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.

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.

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.

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.

“Survey Advantage helps our customers drive sales leads to grow their business while preserving recurring job revenues, two areas on the minds of most printer executives today.” said John Fleming, President of printLEADER. “We are excited to partner with an industry leader like Survey Advantage, whose service helps increase the effectiveness of client management for printLEADER users.”

CustomerPulse™ is easy to use and maintain because it was designed for easy setup and maintenance, not IT specialists. “By printLEADER taking the time to automate report generation we now have a solution which takes 15 minutes to set up a printLEADER user and 5 minutes a month to maintain to deliver continuous customer feedback.” noted Michael Casey, President of Survey Advantage. “Printers can save customers throughout the year, identify areas to expand within accounts, and generate referrals for $49/month. This is a low cost insurance policy and lead generator which hasn’t been an option for many printLEADER customers until now.

CustomerPulse™ automates the time-consuming and tedious tasks associated with maintaining a survey and reporting process. Because printLEADER pulls the necessary shipping data, users do not have to manage surveying. They can be confident that surveys look professional and inviting. Convenient electronic distribution options and innovative drill-down features ensure that reports are valuable to all staff within the enterprise. To view a recorded demonstration of printLEADER CustomerPulse visit www.surveyadvantage.com/printers and choose the printLEADER tutorial on the right side of the page.

About PrintLEADER

Founded in 1989; printLEADER is a leading provider of Management Information System (MIS) software solutions and services to the printing and graphic arts industry; Amongst printLEADER’s customers are some of the most respected names in print.

Development first started when John Fleming left his family run print operation in New York to bring a MIS product designed with the unique printer processes in mind.

printLEADER’s significant advantage is the products and services that have been carefully developed with close consultation of the end users throughout printing companies and is coupled with the strength of employing the professional expertise from the industry whose knowledge and experience is entrenched in IT and print practices.

For more information visit the company website at www.printleader.com.

About Survey Advantage

Survey Advantage is the leading provider of customer retention and lead generation programs servicing the printing and graphics communication industry. Its services suite, HealthCheck™, CustomerPulse™, and MarketPulse™, can improve productivity by helping organizations manage their customer relations and overall operational effectiveness.

The programs are widely available through associations such as PIA, NAPL, and IPW as well as franchisors such as the Allegra Network and Franchise Services. Additional information about Survey Advantage can be obtained by visiting the company’s printer specific webpage www.surveyadvantage.com/printers.

We have released several 7 to 8 minute, recorded trainings to explain how to survey using different printer MIS installations; PrintSmith, Printer’s Plan, Technique, Enterprise Print Management Solutions, Printer’s Plus, and a session on how to survey using all other MIS installations.   To view the on-demand library and select your specific printer MIS, visit www.surveyadvantage.com/printers.

We are planning to release several new trainings in the future focused on our other verticals; marine services, association research, business services, parking facility feedback, manufacturing, education, finance, and healthcare.

Topic: Creating and managing a customer retention strategy

On average 5% of a printer’s revenue is directed to the marketing budget to capture new customers through tradeshows, advertising, and get your name recognized on the cluttered field of printers.  Printer’s with an effective, deliberate customer retention strategy benefit from lower marketing expenses through higher client share and customer referrals.  Rarely does a printer lose an account completely, but many will lose client share if they don’t have an effective early warning system in place when a specific job goes out with a problem.  This session will discuss ways printers have implemented programs to retain customers by driving loyalty, proactively gathering print job feedback, customizing services, and making their customers feel unique and special.  Multiple studies have proven how much more profitable it is to grow revenues with existing accounts versus pursuing new accounts.  Retaining customers is the best way to keep your business healthy, reduce marketing budgets, and drive referrals to your door.

What you will learn
• Effective customer retention strategies
• Printer loyalty programs
• Printer referral programs
• Printer loyalty benchmarks to shoot for
• The importance of surveys
• Best practice survey techniques
• Low cost customer feedback process
• Customer service processes to consider

Presentation for Executive Management, Owners, Customer Service Directors and Managers, Sales and Marketing Directors and Managers

Survey Advantage’s suite of services enables printers to keep a “thumb on the pulse” of each print buyer, and alert management when a print buyer is dissatisfied with a recent order, is open to discussing other opportunities, or shares a referral. Technique 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 worldwide. Survey Advantage focuses on the printing industry and their products give printers and graphics communications businesses a complete customer feedback process. CustomerPulse™ streamlines and automates the entire process.

“Survey Advantage now enables our customers to drive sales leads to grow their business while preserving recurring job revenues, two areas are on the minds of most printers today.” said Mark Anderson, Chief Operation Officer of North America for Technique. “It’s a pleasure to partner with an industry leader like Survey Advantage, whose application helps increase the effectiveness of client management for Technique users.”

CustomerPulse™ is easy to use and maintain because it was designed by customer serving professionals, not IT specialists. “By Technique taking the time we now have a solution which takes 15 minutes to set up a Technique user. Maintaining CustomerPulse™ is a 5 minute weekly exercise, delivering a constant flow of customer feedback”, noted Michael Casey, President and Founder of Survey Advantage. “Printers can save customers throughout the year, identify areas to expand within accounts, and generate referrals for $99/month. This is a low cost insurance policy and lead generator all in one. ”

CustomerPulse™ automates the time-consuming and tedious tasks associated with maintaining a survey and reporting process. Because Technique pulls the necessary shipping data, users do not have to manage surveying. They can be confident that surveys look professional and streamlined. Convenient electronic distribution options and innovative drill-down features ensure that reports are valuable to all staff within the enterprise.

About Technique

Founded in 1995; Technique Group is a leading provider of Management Information System (MIS) software solutions and services to the printing and graphic arts industry; Amongst Technique’s customers are some of the biggest names in print.

Development first started in production planning throughout the UK, Europe, South Africa and the US; leading the solutions portfolio to estimating, job management and costing modules enhancing the offering; and now including JDF Certification.

Technique’s significant advantage is the products and services that have been carefully developed with close consultation of the end users throughout major printing companies and is coupled with the strength of employing the professional expertise from the industry who’s knowledge and experience is entrenched in IT and print practices.

For more information visit the company website at www.technique-group.com

About Survey Advantage

Survey Advantage is the leading provider of customer retention and lead generation programs servicing the printing and graphics communication industry. Its services suite, HealthCheck™, CustomerPulse™, and MarketPulse™, can improve productivity by helping organizations manage their customer relations and overall operational effectiveness.

The programs are widely available through associations such as PIA and NAPL. Additional information about Survey Advantage can be obtained by calling (401) 560-311, or by visiting the company’s printer specific web site www.surveyadvantage.com/printers