INDUSTRY TIPS / THE ONLINE PRINT COACH 37 www.printmonthly.co.uk March / April 2025 - Issue 353 HOW TO CONDUCT EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEYS Let’s face it, the print industry can be a highly competitive place, so it’s important to understand the needs and expectations of our customers. From my own experience with the businesses I work with, using customer surveys is only something around 80% of companies use and I suspect this is mimicked across the industry. As such, I felt this was worth digging into a little more in this article and I hope by the end, it is something you might consider utilising more in your efforts to scale and grow. Good customer feedback should be a critical part of your overall business strategy. Whether you’re a print broker, small print shop, or full-scale commercial operation, customer satisfaction is key and often the difference between success and being unsuccessful comes down to things like turnaround times, quality, and service reliability. I often say that the best types of customers we can have are the ones who not only order from us time and time again, but also those who are happy to refer our business to others. Surveys allow us to go beyond assumptions and hear directly from our customers about what their priorities are. Do they value speed over price? Are they looking for a more sustainable product offering? Would they prefer smaller quantity options? The answers to questions like this can assist you in shaping your product offering and marketing strategy. We can be guilty of assuming we know what our customers want but they also appreciate being heard too. Taking their feedback into consideration and acting on it, if you are able, shows that you care and can go a long way to building and strengthening your relationship with them. We’ve all heard that expression “Your only as good as your last print job!”. By reaching out and understanding your customer’s pain points, you have the opportunity to put it right before your competition does. I’ve seen first-hand how important feedback like this can highlight inefficiencies in a company’s workflow and perhaps reveal areas where you are falling short. It’s critical to get this part right as if not done with consideration, it can lead to poor response rates and give you customer insights that are too vague to act on. Decide in advance what you want to learn from this process. Are you collecting information on overall customer satisfaction or exploring new opportunities? Either way, you want to keep the questions short and focused. Ideally, you want to keep it under ten to 15 questions at the very most so that it takes your customers no longer than three to five minutes to complete. Colin Sinclair McDermott, aka The Online Print Coach, talks about the benefits of customer satisfaction surveys and how to best use them with your clients Having been in the print industry since the mid-late 90s, Colin Sinclair McDermott entered the world of self-employment in 2004 and over the years that followed, experienced a number of highs and lows running his own print company, learning what does and doesn’t work. In 2022, he trained with The Business Coaching Academy to become a fully certified corporate coach with the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches. Through The Online Print Coach, industry members can access an online training platform, Print Mastermind and private 1-to-1 coaching with Sinclair McDermott. www.theonlineprintcoach.com Designing Your Survey Why Customer Satisfaction Surveys are a Must
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