Adapting an Old Strategy to Increase Satisfaction, Awareness, and Sales

By Howie Fenton, Rochester Software Associates: This article discusses how an old strategy of using traditional process improvement efforts to increase customer satisfaction, awareness, and sales is still relevant and timeless. This contrasts the previous article that talked about a newer strategy of using video services.

For decades face-to-face contact between the in-plant staff and customers has allowed the staff to demonstrate institutional knowledge and production expertise. The ability to demonstrate this value has been threatened as more customers work from home and more communication, marketing, and sales activities have switched to video services.

Best of the Old: Operational Excellence

Operational excellence is the in-plant’s bread and butter. It is what most strive for and achieve. Here is one good example. At the American College and University Printers (ACUP) conference a few years ago, Jimmy Friend and his boss Deborah Leliaert from the University of North Texas (UNT) made a presentation about how the in-plant was losing customers. The presentation started like most PowerPoints, with cordial introductions until slide four, which shocked everybody. It said: “You’re Fired!! I am taking my business elsewhere.” Leliaert, Vice President, University Relations, Communications and Marketing, said that when Jimmy took over, the in-plant was in such disarray that she and several other departments “fired them.”

Friend then detailed the step-by-step process he used to turn things around.

Internal audit. It started with an internal audit, which found that print quality was poor, customers were complaining about long delays for even simple services, staff attitude was terrible, and out of 200 surveys, only 22 were returned, and 15 of those gave poor reviews.