3 Things Every Printer Should Seriously Consider

Every employee is a harbinger of your brand. I see it all the time, and it has even happened in my own business. Employees (and owners) mishandle situations that end up creating opportunities for their competition. It's not just the sales and customer service people who have to provide a customer-centric experience. Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's, in making his case for consistency, always claimed that the first bite and the last bite were what the customer remembered most. So pay attention to how your phones are being answered and how your products are being delivered. Consider having written policies to address this.Focus on client retention. Printers should forget about trying the latest and greatest marketing methods for finding new customers until they have become proficient at retaining the customers they have. There is a wealth of information (some of which I produced) to support the premise that client retention efforts produce a far greater ROI than new client acquisition efforts. As a shameful plug for my own services, the use of company newsletters was originally developed as a customer-retention tool back in the 1950s. Engage your customers (not just via the sales call), educate them, and promote thought leadership. It's not hard to do. Focus on creating a mobile-friendly experience. It's more than just having a mobile-optimized website. Think about it. If approximately 50% of emails are being read on a mobile device, then there is a tremendous amount of business being done in a mobile environment. How easy is it to engage your company from a mobile phone? Try typing in a person's last name while you're driving or even an extension. It's just too easy to hang up and call the next company that occupies mind share in the prospect's or customer's head. The bottom line is that with so many people transacting business from a mobile environment, you need to make the entire experience easy.