The printing trade was the worst performing industry in the study of 1,000 consumers, with only 18% of respondents reporting to be pleased with the phone manner of print firms.
“Poor call handling is a constant bugbear for the British consumer but, despite this, it appears printers have still not risen to the challenge of achieving best practice,” said PH Media Group sales and marketing director Mark Williamson.
“There is perhaps a tendency among companies to focus their attention and budgets on visual marketing and internet presence but the telephone remains a crucial aspect of branding, marketing and sales.”
Printing firms in the North East fared worst in the survey, with only 12% of respondents claiming to be pleased with how their calls are handled. The North West scored 14% while in London the figure rose to 28%.
The age split found older people to be particularly dissatisfied, with only 7% of 55 to 64-year-olds and 13% of 45 to 54-year-olds claiming to be happy, compared with 32% of 25 to 34-year-olds.
“The results seem to suggest printing firms need to be more conscious of older customers but, regardless of the differences, satisfaction levels remain low across the board, so there is an onus on businesses to address this by improving overall caller experience,” said Williamson.
Dentists performed best in the survey, with 52% of respondents claiming to be happy, followed by the hotel industry (50%).
Customer service in general has been an increasingly hot topic recently. The Institute of Customer Service’s latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index, which was published earlier this month, showed that only the banks and building societies sector is performing better compared with three years ago.
Some printers, though, are still passionate about delivering high-quality customer service.
Damian Sorgiovanni, who joined Webmart as its new customer services director last week, told PrintWeek: “Customer service is central to what we do at Webmart.
“We have people that provide our clients with expertise, innovation and support and that’s what our customers really buy from us.
“They’re not buying a catalogue, direct mail or a piece of POS so much as they’re buying into Webmart’s people and the excellent service that we provide.”
David Want, joint owner of Horsham-based commercial printer JR Print, added: “Today, equipment is much of a muchness as everybody has got the same sort of stuff, so it’s customer service that makes the difference. It’s absolutely key to our business.”
How important is customer service to your business, and why? Post your comments below or tweet us @printweek with your thoughts.
