5 steps to improve your customer relationships and increase your profitability

How print service providers can use software to bridge the communication gap with their customers and create new business opportunities.

Effective customer communication has never been more important. Customers have never had so many choices. This applies to all product sectors, including the printing industry. Companies that market their services and products directly to end users have been feeling the effects of this change for some time. But B2B companies are also affected and need to rethink their customer communications.

After all, building a strong customer relationship leads to greater loyalty, higher repurchase rates and, ultimately, increased sales. The following proven strategies, presented by William Crabtree, President of Tampa Media, at drupa 2024, will help you close the communication gap and strengthen your customer relationships.

It's old hat, but it's still the key to success: a well-designed marketing campaign can work wonders. Using a combination of online and offline marketing techniques such as targeted keywords, geo-fencing, social media, demographic targeting, direct mail and out-of-home advertising, businesses can target potential customers. This increases the visibility of their brand and may even put them on the radar of their future customers as a potential supplier.

Visibility and traffic alone do not guarantee new business. Another important tool can be the use of clickfunnels. Instead of directing potential customers to an e-commerce site where they can only see prices, they are guided through a series of questions. These questions help to engage customers and pique their interest before they provide their contact details. This process increases the likelihood that customers will enter their details and stay in touch with the company.

By using artificial intelligence (AI), companies can further improve communication with their customers. An interactive chat bot can answer customer queries and help them find the right products. Simply trained bots are often all that is needed: Just by crawling the company's website, a bot can gather enough information to answer most customer questions without further training. This not only reduces the workload for customer service agents, but also ensures that customers get exactly the information and products they need. However, it is also clear that the better the AI is trained, the more benefits it will bring to customers – and to you. For example, by not just answering questions, but actively advising customers to find the ideal product or service for them - including appropriate add-on services.

For printing and graphic design companies, it is also crucial to use flexible and customisable software solutions. The software should adapt to the company's workflows, not the other way round. This avoids errors and optimises efficiency. All too often, software developers define workflows and processes that may make sense for the specific use case for which the software was originally developed. But when the software is used in a different context, it forces adherence to those very processes – or requires cumbersome and potentially error-prone workarounds.

Whatever measures companies decide to take: They should not expect to implement them once and then sit back. Continuous improvement and innovation are critical to long-term success. Businesses should constantly be looking for new ways to optimise their processes and provide better services to their customers. By embracing new technologies and adapting to changing market demands, companies can ensure their long-term competitiveness.

The printing industry is not an island. Not only is the technology used to produce print products changing rapidly. The way companies communicate with their customers and market their products and services has also changed and will continue to do so. Many companies have already embraced the new opportunities and are actively expanding their business by selling directly to their end customers. Others have invented new products that would not have been possible without digitalisation, thus opening up new areas of business. But one thing remains the same: potential customers must first be made aware that they exist. 

Effective customer communication is therefore the key to successful business relationships. With targeted marketing strategies, the use of click funnels, interactive AI solutions and customisable software, companies can close the communication gap and increase customer satisfaction. So the best overall advice is: Stay innovative and open to new technologies to continually improve your customer relationships and take your business to the next level.