Customer experience is at the forefront of every printer’s mind and with that in mind printers should aim to be an extension of their customers’ teams, Foldfactory.com CEO Trish Witkowski says.

Witkowski, who is a direct marketing expert for print, recently spoke at a #ElevatePrint webinar session with Print Media Centr intergalactic ambassador Deborah Corn on how printers can become the most valuable partners (MVP) for their customers.

“Doing great work is just a seat at the table; these days, it’s about customer experience and how you can make things easier for them,” she said.

With one of the key issues in print being responsiveness, where customers are demanding things fast, Witkowski mentioned that proactive communication in preferred channels has become more important today than before.

Process efficiency is also another key factor, according to Witkowski.

“As a customer, if I’ve got to do a lot of the work, you’ve created a complicated way of working. Over time, this becomes annoying for customers. If you want to become a MVP, you have to be prepared to offer a paradise of customer service,” she said.

“It costs a lot more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep the ones that we have and a lot of times, we take the ones we have for granted. So, respect your customer’ time and value their business.”

Corn spoke about the importance of printers having to extend their digital footprint by updating or establishing a proper online presence, which provides customers with the most up-to-date information about the business and delivers a snapshot of what they do in the most direct and engaging way possible.

“This also increases the SEO of your print business. You should be adding content on your website so that Google records it. It’s super important as the whole world is now moving towards online and it also keeps you top of mind for customers,” Corn said.

Witkowski spoke about the need for printers to find ways to be helpful by first identifying pain points and time-wasting steps and what they can offer to make things easier.

“It’s just about thinking of the different ways to provide the customer with the tools necessary to help them speed along processes and deliver on a more quality result. Showcasing opportunities through turnkey solutions is one of the ways you can deliver,” she said.

“Specialising in one industry vertical is also an option – you’ll learn about the industry very well, how to service it very well and what solutions work best for that particular market. That then makes your processes more efficient and commits you to a particular model.

“This doesn’t necessarily mean having your entire business just service that one vertical but rather dedicate a team to be the experts in that one niche and service it exceptionally well.”

Standardisation is also key, according to Witkowski, along with the ability to showcase your successes.

“You have to group together your solutions that you can economically categorise and price together. Success stories are also another way to show how and why these things work. Don’t let your customer imagine how it might work in their type of business; people like to see it in application,” she mentioned.

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