Up close and comfortable – meeting your customers’ needs
Knowing the varied needs of your clients and being able to meet them is one of the basic building blocks for successful businesses.
Meeting those expectations efficiently, effectively, profitably and on a timely basis is the ongoing challenge. Clients’ requirements change rapidly and businesses are more than ever prepared to switch suppliers in order to find the most appropriate service.
You cannot take your customers’ loyalty for granted – they are in business to meet their own goals, not yours. It is your task to not only meet their current demands, but to anticipate their changing expectations. As a supplier you must be aware of industry trends and strive to be one step ahead.
“When deciding on future enhancements to Quote & Print software, one of our guiding principles is how to make the software more responsive to our customers’ needs and our customers’ customers’ needs,” comments Dave Bell, head of the Quote & Print development team (pictured).
One need that became apparent to the team some years ago was the requirement for businesses to produce estimates for a wide range of printing products. Printers by their nature are asked to supply quotes for a whole range of client’s needs. It is imperative for a good Management Information System that it is able to cope with the most varied requests.
For some years now Q&P has the capability of creating fast accurate estimates for flat sheet, books, pads, labels, newspapers, continuous, digital, envelopes, flexo and wide format plotters. This means that estimates for all the types of work handled by a printer can be done in the one system.
Different strokes
Many printers are now entering the forms management sector, developing expertise in this service to clients. Producing and maintaining adequate stocks and supplying on-demand and just in time are the essentials of what is a vital area of a client’s operations. It requires commitment and high-level service, backed by a sophisticated Management Information System; such as Q&P. Anticipating client requirements is the bedrock of this service.
The rapid increase in use of the internet for production tracking, online ordering, personalized stationary, business card ordering and on-demand printing has thrown up a new set of challenges for the printer. Customer expectations in this area are developing with bewildering speed. What was science fiction a few years ago is now an imperative in efficiently conducting business. Printers need to have the ability to meet and match their customer’s requirements, to be able to suggest ways and means even before the customer has become aware of them.
For a printer to meet this demand requires absolute confidence not only in the Management Information System but also in the back-up and on-going development capability of the software provider. Knowing their concerns and feedback are listened to and acted upon is key to a good relationship. This is one area where Quite & Print, with its dedicated hands-on Australian development team, stands out from the rest.
In this fast-changing world it has become essential for the sales team to quickly identify the triggers of existing customers and potential clients and target the service delivery. This means that the members of the sales team themselves have to understand the service delivery options available to them, which they can then explain to their clients. It also means maintaining close contact with clients so that as their needs change, the service delivery method can be altered as needed.
To be able to provide this efficiently and profitably means that all service capabilities should be contained in the Management Information System used by the printer. While the printer may be able to provide the physical service, if the MIS is not up to scratch, if it is not integrated for the whole process from initial customer contact through production and fulfillment, the flaws in the system will make a customer look elsewhere for satisfaction – sooner rather than later.
