Customer Service Archives

The big question… Why?

In an age where buzzwords and rhetoric spin around endlessly. Falsities around being kind to the environment by using electronic communications bluff their way into everyday life. Why does print or physical marketing matter?

We exist to provide the following

• enable successful businesses/organizations to engage with effective physical touchpoints
• assist SMEs / charities to deliver effective physical branding to enforce their presence in their primary customer touchpoints
• enable more accountable communications with known carbon footprint materials

What drives us… in a physical world, where being seen is a significant challenge. The reality of physical provides a great opportunity to help SMEs and third-sector organizations to create reality, and retention whilst resonating with an audience in a meaningful way.

The power of print, aka physical marketing, lies in the ability to connect. Connections are created through, the impact of the message; evoking the senses, visual and touch. Print through its lesser utilization due to mass market digital communications being cheap and overused, means print holds a unique power of trust, and reality, there at the moment, with no distractions. When coupled with creativity in a proper design, and well-written content, it has leverage in a very different way. Add in personalized or localized to make the message even more relevant to the recipient, and the engagement level increases further.

As a multi-disciplinary print provider, we don’t just print on paper, but everything through to large format items like banners and signage, through to garments and apparel. Delivering a wide range of physical items ready to take your brand. Delivery of this range of items, allows us to support our customers more fully in delivering their message, even just reminding people of who they are. Of course, this can be subliminal, working in the background.

We don’t live in silos, unlike some graphic communication providers. We know and understand the power of connecting digital communications with print. We don’t profess to be experts in digital communications, however, understand what you can do. Hence why you won’t find us selling websites, social media support or other digital products. At the heart of what we do is the power of physical media through print. We understand the paper, and the nuisances of print finishing, which allows us to better specify strong campaigns and items in print.

Don’t think we are not connected, we do understand marketing basics, we have professionals in other disciplines we love to work with. We will ask, what is your call to action? How do you want to measure or quantify parts of marketing tools? How are you distributing or connecting with people who might be your ideal audience? These aren’t hostile questions, purely us making sure you have thought through a customer journey, where are you wanting them to go next and why.

As for being accountable, we can identify sources of paper, substrates, garment stock and pretty much everything that flows through our print studio. From the shortest journeys of Kendal to Preston and us in Halifax, or paper manufactured in Portugal. With toner which is compostable, latex large format ink. We are well aware of every item we use in our processes. We’d like to challenge you to think of the carbon used in digital communications- you’ll struggle to fully identify every element or resource used.

Above all, we care about what we do, try to be properly responsible, and have some ethics along the way. Perhaps we are an exception to life in modern business society, we aim to be credible, through being responsible. We work best when in partnership with our customers, helping them to achieve whilst delivering progressive development for all involved. Making us part of the bigger community, valued and adding value where we can.

Covid-19 and our changing habits

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Insights from those nearest and dearest to you, often ring home with a certain resonance. The daily chat with my Mum, she was telling me about one of her friends who called her today. They were chatting about the local small shops at the top of the road. Pam (friend) said her son reported the Butcher was saying he hopes to keep some of the business he’s recently gained. My mum went on to tells the mixed stories about the previous service she had from the said butcher.

Of course, customers gained through this experience of lockdown and resorting to local businesses need the experience to exceed their expectations continually. Ask any hardnosed salesperson they will take about under-promising and over-delivering to maintain an edge with a customer.

Of course, knowing your customers is the key here. Building the relationship is absolutely key, however gaining the information can be the challenge. Developing your offering is important to gaining knowledge of your customers. I’ve met many a serious salesperson who kept a card index with key bullet point notes about when and where of their key customers. Knowledge is power, especially about tailoring the sales offer.

So how do we implement tools to help us gain more knowledge about customers.

The classic one for customer knowledge acquisition is the loyalty card, Championed by Tesco’s with Club Card, and the likes of Nectar and to the contemporary likes of Screwfix and their use of customer profiles. They build the knowledge bank on each customer and offer offers and experiences relevant to them. One of the crux behind these are regular communications, whilst yes electronic tools work within this portfolio, use of selective physical mailers as the mix and change of communication methods keeps the response levels fresh.

However, you engage and build a relationship with a customer it’s worth remembering you don’t have a one-track relationship with your friends. Using a mix of methods will provide you with a rich source of nuggets of conversation pieces, which show you care and value them.

A bit about the author…Stuart is Operations Director for HAD-PRINT, passionate about customer service and meaningful marketing, dabbles with various marketing tools and ideas, and likes to integrate them into a meaningful progression for us and our customers.

We love customers….

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Customer service is one of those experiences which everyone says they excel at. However, the word quality is very subjective. What does it really mean? How do you go to quantifying something which is partly an intangible?

It’s probably fair to say that small businesses probably do make more of an effort on customer service. It means more to them, it’s a lot more personal, the person you are dealing with, it most likely the business owner and want to ensure the best experience for you as a customer or user of their product or service.

Even within 24 hours and recent days, I’ve seen polar opposite examples of how having the right communication can go a long way. Making it easier for your customer to see, find and engage is so essential, in creating the right experience.

A few tails….
… An associate of ours popped in and was discussing a project and common experiences came into the conversation. We both mentioned a salesperson who we’ve come across at various networking events. Needless to say, the perception was highly the same. The body language, tone of voice and conduct had made a similar impression, which was quite brusque and loud.
…Unfortunately my schedule this week has been manic, and realising I needed to use my Saturday morning more smartly I decided to try a gym session earlier. Much to my disappointment didn’t open to much later (weekdays it is 0630). Again the tone and body language of the member of staff who greeted me was curt and abrupt.
…Our Plumber was in the area, following a recent online conversation about upgrading our shower, popped by and give us the information we needed. Un-prompted, courtesy call, soon found out the specification and the boundary of our old shower, which provided enough information for the boundaries on the specification for a replacement.

It’s really simple to see, the value adds, don’t cost anything. Simple premises of choosing your attitude, being there for the customer, making their day is great to add bring a smile back in return. Longevity wise, the benefits of the extras do pay off, referrals are more likely with great positive experiences. Mediocracy results in no action, as nothing memorable sparks a trigger. However, the negative experiences become “old wife’s tails” which unfortunately spread too much. So if you’re marketing budget is limited, canny customer experiences can result in great word of mouth referrals which bring greater trust levels from new customers, as you’ve already partially won them over.