Background on the in-plant operation

Nearly 10,000 students, employees, staff and faculty are located in the area of 10 square blocks that make up the campus. This area includes classrooms, labs, outpatient care clinics, the Lied Transplant Center, Munroe-Meyer Institute, two research towers and other university facilities. Two hospitals – University Hospital and Clarkson Hospital – also are located on campus. They are operated by our clinical partner, The Nebraska Medical Center. In addition, our physician practicing partner, UNMC-P consisting of over 550 physicians is also located both on this campus as well as in offsite clinic operations, that we serve throughout the metropolitan area. The UNMC printing staff of 23 produces approximately $2.5 million in revenue annually.

University identifies need for better customer service for staff and students

In 2008 the university conducted a survey of staff and students to understand overall opinions of business and financial services offered on the campuses. Both faculty and students complained about the level of service being offered in all business services and financial departments. The university responded by hiring a firm to conduct a three day "Customer Care Program" for all business and financial operation staff who served students and faculty. Also, satisfaction benchmarks were to be developed for each department.

In-plant printer embraces Customer Care Program, real time customer feedback needed

The printing center conducted their own survey to understand customer needs and evaluate how they were doing specifically. This was important because unlike other business services, staff and students had alternative printing sources. In Omaha Nebraska there are dozens of printers. Their survey revealed the need for better service and more capabilities. As a result they budgeted and purchased a four color digital press (Presstek 34DI) with installation scheduled for the second half of 2009. Measuring customer loyalty and job performance on a regular basis was a desire of Lori Fuller, manager of the operation, yet finding a low cost, easy to administer process was not in clear view. Calling customers after jobs are delivered is something they do, yet documentation is minimal, customers many times are not as candid, and the process is not convenient for the customer. Electronic surveying was considered, yet tracking the response back to the job was important, and speed and ease of administering was an unknown.

Solution for real time feedback involved leveraging the MIS system

Lori's operation uses Enterprise Print Management Solutions (EPMS) as their MIS. In late 2008 EPMS teamed up with Survey Advantage rolling out a surveying module, CustomerAlert™ which enabled users to select jobs and send personalized surveys after jobs are complete. The process takes about 5 minutes a week to launch all surveys to selected contacts. What Lori likes about the program is the ability to launch surveys via e-mail directly from the system while tracking responses back to specific job orders. Another nice feature is that EPMS captures last survey date for each contact to manage survey frequency for repeat buyers. Surveying should be a pleasant experience for customers and they should appreciate the request. She is alerted immediately when a customer submits a poor response, and each morning the entire report is delivered with new responses from the previous day. It took under 30 minutes to download CustomerAlert™ and launch the first batch of surveys.

The Survey Process takes 5 minutes a week and reporting is automatic

Every Monday morning Lori reviews the previous week's orders and selects jobs/contacts for launching a survey. The invitation is very personal by leveraging variable data from EPMS. She receives 20-30% response rate on a regular basis, 25% share other services they are interested in, and about 30% share comments. The goal is not to over survey any one customer and to keep the survey short and relevant. Lori adds that customers are always happy when you call them back and many times you reveal other things when discussing their comments. Many customer comments are positive and Lori e-mails these to staff especially when a staff member is praised directly. The direct, unfiltered feedback reinforces the focus on the customer.

The feedback has helped not just retain business, but also expand revenue

Lori shared that the immediate, continuous feedback from customers helps everyone focus more on one-on-one customer attention. Each customer is different and the survey responses reveal the little, special things that each customer appreciates to make their life easier. The UNMC printing center is all about service and the responses help them tailor service to best meet individual needs, and the team likes the feedback because it helps them do their job better. The positive comments directly from the customer are always nice to hear as well. Surveys connect customers to the team and drives loyalty. One marketing question has helped uncover services customers are buying elsewhere. Nearly 25% of survey responders shared other printing products and services purchased elsewhere. The UNMC printing center has been able to pursue additional business they were unaware of before the surveying started. In addition, a need for more digital printing capabilities was identified and the Presstek 34DI will help them expand revenue with customers as they approach 2010. Surveys should have three purposes: to retain customers and job revenues, expand client share with customers, and to drive referrals through increased loyalty.