How to Stop Losing Customers in Your Printing Business
So how, exactly, are we supposed to talk to our customers, to have good communication? Certainly there is no excuse not to communicate with your clients when you consider the media and technology available today:
- social media
- telephone
- fax
- direct mail
- newsletters
- sales people
- customer service reps
- and more…
Ideally you should use as many media as possible to communicate with your clients as part of an overall marketing strategy. Clients each have their own unique preferences for communication.
Believe it or not, one of the most powerful resources available to commercial printers and quick copy shops is one that I rarely see used in their communications. Ironically (and sadly) it’s the power of print itself that is missing.
Here’s a startling fact to illustrate my point. Our business, Technifold USA, is a supplier to the printing industry. We have more than 18,000 printers in our database, with several thousand of them as customers. I don’t get a single printed newsletter from any of them to communicate with us as a customer or as a potential customer.
Yes, we get some emails, some info kits, occasional postcards and other mailings. But not one printed newsletter reaches my desk!
Heck, I get printed newsletters from CPA’s (we hired one of the fellows that sent a printed version), from my chiropractor (I spend money there year in, year out,) from my church, (regular contributions there too) and from trade associations we belong to (annual dues and sponsorship of numerous events). I think you get the picture, printed communication = money.
One of the key findings in the study is that “Businesses find it difficult to grow without a stable customer base, but the technology is available to enable firms of all sizes to communicate effectively and retain their customers.”
