Create a Business Experience Customers Will Remember
By: T.J. Tedesco
For: The Binding Edge
Published: Fall, 2003

When companies are asked to identify the reasons customers continue to do business with them, they'll often trot out the old stand-bys: excellent quality, prompt service, on-time deliveries, reasonable prices, etc. Although each of those may be a compelling factor for some customers, today's reality is that most of them expect to receive all of those things as part of the experience of doing business with your company.

This begs a logical question: If customers can't distinguish your company from competitors based on those factors, why would prospects? They wouldn't, of course, and they won't. So instead of focusing on those factors, attract prospects and lock in customers for the long haul by creating a unique and memorable customer experience.

The Lesson of Eddie Merlot
On a recent visit to an Indianapolis-based client, we dined at Eddie Merlot's, a local steakhouse. I thought the name was intriguing, so I inquired as to the origin. The waiter handed me a brochure and directed my attention to the rear panel, which had this great story:

Bill Humphries, founder of Eddie Merlot's, is a well-known wine connoisseur. In fact, Bill's talent for choosing appropriate dinner wine was one of his responsibilities as a board member for a worldwide corporation. At one such dinner, Ed, a new member, asked Bill to surprise him with a great wine. When the wine - a merlot - was poured and tasted, Ed was exceedingly impressed, and told Bill, "From now on, always order the merlot." "And from now on," Bill replied, "you're Eddie Merlot." To this day, that's what Ed's fellow board members call him. We named our restaurant Eddie Merlot's in homage to the man.

Naming your business after a customer may be overkill in the graphic arts industry. But there is a fundamental lesson to be learned from the Eddie Merlot story: You can never make your business too customer-centric.

Start with the Little Things
Creating a better experience for your customers doesn't require a comprehensive overhaul of your business. In fact, the biggest differences are often found in the smallest details. The manner in which people in your company answer the phone, for example, may be all a prospect needs to determine whether or not they want to do business with you. Every word that's communicated - even bad news, such as a late shipment - sounds just a little bit better if there's a pleasant inflection to your voice.

A positive attitude goes far beyond the telephone. Keep in mind that every employee is an ambassador for your company, and carries the potential to cause great harm or win clients for life. That's why it's important that each person carry a positive attitude whenever they interact with customers. We know of at least one company that enjoys a positive reputation with customers in part because their delivery driver is courteous, friendly and generally easy-to-like - qualities that customers have extended to the company as a whole.

Move Carefully and Deliberately
Although small details are what collectively make up the customer experience, a sweeping change that's well-executed can be the tonic your company needs to create a customer experience worth remembering. A small printing company we know wanted to differentiate themselves by promising customers that they would have proofs in their hands within 24 hours of submitting a job. Keeping this promise proved difficult, however, as the prepress department worked only a standard first shift. Since many purchase orders arrived in the afternoon, they were often working frantically to rush out proofs.

That eventually left them with an important decision: Abandon their promise or restructure how they worked. They determined that creating a unique customer experience was vitally important, so they made the bold step of switching their prepress department to a PM shift. This enabled them to process all jobs with the care and attention they required, and ensured that proofs would be on their customers' desks the first thing the next morning.

It should be noted that not all sweeping changes are created equal. A novel idea isn't a valuable one if it can't be implemented quickly and seamlessly. A fundamental change in business philosophy, for example, is much more difficult to effect than remodeling the customer lounge (or even creating a second-shift prepress staff). Before jumping in with both feet on your next great idea, it may be wise to ask a few trusted customers if the change is truly as "customer-centric" as it seems. Very often, the learning curve is such that even a positive result will be viewed as a negative on balance if customers are forced to participate in lengthy growing pains.

Just Ask Your Customers
If you're looking to make your business more memorable for customers, why not go right to the source for some ideas? Very often, customers (and prospects) themselves will let you know which changes you need to make to improve their overall experience of doing business with your company.

Here's one way to gather ideas: Set aside at least a half-hour every Friday morning for a few informal phone calls with customers (Hey! There's a memorable customer experience right there!). Most of your customers will be more than happy to participate in a little customer-centric brainstorming. No matter what transpires - don't be surprised if you get pulled into more than one impromptu gripe session - you'll get valuable feedback on how you can differentiate your business.

If you find yourself too pressed for time to make those calls a habit, a brief but thorough survey mailed to customers and prospects may be a solution. The key word here is "thorough". A survey will do you little good if the questions are too vague or are skewed to result in - ahem - nothing but positive feedback. Go ahead, be direct! Ask questions like, "Think of the last time you spoke with someone from ABC Bindery on the phone. What were your impressions of our business once the conversation was finished?" or "Do you feel confident that ABC Bindery will keep the promises we make to you?" Questions that provoke thought will likely generate more responses and provide you with some valuable feedback.

Creating a unique and memorable customer experience is a must in today's business climate. As the tangible differences between competitors - such as production quality - become practically non-existent, post press companies will find greater success and enjoy more profitable customer relationships when they can create a unique and memorable customer experience.

T.J. Tedesco is a “hands-on” marketing, sales, coaching and training consultant to the post press industry. He is the author of Binding, Finishing & Mailing: The Final Word, and Win Top-of-Mind Positioning, both published by GATFPress and available at Amazon.com. T.J. can be reached at (301) 294-9900 or tj@growsales.com.