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.

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.

Contact: Michael Casey, Survey Advantage
401-560-0311 ext 103 mcasey@surveyadvantage.com

Middleboro, MA– June 21, 2010 – Enterprise Print Management Solutions(EPMS), announced today a newly developed customer survey process with Survey Advantage , a service provider offering customer loyalty and lead generation programs. Enterprise Print Management Solutions offers a full suite of estimating and production software modules for the commercial printing industry and is considered one of the premiere vendors of print MIS in North America. Now EPMS users have two ways to administer an early warning and alert system to preserve recurring revenues. In addition, the program identifies sales leads within each account and generates referrals. EPMS has developed a Survey Advantage report utility to reduce the survey administration time to less than three minutes a month.

“Our customers now have an effective way to leverage customer information to drive sales and preserve revenue.” said Craig Andersen, Chief Operating Officer of EPMS. “We are excited about the idea of offering our customers this new option which collapses the administration time to 3 minutes a month while offering a more robust fully managed solution. The nice part is that this approach enabled us to cut the price to our customers in half. ”

“The EPMS team responded well to customer needs by standardizing and streamlining the report generation process. We can now monitor and drive the process from our side.” noted Michael Casey, President of Survey Advantage. Survey Advantage’s CustomerPulse™ service enables printers to keep a “thumb on the pulse” of each print buyer.

This new utility automates the time-consuming and tedious tasks associated with maintaining an ongoing customer feedback and reporting process. Starting at $49/month this low cost, fully managed service gives printers another way to keep lines of communication open.

To view a recorded demonstration of EPMS CustomerPulse visit CustomerPulse Demo or contact Michael Casey at 401-560-0311 ext 103 or mcasey@surveyadvantage.com .

About Enterprise Print Management Solutions

Founded in 1988, we have continually evaluated industry changes and issues, and have rewritten and updated our EPMS product lines to reflect the changing times and technical innovations embraced by our industry. Since our inception, we have been providing effective solutions to problems that printing companies of all sizes and types face in their daily businesses. The strength of commitment to product development is evident in the depth and scope of our integrated product suites and e-commerce solutions, in use worldwide by over 1,000 printing companies.

About Survey Advantage

Survey Advantage is the leading provider of customer research, customer retention, and lead generation programs for the graphic communications industry. CustomerPulse™ and MarketPulse™ were designed in partnership with the industry to improve productivity by helping operations manage their customer relations and overall operational effectiveness. Additional information may be obtained by visiting www.surveyadvantage.com/printers, emailing info@surveyadvantage.com, or calling 401-560-0311.

Bottom line is that you must take action on the results or don’t bother surveying. Surveying should be conducted for process improvement and expansion. It shouldn’t be to get that ISO auditor out your door and do it just to say you do something! Surveying is not an event, but an ongoing process.” Below are the top 5 questions we are asked when printers are setting up a print buyer feedback process.

Should I survey customers with every print order?

For repeat buyers we suggest surveying no more than every 90 days. If surveyed too often, regular repeat buyers will become annoyed and you will drive down loyalty. Also, in your email message state something like “You won’t get this survey more often than every 90 days if you buy from us regularly.” Tell customers upfront so they won’t assume the survey process is going to turn into a spam issue. If you are correctly managing the frequency of surveys to repeat buyers, you can anticipate a 20% to 35% response rate on a continuous basis. Let the feedback flow and let customers know that the survey is just another way to stay connected and responsive.

How many questions should I ask?

Keep the survey to less than 30 seconds (5-7 questions maximum). State In the email invitation that it will take less than a minute of their time and stick to that promise. Don’t say that it will take 30 seconds and then ask 30 questions. You may want to change the questions regularly and the invitation email to keep it fresh and inviting.

When considering the number of questions, be aware that there are two types of surveys. A strategic survey helps to map out necessary investments during the upcoming year. Customers appreciate this type of survey. If it’s positioned correctly and you promise to share the results with them, they will give you 5 minutes and answer around 20 questions. The second type of survey is the post-job survey or the 90-day pulse type survey to keep connected in an ongoing fashion. We suggest doing both because one is strategic and one tactical, but if budget and time is a constraint, go for the tactical survey asking customers for 1 minute to answer 5 or 6 questions and keep communication open all the time.

If I can only ask one question, what should it be?

“How likely are you to recommend us to colleagues and friends?” This is the ultimate question and there is an entire book dedicated to this question called “The Ultimate Question.”

What are the biggest mistakes I should avoid when surveying customers?

1. Waiting too long between surveys. I spoke to a printer last week that hadn’t surveyed customers in 10 years. He got good results, but when I asked why he waited 10 years he said it took too much time. Using today’s technology, surveying should not be that time consuming. Just read Lori Fuller’s case study from University of Nebraska at www.surveyadvantage.com/printers
2. Making the survey too long.
3. Making the process too complicated so it isn’t done continuously.
4. Assigning the wrong person to manage the process. I have seen “gaming” of the system where an internal person doesn’t survey certain customers because they don’t want to hear complaints. That’s a bad reason not to survey. You need to hear from everyone.
5. Not continually monitoring the process. If management doesn’t watch the process and the person assigned looks at surveying as an optional task, it might not get done regularly. Or it may stop and management never realizes that it has stopped. Gathering and monitoring customer feedback starts at the top and must be part of the culture of the operation — not just another task thrown out there.

Once the information is gathered, what should I do?

The best, most successful printers contact every customer who responds to the survey. That is right, every one. There is a story behind every survey even the glowing ones. Thanking those customers with great comments shows you listened and appreciate their comments. If you get a referral call, thank them so you get more referrals. Thankfulness breeds more good work. Those who are neutral about the experience should be asked how you can change to get top marks. Comments that are positive should be acknowledged and once again respondents should be thanked for their time and candidness. Negative survey results are typically the ones that gain the most attention, but there is usually more opportunity to sell to those customers who are happy and will share with you other services that they buy elsewhere or provide a referral. Remember contacting respondents builds loyalty, and they are more likely to fill out the survey once again later in the year.

The best, most successful printers also share the glowing comments with their teams to build moral. Post it on the lunchroom bulletin board. Managers can tell an employee that their efforts are appreciated, but it means so much more to get it from the customer directly. Approximately 95% of survey comments are positive. Don’t bury them in the customer feedback database. Share them. In addition, the best printers put questions on the survey that probe for other selling opportunities. Keep the survey to around 5 questions, but build one question in to learn what services they are buying elsewhere or to ask for a referral.

Don’t just look at surveying as a reactive, passive process. It can be a selling process as well.
Take the compiled information and do something with it. Just today I spoke with a printer who had 30% of his customers share what they bought elsewhere. Sadly, he hadn’t followed up on any of them because he was so busy in production. He did say over the next few months he is going to make a conscious effort to pursue those leads to expand client share. The good news was that he followed up on every referral and closed two new accounts.

Another great strategy is to print out the survey results weekly and review them with your team. Discuss what customers are saying and together come up with a game plan. One printer does an annual survey and then goes through all the nearly 300 responses, does his own SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats), and delegates at the account level and strategic execution level. This printer has done this for 4 years now and has had tremendous success even in a weak Michigan economy.

If sending out a survey is the first and last step, you are dropping the ball at the most important time. Put the information to work for your business. If conducted properly, surveys are indispensable tools for growing your business, enhancing performance and making informed decisions about the allocation of resources.
For more information, read printer case studies at http://www.surveyadvantage.com/printers

]]> http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/04/28/top-5-questions-printers-ask-about-surveying-customers-and-the-answers/feed/ 0 http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/04/01/survey-advantage-to-present-at-pine-vendor-showcase/ http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/04/01/survey-advantage-to-present-at-pine-vendor-showcase/#comments Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:23:06 +0000 Michael Casey http://surveyadvantage.com/press/?p=390 Jamestown, Rhode Island – Survey Advantage, a leading provider of customer loyalty and market research services, will be presenting new ways of preserving and expanding revenue to members of Printing Industries New England ( PINE). At the PINE Vendor Showcase – Hilton Garden Inn, Waltham, MA, Michael Casey, Survey Advantage’s president, will be speaking during the educational sessions, April 8th. The event is dedicated to helping PINE members grow their businesses. Michael Casey’s talk “How to keep customers coming back,” will offer advice on how to leverage technology and processes to improve revenue preservation strategies and expand business with existing accounts.

 

“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

]]> http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/04/01/survey-advantage-to-present-at-pine-vendor-showcase/feed/ 0 http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/02/04/we-can-learn-a-lot-from-a-business-owner-who-closed-his-doors/ http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/02/04/we-can-learn-a-lot-from-a-business-owner-who-closed-his-doors/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:53:45 +0000 Michael Casey http://surveyadvantage.com/press/?p=378 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

]]> http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2010/02/04/we-can-learn-a-lot-from-a-business-owner-who-closed-his-doors/feed/ 0 http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/09/25/survey-advantage-shares-with-on-demand-e-newsletter-community-how-to-leverage-customer-comments-effectively-with-the-team/ http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/09/25/survey-advantage-shares-with-on-demand-e-newsletter-community-how-to-leverage-customer-comments-effectively-with-the-team/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:08:16 +0000 Michael Casey http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/09/25/survey-advantage-shares-with-on-demand-e-newsletter-community-how-to-leverage-customer-comments-effectively-with-the-team/ In the September 25th issue of the On-Demand E-Newsletter issue, Survey Advantage President, Michael Casey, shares with the community effective ways of implementing best practice surveying processes to stay connected with print buyers.

 

Read the article

]]> http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/09/25/survey-advantage-shares-with-on-demand-e-newsletter-community-how-to-leverage-customer-comments-effectively-with-the-team/feed/ 0 http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/08/14/survey-advantage-rolls-out-on-demand-training-to-meet-executives-busy-schedule/ http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/08/14/survey-advantage-rolls-out-on-demand-training-to-meet-executives-busy-schedule/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:12:37 +0000 Michael Casey http://surveyadvantage.com/press/?p=339 Survey Advantage now is offering busy managers the ability to view recorded trainings focused on customer retention, client share expansion, and referral generation, on-demand.  Many times managers and business owners are unable to make the specific days and times of our webinars due to their busy schedule. 

 

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.

]]> http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/08/14/survey-advantage-rolls-out-on-demand-training-to-meet-executives-busy-schedule/feed/ 0 http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/08/06/survey-advantage-to-exhibit-at-allegra-network-owner-convention-august-28th-2009/ http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/08/06/survey-advantage-to-exhibit-at-allegra-network-owner-convention-august-28th-2009/#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:49:24 +0000 Michael Casey http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/08/06/survey-advantage-to-exhibit-at-allegra-network-owner-convention-august-28th-2009/ At this year’s convention Survey Advantage will highlight two new programs;  CustomerPulse for Printer’s Plan 2010 and CustomerPulse for PrintSmith.  Survey Advantage now works closely with both MIS providers to help franchisee owners survey customers after print jobs are completed.  Survey Advantage has worked closely with franchisee owners of all Allegra Network’s the brands; Signs Now, Allegra Print & Imaging, American Speedy, and Insty Prints, offering  owners customer loyalty, lead generation, revenue retention programs that are affordable for the small business owner.  

 

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

]]> http://surveyadvantage.com/press/2009/08/06/survey-advantage-to-exhibit-at-allegra-network-owner-convention-august-28th-2009/feed/ 0