Page 28 - PWM2023_MAY

BETTER BUSINESS

Customer

service

A tough print market, exacerbated by the Covid
pandemic, means that keeping your clients happy –
and coming back for more – is more important then
ever, by Adam Bernstein

B customer service the matter most
ack in 1936, Dale
definitely also applies to print. And
Carnegie wrote what is
now a rather famous
Darren Coxon, managing director,
Pensord Group is already on side.
book, How to win
friends and influence
In his view, customer service is a
people. An accidental “top priority” and follows from so
hit, it only came into being after a much of the sector being commod-
publishing firm executive at Simon & itised by buyers. As he says, “you’d
Schuster took one of Carnegie’s expect relationships to be purely
courses and felt that the content was transactional, but we are proud of
ripe for publishing. Revised in 1981, it our business and understand that
has now sold more than 30 million publishing and print is complex”. It’s
copies worldwide. this understanding that he says drives
At the book’s heart is the theory the company to make sure it “sup-
that treating people well – in effect, ports clients with good communica-
how we all want to be treated – leads tion, understanding their needs and
to personal and by extension, com- delivering to expectation”.
mercial, success. He adds: “The minute we accept Worryingly, and print won’t be the only sector to have noticed this, tech-
Of course, there are a myriad of that we are a commodity is the min- nology has made building great relationships harder. As Neal has seen,
books on customer service, but the ute we will lose some long-term “technology has stopped so many face-to-face meetings. I miss the days
best example of overt customer cen- existing relationships because we when there was a proper hand over of artwork with the print buyer,
tric service that this author has seen will no longer be different and will no designer and account director”.
is that of an independent home goods longer provide the value that our cli- “The level of detail that was communicated in that meeting was huge in
and electronics retailer in the US – ents see and feel.” ensuring that projects got off to a really good start and the client felt that we
Chicago-based ABT Electronics. In And Sam Neal, CEO of the Geoff had really listened.”
He says that he is not a technophobe but says that “the value of being face
an age of online, it occupies Neal Group, agrees. He too views to face to build relationships, which is vital to offering great customer ser-
42,000sqm of retail space with a new customer service as the “number-one vice, cannot be forgotten.”
40,000sqm warehouse on a priority” and notes, that “everyone in Jo Causon, CEO of the Institute of Customer Service, takes a macro per-
280,000sqm site where customers my business will tell you that I talk spective to the subject. She says, referring to the institute’s latest UK
fight for parking. It wins countless about this all of the time”. To him, Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) which surveys 10,000 consumers
awards and one of the reasons for this offering good customer service is not every six months, “that there are a number of things that organisations typ-
is its service philosophy which is typi- complicated – it “revolves around the ically get wrong”.
fied by signs placed inside the ‘shop’ simple interpersonal skills we all use “We’ve found that record numbers of customers experienced a problem
which, plainly written, say: “The daily, executed well and consistently. with an organisation. At the same time, satisfaction with complaint han-
answer to any reasonable question is Always imagine you are going to dling is at its highest ever level. This suggests we have got better at dealing
‘yes’.” receive the message you are about to with issues when they happen, but worse at preventing them at source,”
she says.
deliver – if you like and believe in
Customer service is so important As far as she is concerned, getting things right first time is essential.And
what you are about to say then the she makes the point by looking at the impact of service on profitability. The
While the world of retail has chances are the intended recipient institute wrote, in its Customer Service Dividend Report in 2017, that aver-
woken up to the importance of good will too.” age EBITDA was 24.7% for organisations with higher than sector-average

28 PrintWeek MENA May 2023 www.printweekmena.com