Phoenix, AZ:  Survey Advantage introduced three new printer programs to several members during an introduction July 27th at the headquarters of Printing Industries of Arizona.  Survey Advantage will offer CustomerPulse, HealthCheck, and MarketCheck to PIAZ members interested in revenue preservation, client share expansion, and lead generation.  CustomerPulse is designed to help printers obtain immediate feedback after jobs are completed while HealthCheck and MarketCheck are designed to help printers during strategic planning and ISO 9000 process improvement efforts.

In San Diego, CA during Franchise Services annual owners conference Survey Advantage and Printer’s Plan co-presented the newest version of Printer’s Plan and how surveying customers after jobs just got easier within the application.  The new features of 2010 now flag the last time customers were surveyed to help manage survey frequency.  In addition, the smartlink of Survey Advantage pulls in the job number from Printer’s Plan enabling printers to quickly and effectively follow-up with customers.

Associations, corporations, non-profits, small business owners always ask this question.  It is a loaded question, but here are a few things to consider.  Response rates can vary from <10% to >80% depending on a lot of things and how you approach the study.
 
1) Topic is very important.  How important is it to them to share their brain and heart??  Get inside their head and know their appetite for the topic you are throwing at them. 
 
2) Positioning is important.  You must sell the idea to participate.  I am not saying with incentives, but tell them why it is important TO THEM. 
 
3) Know your audience.  If your members are really engaged with you, you share lessons learned from previous surveys, then you have a great foundation for high response rates.  
 
4) If you don’t send out a survey a week to members then you have a good foundation.  Surveys should have meaning and pick your battles when asking members for help.
 
5) Try to keep them short whenever possible and tell them that.  “This is a five question survey that will only take 2 minutes”.  That will get better response then “This is a 125 question survey that will take you what feels like forever”. 
 
6) Think about each question before you send it to them.  Wording, clarity of purpose, understanding what information you want back and what format should be taken into account.
 
These all may seem obvious, but it is amazing how many surveys I get that start asking my gender, marital status, and income when frankly there is nothing in it for me, it is wasting my time, and I wonder what they plan to do with that information to get at me!   I just received a birthday card last week for a trip to the Virgin Islands.  It was my birthday the week before and that scared the *&*() out of me because they don’t know me, I don’t know them, it was a scam mailer, and I wonder what else they know about me.   Be relevant and respect your audience.

Many of us are timid to ask our most loyal customers for referrals.  We feel uncomfortable asking or don’t want to alienate an already loyal customer.  Sometimes we feel the loyalty may go down by being direct and asking the question “Do you know someone we could help as we help you?” 

A more subtle way to capture referrals is to tie the request for referrals into a customer feedback survey.  The way it works is that you send a customer a very short five question survey after your complete a job, complete a service, or ship a product.  One of the questions asks the ultimate question “How likely are you to recommend us to a colleague, friend, or family member?”  For all customers who click “Very Likely”,  you now know they are loyal, love you, are passionate about what you do for them, and are the customers most likely to recommend you.  They have self qualified themselves!  At that point when they click submit on the survey you direct them to a landing page to highlight your referral program along with any gift you want to offer.  It is that simple.  I have seen up to 5% of those filling out the survey offering referrals to help their supplier or vendor.  What an opportunity!   Just don’t forget to call them or thank them for the referral.  It is only common courtesy and it will feed the referral process.  

Just last week a small printer closed a $1,000 initial order with a referral by using this process and the newly acquired customer appears to be ready to give them future orders for other printing needs.  This process isn’t just for printers, but can work with insurance agencies, any service organization or business that relies on referrals to grow and prosper. 

So, don’t leave your loyal customers just buying from you.  Engage them in the selling process and expand your selling force.

Last month Allegra Networks, a 400 plus unit franchisor, published an article in their quarterly franchise magazine, Connections, sharing lessons learned from around the network. The article explains how Eileen Rogers and Ted Raymond, owners of the Allegra franchise in Scottsdale, AZ, focused the business on multi-channel marketing, including variable data printing and personalized URLS, while making the shift to a marketing services provider. In addition, Eileen and Ted explain how customer feedback became part of their strategy.
Click here to read the full text.

In January 2009, 205 independent quick printers shared their thoughts on the question “Where do you think the top growth opportunities are in 2009?” Digital printing is on the minds of 82% of quick printers. The ability to make short runs quickly, managing staffing levels, and training time are key drivers of this investment. After that quick printers see mailing services (56%) and large format (28%) as the next most important to growing their business. Marketing services, web design, promotion products were all in the low 20′s or teens in the percentage seeing these areas as growth areas.

It is amazing how many quick printer customers still don’t view their printer as a mailing house or someone who can do large format. As an example, in a recent print buyer study we asked the awareness question for these services. We surveyed the customer base of a quick printer asking thier customers about awareness of each product and service. Only 25% of their customers were aware they offered bulk mail and 70% large format. The interesting thing was that many customers stressed their interest in learning more.

You can’t assume that customers will remember you just by mailing a few flyers and mentioning it a few times. Get creative on your messaging. Becoming a marketing service provider starts under your roof. Launch that new service this year and measure awareness as you go. A good goal to shot for is over 90% awareness.