Sparkatopia

As Manager of Digital Development Tom want to share his point of view on various subjects. Today’s Point of View topic is on customer service. Tom has spent over 25 years in various customer service rolls from his days as a paperboy to working with customers in his current role. What and some good customer service traits and what are bad ones. HC Miller has some great examples of super account managers and Tom wants to share with you one outstanding one.

Here is a a Blog posting I wrote for the Kodak “Grow Your Biz” blog. I appreciate being asked to guest blog!

Not so long ago, while working at a small mom and pop shop called Banta, now RR Donnelley, we received a 1500 page catalog with a set of proofs. This business-to-business catalog was nothing special, some product shots, some body copy explaining the items, pricing and tables. You know the usual catalog fare. The customer expressed to us the “critical” nature of their color needs and we told them that we would take good care of their files. They asked for contract grade proofs on their cover, chapter openers and random pages throughout the catalog.

So we generated our highest quality Fuji Final Proofs for this customer. After receiving the proofs, we received an irate phone call from them saying we didn’t do what they asked. They complained that the color on our proofs was way off!!!? We scratched our heads in disbelief, and looked back at the last time the proofer was calibrated. Things seemed in check, as our proofer was calibrated to SWOP recommendations. Investigating further into the process with the customer, we found out that we hadn’t matched their proofs. We tried digging into the job jacket to get a sample of their proofs, thinking for a moment they were Kodak Approvals or some other high quality dot generated contract proofs. Well…not even close. Their proofs were all generated with an inexpensive, store purchased, desktop ink jet printer.

They said, “We like the reds and blues better on our proofs, please match out proofs!”

Needless to say, any customer who asks us to match proofs generated from a cheap desktop printer is in no mood or mindset to talk CMYK gamut and ink sets. At the end of the day, a few new calibrations curves for our plates seemed to satisfy the customer somewhat, but they were not truly 100% happy.

Helping customers understand expectations with regards to proofing is a hard task in this day and age of commodity-based printing. Clients come and go to the printer with the best pricing and with the advent of desk top publishing, almost any Tom, Dick or Harry can put together a catalog, or so says their boss!

It’s so important to have proper UPFRONT communication with your customer to help alleviate these types of situations. Many times we say we don’t have time to educate our customers, but we certainly found time to build new calibration curves and reset the customer’s expectations. This process would have been so much easier if we were able to do this before the fact.

Lisa Cruz and Tommy Clifford talk about applications of FourSquare in business. Tommy recently became mayor of the local North Shore Bank. They sent him a letter rewarding him on his accomplishment. How cool is that? Is your business keeping an eye on who is “checking in” at your business? Are you thinking of ways to participate in the conversation?

Red Shoes Speaks No. 21 FourSquare Applications in Business from Lisa Cruz on Vimeo.

Dear world, I LOVE MY NEW JOB!!!

How cool is this?

Love, Tommy

3030 Lowell Drive

Green Bay, WI 54311

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release For additional information contact:

Tim McAdow

(920) 965-9720

HC MILLER COMPANY NAMES THOMAS CLIFFORD DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Seasoned Variable Data, Workflow and Social Media Veteran a Resource for Customers

Green Bay, Wis., March 24, 2010…HC Miller Company, a leader in organizational product manufacturing and information distribution, today announced the addition of Thomas Clifford to its employee owned organization.  As the Digital Development Manager, Clifford will leverage his broad experience to help clients communicate their information electronically across multiple channels.  This will include distribution using the internet and digital printing technology such as the newly installed Xerox iGEN4^®.  He will also support the fast growing development and deployment of customized communication portals for customers in the world of Web-to-Print.

Clifford comes to HC Miller with over 20 years of electronic experience.  He spent the last 14 years in several leadership and customer facing roles for Banta Corporation, now RR Donnelly.  He has been a passionate participant in emerging technology during those years with a strong focus on industry education and collaboration.  “Tom’s love for all things digital and teaching people how to use technology to improve their processes will serve HC Miller’s customers very well” sites HC Miller’s Director of Operations, Jeff Collier.  One of Clifford’s specialties is new media applications.  He will work directly with customers on how to leverage new media channels such as FaceBook, Twitter and Linkedin.  Currently he is one of Wisconsin’s most followed on the social media application Twitter.

About HC Miller Company

HC Miller is a 100% employee owned company that has been delivering innovative products and services for over 120 years.  The Company also offers innovative communication and multimedia solutions for the marketing, promotion and delivery of information for its customers.  The Company also provides organizational products such as index tabs, binders and filing solutions to the healthcare, government, dental and legal markets through a network of over 350 dealers and distributors.  In addition, The Company is a leading provider of equipment placement services for the flexographic market, service printers and converters across the world.

For more information about HC Miller, visit www.hcmiller.com.

CONTACT:  HC Miller Company

Tim McAdow, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, 920-965-9720

Lisa, Jess & Tommy talk about customer service and the ever changing landscape of taking care of customers. Do you want to be helped on twitter, an online chat or would you prefer a good old phone call? It should be the customers’ choice on how they want to be served.

Red Shoes Speaks No. 17 Customer Service from Jessica Dennis on Vimeo.

Jess and Tommy talk about Jess’ blog post called Social media, not a strategy or a tactic…a communication channel. How should companies be using social media and incorporating it into their marketing plans? Jess and Tommy discuss best practices for corporate social media use.

Red Shoes Speaks No. 8 Social media, strategy or communication channel from Jessica Dennis on Vimeo.

Today is my 14th anniversary at my place of business. I love my job and I love the people I work with. Over my 14 years I have met many-a-people, but I’m pretty sure this one person ranks “Best in Class” if not best ever. For this example we will call him John. John was a sales guy at our organization and I had the opportunity to go on many a sales calls with him as the tech rep. I loved going on the road with John has he always made the trip pleasurable. John has shown by example how to excel. I think you’ll see why.

After each business trip I took with John, he would always send a hand written note on personal stationary. This is just the coolest thing ever. Its amazing to get a note saying thank you. Who many times do you help someone and not even get a smile or thank you.  I have worked with sales people who would not even pick you up at their airport, let alone send a thank you card. Little notes of appreciation really make the difference!! This example has shown me how to be a better person as I now send out thank you cards from time to time. The impact of a thank you card is HUGE!

The second example that John is to me brings me back to my 14th anniversary. John left the company a few months back, but this AM, I received a personal email from John congratulating me on my milestone. John is always good for a birthday wish and an anniversary phone call or email. Even away from his old job, he still remembers his co-workers. What a shining example.

The last example of how John has influenced my life took place about 5 or 6 years ago. We had the opportunity to fly to a customer site together. Nothing very remarkable about that… it gets better. While on a layover in Chicago‘s O’Hare Airport, we had some flight issues. I’m not sure exactly what took place but we need to get re-ticketed for our flight. John asked for my ticket and graciously took care of the heavy lifting. After a few minutes in line, he handed me back my boarding pass and I didn’t think another thing of it. Well that was until the ground crew started boarding and asked for the first class passengers. Oh course I paid no attention until John punched me in the arm and said “Hey that’s you..look at your ticket man.”

No sooner did I look at my boarding pass and I noticed I was seated in seat 1A. What the…how did I get a first class ticket? Well here’s the back story. While taking care of the re-ticketing, John used some of his frequent flier miles to upgrade to first class, but he used them on my seat. He sat in coach and I sat in first class.

John has to be the classiest person I have ever worked with, bar none. He is a shining example of a great father, husband, co-worker and I’m proud to call him a friend. There are so many ways he has influenced my life. All who know him know exactly what I’m talking about. While I sat in first class, the real first class sat in coach! Thanks John.

I just roared when I read this off the Fake Steve Jobs website… Highlarious!

Questions in advance, nothing confrontational, remember that you depend on me to make a living and in two seconds I could end your career, keep it light, keep it moving, no followups, no arguing, no pressing for more info, be reverential at all times, remember that you are acting as an extension of our PR arm and the point of this interview is to promote Apple and promote our products. That’s how my dear friend David Pogue (above) does it, and it’s why he’ll always have access to our products ahead of everyone else. Much love, David Pogue. And namaste. I honor the place where your interests and my own become one.