and WOULD get survey burnt out quickly. I would be burnt out the first time I got a survey and maybe even use it as an excuse to stop using you because I was thinking of moving on anyway and needed a reason.

We get so many surveys, but the ones I take are the ones where I respect their business, enjoy working with them, they know me, or I know they will do something with my information.

I would argue that burnout is an indication that the supplier is missing something in their relationship with the customer or they lack an understanding of how frequently to go to the well for feedback or how to approach customers for feedback.