Print IT Reseller - issue 52

VOX POP ...continued 01732 759725 44 Simon Hollister, Managing Director, Hollis Technology “The simple answer would be to say both are equally as important, but it is not as simple as this. Whilst customer acquisition is obviously the quickest way to grow a business and hit short- and mid-term financial objectives, there are equal benefits to be gained from incremental sales with existing clients to enable mid- and long-term revenue goals to be met. “Achieving high customer retention rates demonstrates the ability of an organisation to meet the evolving needs of these clients and ensures that they are referenceable to potential new clients. Understanding the needs of existing clients makes forecasting and budgeting easier and more reliable. At present Hollis has two separate business streams, one managing the existing client base and the other driving new business.” Scott Walker, Head of Business Development, ZenOffice MPS “Anyone can win new business. I’m constantly telling my connections the same thing. Retaining a customer is where you show your strength. We have a dedicated business development team whose only focus is on cold new business. We balance that with a dedicated customer services team whose only focus is to provide pro-active account management with a view to retaining our clients. It’s a positive balance…that simply works.” Phil Madders: “We work with a range of brands in the MPS market. We have helped to develop the Print Audit brand into one that is recognised globally after introducing it to Europe in 2002. We have built a good reputation for customer service and do receive referrals from other companies. The great thing about referrals is that the person referred already has an idea of what we do and confident that we can assist in fulfilling their requirements. “We have had great success with word of mouth referrals, but not with official referral schemes, which is an area we need to revisit. The obvious platform for gaining referrals is social media. Platforms like Linked In are great for showcasing case studies, I read more of these now than I ever have from visiting a website. However, the challenge is to break out of your own vertical market into markets you are targeting. We found it can be done but takes planning and persistence.” Michael Burke: “We operate within a small market sector and word soon gets round if a reseller has a bad experience with a software supplier. Fortunately we are in a position where our customers can access the widest portfolio of software solutions, all designed by the industry for the industry. This does of course make it easier to optimise the customer experience by eliminating most of the issues experienced by software houses that do not share our total focus on this sector. “Having such a deep level of understanding of the needs of resellers also allows us to ensure that our ongoing product development roadmap is fully aligned with the needs of the market moving forward. Of course, word also quickly spreads when resellers have a great experience with a software supplier and we are always pleased to receive calls from users of other systems that have been talking to our customers about us.” Mike Anderson: “Having a mindset that no two businesses are the same is a great way of enhancing the customer experience. This attitude, and by delivering solutions that solve the pain points of individual customers, can drive satisfaction and ultimately lead to referral business. “By going the extra mile for customers, trust can be built very early too. For example, there have been instances where we’ve been needed to solve a tech integration issue. This could typically take two weeks to resolve, but we worked with our teams in Japan to find a solution within 24-hours. The customer expectations were blown away, and it helped us to win the business.” Nigel Allen: “We undertake regular surveys with our customers and with over 60 per cent of our employees based in our service division, this is a key focus to help us and our partners retain their customers. KYOCERA has a long history of success in the public sector, an area where referrals are essential and our case studies continuously help us gain further share in that sector.” Carlo Longhi: “At Xerox, we encourage our partners to run their own referral programmes within their customer base. We utilise our customer satisfaction survey as a continuous improvement tool to provide the best support for our partners during account reviews. We also deliver ongoing training to our partners’ sales and technical teams, as well as providing support through our partner portal and support teams to ensure excellent partner and customer experiences.” Tatsuo Murakami: “We’re very proud that our retention rate is high, as we believe this is in itself is testament to the customers’ experience of RISO. We also seen a lot of customers returning to RISO, which says a lot for our products and the customer experience. Anyone can win new business. I’m constantly telling my connections the same thing continued... PrintIT Reseller: According to the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings, the better the customer experience (CX), the more likely people are to recommend a brand. How do you ensure you continue to optimise the customer experience in your organisation, and what success have you had in securing new business via referrals? Simon Hollister Carlo Longhi