Customer Service

All about the difference…

7 January 2024 Stuart Nimmo

Anyone with any common sense knows it’s not what you do, but how you do it. With a wide variety of print service providers out there, some purely online shifting products without any relationship. To us print is an art form when done well, it adds value, understanding what you want to achieve is at the heart of how we do it. So distinguishing what matters and why, makes a real difference to the result. With over 70 years of combined experience within HAD-Print, the small differences are what make the difference, so here are a few examples.

What makes us different?
“More than box shifters” at the very heart of what we do – is understanding your needs as our customer. Easy words, but here’s one example.
It’s not just understanding you, but the needs of your end users. The work we’ve done with Simon Ferris at Flat Stan First Aid is about maximising the learning of the children partaking in the programme and after the learning. We’ve helped Simon to evolve his resources into something more dynamic which is engaging on many levels. Simon doesn’t just use us for the print, but as a sounding board to help his develop ideas – it is a pleasure to be valued in this way.

What makes us different?
“More than box shifters” at the very heart of what we do – is understanding your needs as our customer. Easy words, but here’s another example.
When you meet a business person regularly you get to understand them and their business. Ben at Phoenix Heating and Plumbing was one of these customers. Seeing, talking, understanding, and knowing his “pain points” really helped auto meet his aspirations of where he wanted to take his business. Introducing a brand identity for Phoenix Heating and Plumbing, was probably the first significant thing we did, we amazed Ben when after a few words, we were able to hit the brief on the nose for him. Workwear for his team provided the opportunity to raise the level and put pride in the business. We’ve since helped get marketing collateral to hit the mark as well. Quick response due to circumstances, favours pulled from some of our contacts, and leaflets with the right professional high-end images he required to help them pitch for the work they knew they could achieve.

What makes us different?
“More than box shifters” at the very heart of what we do – is understanding your needs as our customer. Easy words, but here’s another example.
A very recent example. And a very sweet one at that. Mrs H, whose husband had recently passed, wished to ensure his legacy was a positive one. He had extensively researched the mills in 2 local valleys and the documents whilst useable, they were in no format to be shared or passed on. We took the documents, and a wallet of photos, and worked our way through and artwork up the book professionally, after a round of proofreading, the 2 volumes (books) were printed on a limited edition basis, enough for the family, placing in local libraries and history centres.

What makes us different?
“More than box shifters” at the very heart of what we do – is understanding your needs as our customer. Easy words, but here’s another example.
Over the last 2 years, we’ve produced all sorts of card decks. A lovely item to work on, as they are usually so diverse in content. At the end of last year, we had a referral enquiry which said… “Can you…” well, the answer is yes, as ever. It was a different size, a different number of cards. Gareth had in his mind’s eye exactly what he wanted. Getting to know, and understand is the usual key to creating a specification which works. It was nice that it was 2 decks of the same specification, different designs running in parallel, which makes things easier in production. Gareth in asking the right questions to us, enabled us to tweak and develop what he was looking for from an existing reference point. Here’s why it works with us, we are truly bespoke, unlike your online portal funnel web-based printers, we use, knowledge, and experience to devise the right solution for you.

Need your print to work smarter for you? Why not start a conversation with us?

Thinking about others…

26 March 2022 Stuart Nimmo

It’s at the heart of building effective relationships, if the last few years have taught us anything, compassion, consideration and understanding go a long way. However, everyone’s benchmark of expectations vary differently. Inherently these are formed as parts of people’s value sets, which if you understand generational theory are established in the pre-teenage years.

Recently in a drive to grow the business, building connections has been at the heart of many actions around establishing the right meaningful relationships. It’s very apparent some people form bonds, through shared common experiences or backgrounds. This really has come to light in the fact that we’ve seen business come from connections we made 3-4 years ago, and time wasn’t right at that moment, circumstances change, and we’ve developed and click, things start to happen. Talking of business networking, we’re very aware of individuals who seem to be there for the “me, me me” scenario and miss the purpose of building relationships, and short term wins are their only objectives.

Networking happens everywhere and at every opportunity. Fortunately, we don’t just get ourselves out there in b2b environments. A recent event for West Yorkshire Scouts, allowed us to meet, build and form relationships with a whole raft of different people. Common bonds and understanding is something that drives understanding and respect. Sharing ideas and concepts to make life easier is often what builds that special connection with others.

Being ordinary is just enough, and if you’re like us, you’re far from ordinary. We’re pretty passionate about what we do, and geared up to make a difference when people need it. If we can help, we do. A couple of instances in the last fortnight where at short notice people have needed jobs quick, and we’ve gone yes. Thankfully a few customers have flexed to allow us to achieve this, but we like a bit of communication with everyone as it makes it easier. We’re hoping that these new relationships will blossom, into more meaningful long term partnerships. In both cases, the physical meeting and seeing made a huge amount of difference.

Building relationships is around the elements of team building to an extent. The “form, storm, norm and perform” are critical to levelling the understanding between people. The recent process of doing accounts paperwork for on-boarding as a supplier etc, cause a little hiccup when payment terms needed to be agreed, as our approach is very along the lines of the small business commissioners approach of fast to our suppliers, however, it does mean we need or like fast payment to us, to maintain cash flow and operational stuff. It’s worth looking at https://www.smallbusinesscommissioner.gov.uk/ppc/. Being a champion to small businesses is appreciated by us, which shows all of the keywords I mentioned at the head of this blog.

Perhaps I am lucky that my background has always been geared up to thinking about others. Whether as a graphic designer, understanding your audience and how something is going to be used is at the heart of making the brief work. Yes, my scouting experiences do make big difference, compassion and empathy is something which is developed skill. I have realised perhaps my own abilities are somewhat limited, through recent experiences, which have tried and tested me. We do all need to show latitude and understanding in these times, unprecedented, previously unknown experiences are testing us all, so compassion, consideration and understanding. Above all be open, say if you are struggling, say if you are stretched, be open about things, we’re not here to take advantage, good people will support you.

So how do you view good customer engagement?

31 January 2022 Stuart Nimmo

This all started from a small conversation in the office between myself and Jake. The simple pleasure of a decent haircut. A really interesting dialogue then commenced.

So the small talk in the chair is nice but very generational. It appears the older you are more you appreciate a bit of conversation. The younger you are the zen opportunity to zone out is appreciated.

Traditional British or Turkish / Asian barbers? Interesting point the latter certainly seems to have the experience edge, with the small added extras. Such as head massages, the neck guard tissue to prevent unwanted hair down your shirt, the spritz spray leaving you fresh, eyebrows were seen to.

It appears the holistic experience is what overrides the basic need for a haircut. So what can we all learn?
The extras matter. If it is a small add the actual incurred cost is marginal.
The personal experience is king. Whether it is the conversation or the zen zone. It all matters.
To some degree price points can be a decider, however, people will pay for the right experience.
For some people, branding and status matter. Pedigree and experience will be a significant decider for some. But ultimately every individual has a different perspective on their expectations, so why do we all try and use one size fits all, the skill is in tailoring the experience to meet the needs of the customer.

We’ve long advocated about being real and striving to deliver the right experience. It’s really hard when customers give you one-liner emails and expect the world, equally relationships are king, very similar to the barber, knowing to understand and ensuring the right points are hit time after time.