The CPrint Summit will be on November 3, 4, and 5th. Please contact CPrint International for Details.

Best practice techniques will be discussed for strategic annual surveys of both active and inactive customers. Topics to be discussed include “How to set goals for the project, How to manage a quick turnaround project, and How to turn feedback into action.

Contact NAPL to register for the conference to be held just prior to Graph Expo. Dates are September 8, 9, and 10.

• Knowing how and when to use QR codes
• Building and managing mobile websites
• Designing and managing corporate websites
• Using PURLs the right way
• Managing social media marketing
• Designing and managing e-mail strategies
• Marketing promotional products
• Creating show exhibits
• Managing digital content

Can make your head spin huh. This printer group knows their core is printing and accepts the fact they lack the resources of larger printers to build the broad, cross media team. They came at the opportunity by leveraging a whole new breed of what I call “Behind the Scenes” suppliers, or BTS Suppliers, who are filling the void. Okay, maybe we don’t need a fancy name for these guys, but they are different. These suppliers understand their role in life and built services to remain hidden from end user even answering email and phone calls as if they were part of the printer’s staff. The printer closes the deal and collects the money, and the vendor does the rest. And, the margins beat that earned on print.

These printer owners are aggressively reinventing themselves into brokers. For three days this group watched sales pitches and educational presentations to figure out how to sell these services without getting their hands dirty while also protecting the relationship with each customer. These owners were focusing on understanding how to sell beyond print and position themselves as the go-to person to manage complete campaigns and cross media efforts. They leaned on their partners to deliver the final service or product, many times without their customer even knowing. These printers were thrilled with the profitability, and here are a few examples of services, vendors, and results shared.

Net Solutions, Inc.(www.netsolutionsna.com) offers a seamless solution for printers interested in offering web design services. They train the printer on how to sell the service, but then they do most of the work, right down to answering the phone as if they are on staff for the printer. Pretty cool. While having dinner with one printer they shared how they sold a $70,000 website and his expense was about $10,000. He said he felt guilty, but quickly laughed saying he will lose it somewhere on a print job. He did confess this was an anomaly for him and doesn’t expect a ton of deals like this, but it helped him sell other stuff and be truly on one stop solution and he knows another service beyond print for the future tool chest.

What about translation services? Inline Inc.(www.inlinela.com) is a printer vendor partner who helps printers with language translation. One printer sold $16,000 in translation services for a customer, and they did none of the work in-house. Think about how many customers you have who need solid, certified translation services when printing up such things as manuals. You may not sell a ton of translation services, but they are out there and why not have that available. Again, they are just a dealer of the service and not actually doing the work.

All Viso (www.allviso.com) set up a process for printers to sell mobile websites for their customers and be done within an hour by leveraging QR Codes. The tools were very intuitive, the entry fee was $500 for their first mobile site and then the printer receives 100% margin on anything they sell to their customers.

Many are familiar with ASI (www.adspecialities.com) for promotional products. One printer explained how easy it was to have the website setup so customers could just go and buy their pens, mugs, whatever. He explained some customers thought he was doing the printing. He sold tens of thousands of pens a year. One medical services organization gives them out to visitors buying online. He said it was easy money, customers order online, and after three years he knows which products to guide customers to with very little effort. The margins he said were incredible. He sold $90,000 last year which was very profitable.

4Over (www.4over4.com) is another name that just continues to come up when speaking with printers open to outsourcing to ride the tide. Less smaller printers are printing business cards in house. They take the order, have 4Over produce for some crazy low price like $20, and mark it up from there. Margins are insane.

I’ll never forget visiting MCI, the large telecommunications giant in the 1990s before they were bought out. They did not build a thing. They became experts in outsourcing and picking the right partners to put the right pieces together for the end customer. Is this a model we may see more printers evolve into as they expand beyond print or certain printing becomes a commodity? The choices are to build a team and infrastructure or just buy it. My vote would be the latter. Will more printers become brokers for services beyond print? Will there be more brokering in the future for commodities such as business cards and promotional products? This group of printers sees an opportunity to grasp this new, exciting opportunity to grow revenues, get closer to their customers, and have fun learning new ways to add value.

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.

Category Top Printer City, State Owner/Operator
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About the Print Buyer Satisfaction Index (PBSI™)

Each quarter over 6,000 print buyer opinions are gathered to measure loyalty and satisfaction. The feedback is published to help printers react quickly to customer feedback and benchmark performance. Results are segmented by brand, size, and other classifications. The PBSI™ is the most comprehensive measure of performance available in the industry.

About the Feedback Process

Survey Advantage developed the feedback process by partnering with 14 industry associations, 3 major printer franchises, and 9 leading print management software providers. The process helps printers preserve recurring revenue and expand sales with existing customers. The early warning system alerts management immediately when customer loyalty is slipping, and dashboards help printers react quickly to trends and individual feedback. The process is easy to implement for any size printer, and is affordable and effective. The vision of the program is to improve industry performance one printer at a time.

Learn more about the process and what other printers are doing with the information.

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.

“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