Meet Our Team: Chris Leduc

Posted on June 17, 2021 by jeremy

Position: VP of Manufacturing, Estimating and Oversaw Production.

Now at Heeter EPIX Manager (Estimating, Procurement, Inventory, Scheduling)

Time at Duke: 35 Years – right out of High School

Pre-Duke Print? Worked in a Bowling Alley Part-Time throughout High School

Time in print industry: Well, my Dad started in our basement and when I was 10, I would pack Envelopes back into cartons for 25 cents a box if that counts, then 43 years.

Favorite project you’ve worked on at  Duke:  Implementing Avanti MIS System and being the administrator for updates and bugs

For fun: Bowling is my main hobby, both participating and being a Volunteer Coach for Junior Leagues.

I’ll be married 24 Years this July, 2 Step-Daughters, 2 Step-Grand-Daughters, a step grandson, 2 Sons and recently added to the family in the last year 2 son-in-law’s.

5 Reasons Print Is Still Thriving

 Remember all of those forecasts about the demise of print? They haven’t come true. Like most offline channels, direct mail took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is still remarkably effective. Research by PFL found that, even during the pandemic, marketers were 18% more likely to see “good” or “very good” ROI when direct mail was in their marketing mix than when it was not. 

 

Let’s look at five reasons why print continues to thrive, even in our digital and multichannel world.  

 

1. Recipients can’t miss it. If your email doesn’t get opened, your message never gets seen (which happens more often than not). With postcards, clear envelopes, windows, and exterior envelope printing, however, they see at least part of your message—if not all of it—as soon as they take the piece out of the mailbox.  

 

2. It’s visually appealing. Online graphics can be lovely. However, a beautifully printed piece will blow away your screen graphics every time. 

 

3. Print amplifies the message. According to the Online Marketing Institute, it takes six to eight marketing touches to generate a viable sales lead. Repetition is critical, and print is an essential part of the mix. 

 

4. Print causes people to buy. Marketers once thought that with the growth of e-commerce, printed catalogs would fade away. History indicates the opposite. Studies find that consumers who receive printed catalogs are more likely to make purchases at the retailer’s website than those who do not. 

 

5. Consumers trust print more. Unless an email comes from a known brand, people are skeptical of claims made by email alone. Because print incurs a production and mailing cost, it carries a weight and authenticity that digital marketing does not. People continue to trust messages communicated in print. 

 

Print remains irreplaceable in today’s “what’s in it for me?” world. While e-marketing is a necessary component in any multichannel marketing campaign, print carries benefits that online channels can’t touch.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

5 Best Tips for Ordering Branded Products

 If you haven’t added promotional products to your marketing mix, you are missing an opportunity. Promotional products like branded pens and refrigerator magnets, or even more unusual items such as branded toys or back scratchers, reinforce your brand every time the recipient sees or uses them. Branded promotional products also tend to be kept for more extended periods than traditional marketing pieces, giving you a very low cost per impression.

Branded products are powerful tools to have in the marketing arsenal. However, ordering these items isn’t like ordering print. Here is a quick checklist to make the most of your investment.

1. Stick with simple designs.

Don’t try to overload the product with copy or images. Often, a logo and phone number are all you need.

2. Build in lead time.

You may be used to being able to place rush orders for brochures and direct mail, but promotional items require more lead time. Plan at least several weeks in advance.

3. Think in a single color.

There may not be a significant difference in cost between single-color and multicolor printing in the commercial print world. In the promotional products world, there is. Use single-color versions of graphics and logos to keep the cost down.

4. Plan for the price break.

In the world of commercial print, you don’t want to over-order products simply to get a price break, especially when considering the cost of obsolescence. Promotional items will go out of date less quickly, however, and the price breaks with volume can be substantial.

5. Consider the final mailing size.

If you are going to be mailing your promotional items, remember to consider mailing cost, too. A more expensive promotional item that ships flat may have a lower overall cost than a lower-priced but bulky item that needs to be mailed in a dimensional package.

Want to learn more about best-in-class use of promotional items? Talk to one of our business development experts.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

5 Benefits You Get from Branding

 When businesses plan their direct mail or email campaigns, their goal is generally customer acquisition or retention. But what about branding? Marketing campaigns explicitly designed to build your brand are as important as those for customer retention and sales. Why is branding so important?

 

1. Awareness. When people talk about your category of product or service, you want your name to be part of the mix. Think about categories such as laundry detergent (Tide), carbonated drinks (Coke, Pepsi), and shipping (FedEx, UPS). When people talk about your product category, you want brand recall and awareness like theirs.

 

2. Loyalty. Most people aren’t loyal to their favorite brands simply because of price or products. They are loyal because the brand resonates with them on a deeper level. Say you are a local hardware store that gives its employees days off to work through Habitat for Humanity to help build a house for a family in need. Once the house is finished, you might send a direct mail piece with the faces of smiling employees standing in front of a house with tools in their hands: “We’re more than the corner hardware store. We care!” Imagine the branding power of a message like that!

 

3. Referrals. People who have never used your product or service may still recommend it if they’ve encountered your brand enough times to develop a sense of familiarity.

 

4. Premium pricing. A powerful brand can lift your product or service out of the commodity marketplace. For example, with so many stores selling coffee, what makes people stand in line and pay top dollar at Starbucks? Branding!

5. Lower your marketing cost. Although you have to invest resources to create a strong brand, you can maintain it without having to re-tell your story over and over once your brand is established. Many budget-conscious marketers rely heavily on electronic media, but research shows that people still prefer print — and are more likely to remember it.

 

Successful marketing is built on three pillars: customer acquisition, customer retention, and branding. Make sure you are developing strategies for all three.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

Your Company Has Changed — Has Your Brochure?

 

Businesses are constantly evolving. You develop new products. You launch new services. You begin focusing on a specific niche or targeting new audiences. Be sure to update your marketing collateral along the way. This includes your company brochure. If you haven’t updated your company brochure in a while, here are seven tips for making the most of it.

1. Keep a tight focus.

A brochure isn’t a catalog. Hit the highlights, including your mission, product and service categories, and what makes you different. Save the details for another time.

2. Break it into targeted versions.

Increase the power of your marketing by targeting brochures to specific audiences. Instead of creating 10,000 of one brochure, for example, try breaking it into four different versions of 2,500 each. Use them to promote various product lines, target audiences, and even different events.

3. Unique imagery.

It might be tempting to keep down costs by using free or low-cost royalty-free images. However, generic photos can hurt your brand. They aren’t you, so they don’t tell your story. Plus, they can damage your brand if people see those images somewhere else. Use traditional royalty images or hire a professional photographer instead.

4. Limit your font choices.

Don’t over-clutter your space or create visual confusion with too many fonts. A good rule of thumb is to use no more than three fonts in any one piece.

5. Use white space.

Brochures are designed as door openers, not sales closers. Be selective. Use white space to create breathing room to keep the design clean and inviting. Tell your audience just enough to pique their interest and get them to take the next step.

6. Use high-quality stock.

People associate the quality of your paper stock with the quality of your products. Don’t skimp!

7. Include a call to action.

Even though you might not want to give a hard sell, you still want a call to action. Otherwise, your audience may just read the brochure, then set it aside. CTAs are critical to getting your audience to take action.

Are you redesigning your brochure or designing one for the first time? Let our designers give you more great ideas.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

The Essential 5-Point Marketing Checklist

 Ever wish there were a simple way to condense a wealth of marketing wisdom into a nice, neat package? This five-point checklist is a handy resource to have in your back pocket. Use all five “checks” with every campaign, every time, and you’ll get outstanding results.

1. Craft the right message.

Before you start writing copy, know your customer base and what is relevant to them. For example, if you’re a car dealership, don’t try to sell new cars to people who have purchased one within the last 12 months, even if you’re offering a great deal. Send them a discount on their next service visit instead.

2. Target the right audience.

The importance of targeting can be summed up in the experience of one diet and fitness company. The company targeted women in a specific demographic. The mailer had a great product, a great offer, and used a strong call to action. The campaign bombed. Why? The company mailed to the heads of households, which were primarily male in its target area. Make sure you are targeting the right people!

3. Get the timing right.

When you mail or blast, your communication matters — a lot. Think about donations. Charities often solicit in the spring, but unless people are regular donors, they typically do the bulk of their gifting in December, right before tax season ends. Timing can make a huge difference in your success.

4. Select the right channel.

Some people block phone calls, but read email. Others block email, but accept phone calls. Direct mail always gets through. Know your customers and what channels they prefer. Use those channels, and you’ll maximize your opportunity for success.

5. Focus on the right reason.

Successful campaigns are based not just on what people buy, but why. What are the emotional triggers that motivate your audience to make a purchase? New parents want to ensure that their children are happy and safe. New homeowners want to protect their investments. Understand the “why” as much as the “what.”

Get all five of these checkpoints right, and you have a paradigm for success! 

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

New Creative Features Enhance Adobe Photoshop

One of the aspects of Adobe Photoshop that makes it a favorite of creative professionals is its ever-expanding set of features. The most recent release is no exception. 

 

What's new in the Fall 2020 version of Adobe Photoshop? 

 

Powerful new filters: Neural Filters is a new workspace inside Photoshop that lets you explore various creative ideas. Using sliders, you can colorize a scene, zoom in on parts of an image, or change someone's expression, age, gaze, or pose in seconds. To access the new Neural Filters workspace, choose Filter > Neural Filters.

 

Sky Replacement: The new Sky Replacement feature lets you quickly select and replace the sky in a photo. Your scenery colors automatically adjust to match the new sky. Save precious time retouching and get the mood you want, even if the shooting conditions weren't ideal. Choose Edit > Sky Replacement.

 

Version history:  Want to look back at previous versions of your image without undoing the changes? With the new Version History panel, you can access saved versions of your Photoshop cloud documents. Choose (Windows) File / (macOS) Window > Version History. Preview, mark, and revert to earlier versions as needed.

 

Use Photoshop cloud documents offline: Are you going off the grid but want to edit on the go? You can make a recently opened Photoshop cloud document available offline for editing even when you don't have internet access. Go to cloud documents on the home screen, click the three-dot icon, and select "Make available offline."

 

Pattern preview: Want to envision how your design will come to life as a pattern? The new Pattern Preview mode virtually tiles and repeats your design automatically. Try the patterns on your direct mail, marketing collateral, and wide-format graphics. Choose View > Pattern Preview.

 

Other enhancements include:  

• More options for creating and managing shapes. 
• Ability to reset a Smart Object to its original state.
• Faster, easier to use plug-ins. 
• Search feature in the Brushes, Swatches, Gradients, Styles, Patterns, and Shapes panels help you find specific presets easily.
• Easier to use "content aware" tracing tool.
• Enhancements to "select and mask," fill, and other features. 

 

Thought Photoshop couldn't get any better? Think again. If you haven't upgraded to the October 2020 release of Photoshop, what are you waiting for? Happy creating!

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

Want Better Direct Mail? Check These 5 Things

 When designing a direct mail piece, have you ever thought about how the recipient’s eye travels around it? Understanding this basic reader behavior can help you improve your results, even if your design is already working for you.

Let’s start with a simple envelope. Where do people’s eyes go first? How can you use this knowledge to improve the impact of your piece?

1. Return address. You might think that recipients look at their name and address first, but you’d be wrong. Recipients almost always start with this area of the envelope. Do they recognize your business name? Are you a business they already have a relationship with? If you are a known brand, consider using colored text or adding a logo, so the recipient recognizes you from a distance.

2. Recipient name and address. It sounds simple, but too many marketers have mistakes in their databases that ruin the user experience before the piece is ever read. Get the recipient’s name right. Ensure all of the data is in the correct field so you don’t send mail intended for Lt. Col. John Smith, USMC (Ret.) to USMC Ret. Yes, it’s happened.

3. Postage area. Even the type of postage you use has an impact on your results. For example, people are more likely to open your mailing if they see a first-class stamp. However, it’s essential to balance postage type with volume, too.

4. Teaser copy (if desired). The outside of the envelope is the first place people are exposed to your message, so take advantage of it. Teaser copy can be preprinted or personalized during the printing process.

5. Back side. When the recipient takes in the mail, which side of the envelope will they will see first? There is no way to predict. So include hints, teasers, and calls to action on the back side of the mailer, too.

The outside of your envelope is the recipients’ first exposure to your marketing message, so make sure you’ve optimized every corner of your envelope. Studies show you have three seconds or less before the recipient keeps or trashes your mail piece and 30 seconds or less for them to decide to open it. Make the most of that time.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

7 Tips for Getting Your Best “Look”

Whether it’s on the runway or in the mailbox, everyone wants to get their best “look.” For print jobs, this means excellent color and resolution, terrific design, and details that match up the way they should. But there are other factors in putting your best foot forward that are often overlooked. Beyond the basic design, here are seven other best practices for creating the best impression.   

1. Hire a proofreader. Too many companies have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a print job, only to discover too late that there was a typo in the headline or the body text. Don’t rely on non-specialists who are “good at grammar.” Hire a professional.

2. Get more eyes. Whether it’s the marketing message, the creative, or the account details, having a second (or third) set of eyes on the project can prevent costly mistakes later. This adds time, but it creates an important safety net.

3. Check the specs! Before submitting the job, double-check to make sure the specs are correct. A slip of the pen, an errant keystroke, or a last-minute change—it can all add up to costly mistakes later.

4. Create mock-ups. Print a mock-up so you can see how the document will look once assembled. Especially with folded and dimensional pieces, the layout might look good on the screen. Still, without a physical mock-up, you could end up with the back cover on the inside fold or the panels on your pop-up mailer ordered incorrectly.

5. Proof after every change. Even when you’re making a small change, don’t pass on a proof. Even a single letter can change the spacing on a page. Something as simple as modifying an "i” to a "j” can impact the flow. Proof it every time!

6. Create a checklist. We’re all human. We all have forgetful moments. Even if you’re a 20-year veteran of the job, create a checklist and use it.

7. Develop a long-term relationship with your print partner. Communicate with us early and often. The more we get to know you, your projects, and your marketing goals, the easier it will be for us to make sure your projects stay on track.

Remember, we’re here to help. 

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

Make 'Em Say "Yes" to Email Opt-Ins

 

It's no mystery. The more comfortable you make it for people to respond to your offer, the more likely they will do it. This is one reason that the combination of direct mail and email is so powerful. It provides more opportunities for the recipient to say "yes." But unlike direct mail, email requires the recipient to opt-in. So how do you get people with inboxes already full of marketing communications to opt into one more — yours? 

 

Here is a checklist from MarketingSherpa on ways you can reduce the barriers to email opt-in and make it easy for your target audience to say "yes." 

 

1. Don't over-do it. When asking people to opt-in, limit the amount of information required. More questions mean more data, and more data means better targeting, but there is a trade-off. The more questions you ask, the more risk that people will bail.  

 

2. Eliminate unnecessary form fields. If you do not need it, ditch it. 

 

3. Focus on fields that increase list quality. For example, if you are a landscaper, the presence of children in the home may be less significant than how much sun or shade the yard receives.  

 

4. Make less essential fields optional. Let respondents skip some if they desire. 

 

5. Don't try to gather all of the information at once. Gather the most critical information upfront. Then use a drip campaign to collect more data over time. 

 

6. Make the form as short and easy to read as possible. 

 

7. Remove fields that might cause anxiety. For example, asking for a phone number can be a big turn-off. If people think opting in will result in getting unwanted marketing calls, they are less likely to do it.

 

Following this simple checklist will make it as easy as possible for people to say "yes" to your opt-in invitations. Once you start building your email list, you can crank up your multichannel marketing plans. 

 

What can we do to help?

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

What Makes “Personalized” Mailings Feel Personal?

 If you think that using data — by itself — makes a mailing feel personal, think again. How many times have you received a direct mail piece or email that used your name or “personalized” images, but was irrelevant to you? Probably more often than you’d like to admit.

Say you are a golf fanatic, and you receive a sporting goods catalog personalized with your name on the front cover, plastered with an image of the latest softball gear? Or you receive an incentive to bring your car in for a tune-up six months after your car was due?

As a marketer, you don’t want to make the same mistake. That starts with understanding that, by itself, data doesn’t make a mailing relevant or compelling. Data is just that — data. It is merely a piece of information that can be used well or used poorly. (Or it can be downright wrong.) This is why personalization and relevance are different.

Personalization is simply using data to create unique pieces for every individual in a database, whether those pieces are relevant to those recipients or not. Relevance is the attribute that makes the recipient feel that the communication is meaningful to them and is worth being picked up, opened, and read.

A mailing doesn’t even have to be personalized to be relevant. For example, when you send a mailing to all inactive customers with, “Please come back! We miss you!” along with a 25% discount, that’s creating relevance even if everyone in that mailing receives the same piece. Likewise, if you market different insurance plans to households with children than you do retirees, you are increasing the chances that the recipient will see the communication as relevant even if you don’t do any personalization at all. 

So before personalizing any mailing, ask yourself, “Why am I choosing the variables I am? How am I going to use them effectively? Do I need to add any other variables to improve my targeting efforts?” You don’t want to run the risk of sending a personalized mailing without it actually being personal.

Need help making sure your data results in mailings that are truly personal? Just ask — we’d love to help.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

Don’t Miss These 8 “Must Haves” of Marketing

It’s essential to pay attention to the marketing trends around you. Whether it’s a hot new color palette, a unique design aesthetic, or the need to be sensitive to specific social issues, paying attention helps you stay relevant. However, regardless of what’s hot right now, certain basic principles are important all the time, whether that is today, tomorrow, or ten years from now. Here are eight essentials of direct response marketing that you should be incorporating every time.

1. Have a great offer. Don’t assume the reader understands your full value proposition. The proposal needs to go beyond the product itself to include additional value elements, such as availability, delivery options, and technical support. You would be surprised how many marketers neglect to do this. Don’t be one of them!

2. Create urgency. Great marketing pieces create a sense of urgency. Unless yours is a complex, high-value product that naturally has a longer sales cycle, convince the recipient that the decision needs to be made right now.

3. Provide a clear call to action. Don’t assume your reader knows what you want them to do. Do you want them to make a phone call? Go online? Download an app? Tell them! Otherwise, there is a good chance they’ll do nothing.

4. Track and measure. If you do not measure, you do not know what works and what doesn’t. Measure everything.

5. Follow up. Whether by email, phone call, or mobile, following up to your initial offer dramatically increases your response and conversion rates.

6. Write strong copy. Effective selling requires marketing copy that shows that you understand your customer’s pain points and explains how your product solves them. It’s not just what you are marketing. It’s how you are presenting it.

7. Remember that results rule. This is why you measure. If it works, keep it. If it does not, scrap it.

8. Stay focused. Don’t get distracted by shiny objects. If a marketing campaign does not adhere to the previous seven rules, “just say no.”

Every once in a while, you need to go old school for a straightforward reason. It works.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

How to Make Any Product Fascinating

It’s okay to admit that buyers don’t get as jazzed about cleaning supplies, light bulbs, and toilet plungers as they do video games and stiletto heels. If you have a “boring” product, how do you use your next direct mail, email, or multichannel campaign to get customers excited about what you have to offer? 

 

1. Create the narrative. Don’t let customers create the narrative around your product. Do it for them. Clearly define the product’s value. Does it save them $100 per year? Give busy executives back an hour of their precious time? Tell them why they can’t go another day without it.

 

2. Be a storyteller. Product specs are boring, but stories grab attention. Think about big home improvement stores like Lowe’s. Their ads don’t show lumber and nails. They show decks being built and yards being transformed. In other words, Lowe’s doesn’t sell lumber and mulch. It sells homeowner pride. What do you sell?

 

3. Bring the dazzle. Creative approaches can make anything fun. Even a tablecloth will come to life using specialty techniques like dimensional coatings or 3D techniques like embossing. House-shaped pop-up 3D mailers can turn even the opening of a new branch of an insurance company into a “can’t miss” event. 

 

4. Help them visualize. Images communicate complex concepts quickly. That’s why the soft, cuddly Snuggle bear and green Mucinex blob are so effective. These characters communicate ideas of softness and sticky goop in your lungs with speed and clarity that text alone cannot. 

 

5. Get personal. No matter what you are selling, buyers pay attention when they see themselves. Whether it’s their name, a reference to an issue they relate to, or the use of their sense of humor, once they see themselves in your ad, they’re hooked. Use data to understand your buyers, then get inside their heads and create messaging that draws them in. 

 

When it comes to print and multichannel marketing, there is no excuse to be boring. Use images, and tell a story. There is something genuinely fascinating about your products. Let’s find it!

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

Design Your Direct Mail for “Wow!”

 What do all great direct mail pieces have in common? They engage people’s curiosity from the moment the mail piece gets into their hands. Here are five tips for capturing readers’ attention as soon as they open the mailbox. 

 

1. Know your corners. On a mail piece, the upper right-hand corner is where our eyes go first. Use this location to place teaser copy or compelling data such as “99% customer satisfaction rate!” It’s a secret that all highly effective catalogers know — and now you know it, too.

 

2. De-clutter. When the layout is cluttered, it’s hard for people to focus on any one thing. Use white space to draw the eye and make information easy to absorb. Instead of heavy blocks of text, use bulleted or numbered lists. 

 

3. Tap psychology. Have you ever heard of techniques such as the Zeigarnik Effect, Von Restorff Effect, or Noble Edge Effect? These techniques use brain science to capture attention and engage your audience. 

 

• The Zeigarnik Effect is when information is left unfinished. Leave people hanging, and they feel compelled to open... 
• The Van Restorff Effect is the use of content that is out of place to capture attention. Old Spice used this to significant effect with its “Smell Like a Man” campaign.
• The Noble Edge Effect taps people’s desire to be associated with positive social or environmental causes. 

 

4. Let customers sell for you. People trust other shoppers more than they do marketers, so use customer testimonials to let other buyers promote your product. Use QR Codes or AR to bring those endorsements to life by taking shoppers directly to mobile video. 

 

5. Create a great CTA. How many direct mail pieces have unfulfilled potential because someone forgot to include a call to action (CTA)? Don’t assume that readers will automatically know what you want them to do. Add urgency or additional value by giving a deadline, offering an extra discount for early response, or providing other motivators to encourage people to respond right away. 

 

Want more ideas for great direct mail design that gets results? Let’s talk.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

How Many Ways Can You Fold a Sheet?

When folding a flyer, brochure, or direct mail piece, do you default to the basic half-fold or letter fold? If so, consider that customers see those folds all the time. Why not stand out with unusual folds that really spark interest? Here are five basic but more unusual folds to get you started:

Z-fold. In the Z-fold fold, the paper is creased into three panels folded in opposite directions so that, from the top edge, it looks like a Z. When opened, the sheet unfolds like a poster. Z-folds are great for displaying information that will be read chronologically or that have images spanning the entire width of the sheet. They are also used for nesting multiple pieces, such as when you want to include a reply envelope.

Accordion fold. Commonly used for maps or instructions, this fold uses a series of parallel folds so that the sheet opens like an accordion. Because a large number of panels can be folded in, accordion folds enable you to take advantage of larger paper sizes and include more information than a 

standard finished size. Uses include brochures, maps, and instruction panels.

Gate fold. In the gate fold, two sides of the paper are folded in toward the middle like two doors opening and closing. You might use this fold to create a silly greeting card or an invitation featuring doors opening into a grand ballroom. Or you might present information like opening a book. The opportunities for creativity are endless.

Half-accordion fold. In this fold, the paper is folded in half vertically, then one half is folded vertically again. This is also called an engineering fold. These folds are often used when engineering plans or other documents are tipped into a book. But don’t stop there. Think about site maps, room layouts, and landscape designs. Don’t shrink it up—fold it!

Half-plus-letter fold. This is a combination of the half-fold and the letter fold. In this execution, the paper is folded into four equal sections. Half of the paper is folded equally, then the folded half is tucked into a letter fold. This is great for newsletters since it allows a legal-sized sheet to be folded down into #10 envelope size in a user-friendly way.

As they say, there is more than one way to fold a sheet. So mix it up. Use different and interesting folds to improve functionality and encourage people to interact with your pieces.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606 for more information.

Share on LinkedIn

How to Redeem Your Customer Complaints (and Save the Customer Relationship)

Even companies with the strongest customer relationships get complaints once in awhile. Don’t let those complaints erode your customer relationships. Handle them right and you can actually deepen those relationships. Studies have found that helpful responses to negative customer feedback can actually increase purchase intent among future shoppers.

Here are five ways to redeem your customer complaints and turn them into positive interactions.

1. Make giving feedback easy. Create an environment in which it’s easy for customers to make contact with you. Customers are more likely to provide feedback by print or email than they are at the checkout counter or with a sales rep. Use multiple channels (printed forms, email, easily accessible website forms) to solicit their input.

2. Offer personal responses (like, actually personal). Don’t send people to a generic customer service number. If a customer complains, personalize your responses to each individual and his or her specific issue. Give them a human being to deal with.

3. Pre-fill response forms. The easier you make it for customers to return forms, the more likely they are to do so. Plus, it makes them feel valued and reduces the negative experience of making a complaint.

4. Go multi-channel. Surveys show that when brands communicate with customers across multiple channels, customers are happier both with their purchases and the brand overall. Create a consistent brand experience regardless of channel the customer uses to communicate with you.

5. Lean into your data. Data-driven communications can really help with customer retention and customer satisfaction. Use triggered messaging to automatically generate thank yous (such as personalized thank-you emails) to let them know you appreciate the feedback, whether positive or not.

Need help setting up a multichannel customer feedback program? Let us help!

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606
Or visit our website here for more information.


Share on LinkedIn