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Several years ago, when a customer requested that we reprint a $12,000 booklet job because we spelled something incorrectly, I had one of those defining moments.
It didn’t matter to my customer that he had signed off on the proof. He wanted us to reprint it because “we were the experts” and we should have caught the error. Sure, I had every right to show him the proof he signed. I could have gone over his head. I could have won the battle and gotten paid on that job. But we decided to reprint it. In fact, I had to ask myself a fundamental question: What value am I to this customer if I can’t even get the spelling right on a job? The answer became obvious to me. This customer, even though he was merely trying to save his own bacon, was absolutely correct. We should have caught the error.
This moment, like others, challenged who we were, what we do and why we exist.
The next week, we hired a full time copy editor and set up new procedures that required two iterations of proofreading before new copy went to a customer. This may seem an over-reaction but trust me, it wasn’t.
What I realized is that we are of value to our customers because we can do things that they can’t. Because of this, they place great trust in us. We are in the business of delivering effective communications solutions. At the very least, it should be a quality effort and a quality result. It’s not our job to cover our proverbial butts; it’s our job to get it right.
Since hiring that copy editor, we have had many instances where customers thanked us for “catching” something that they missed. Our editor now suggests grammar changes and content additions to our clients.
Many of us grew up in this industry with one thing in mind: sales. We tend to think “How many can I sell?” or “How much can I charge?” This is short-sighted, according to Ralph Fucci, Vanguard’s COO, who says, “We’re in the business of winning customers, not orders. We recognized early on that our customers would continue to come back to us for more services provided we focused on their best interests.”
“Are you recommending solutions that are alternatives to printing? Are you focused totally on the customer’s communication challenge?”
Sure, this is easy to say, and I’m sure we all say it. But how many of us are prepared to recommend a solution to our customer that actually reduces the print spend? Are you recommending solutions that are alternatives to printing? Are you focused totally on the customer’s communication challenge?
Fucci is certain that being customer-driven is the correct long term choice. “We have confidence that print will be in the equation, but we don’t focus on it. We recently solved one of our customer’s problems with an email campaign instead of direct mail. We got paid for project managing that email campaign and now we are doing point of sale signage and other printing for them. We position ourselves as the outsourcing agent for our customers and they in turn come to us for all types of services.”
Long gone are the days of idolizing the salesperson with the most volume or the most profitable sale. “We still track sales and profit by salesperson, but solving customer challenges is what gets the praise around here,” says Fucci. A salesperson who sells a solution-based program, or one that touches all of our services, is most exciting to us.”
The most successful companies I’ve seen in recent years are ones that have built a strong customer relationship and positioned themselves as a valuable resource. They have sustainable growth because they have their crosshairs centered on customer needs, not their own wants. They have made themselves indispensable to the customer for a variety of reasons. Whether they have prepress expertise or the ability to handle complex fulfillment issues, it doesn’t matter. At the end of a job, they’ve helped the customer with the challenge.
How does one build a customer-driven organization? “It starts with the mission,” says Fucci. “Our mission is based on several promises to our customers, all of which are intended to assist them in some way. We’ve built a business model that vests everyone in our customer’s success, and we’ve spent a great deal of time promoting that model.”
Vanguard has spent the majority of its capital in two areas: people and infrastructure. Our company is different because the majority of our people are in customer support. “We think of ourselves as project managers,” added Fucci. “Our strength is in the vast experience we have in all aspects of communications, combined with the willingness to help a customer. As to our facility, we think of our office as our 12th man on the field. When customers visit us, they quickly feel the culture of willingness around them and realize they have 150 people working for them.”
How can you expect your customer to think of you differently if you don’t think differently for them? Try it with your next opportunity.