Perhaps you were on hold, waiting to speak to a rep, only to find you had to be transferred to another department for the third time. Maybe you had to work double-duty to stay on top of a vendor. Or, you learned that your order changed after you received your order! We’ve all been there. As customers, we’ve all been disappointed by companies that, seemingly, could care less about our business.
Admittedly, the promotional marketing industry is not typically considered the poster child of care and customer commitment. But, at adform Creative, this is what has set us apart for almost 40 years. Care & Customer Commitment is likely the Adform Advantage that customers value most. In a recent customer survey, adform customers ranked both our Service and Response Time 4.9 points out of a possible 5.0 points! When asked if they are Likely to Recommend adform, customers gave us a perfect 5.0! Care & Customer Commitment is the reason we retain our customers, many of whom have been with us since we opened our doors. Customer service in business is critical to adform and should be critical to your business too.
How can you make Care & Customer Commitment an advantage for your company? In our experience, there are four fundamentals:
View everything through the customer’s lens
Always look at your company from your customer’s perspective. Whether working on your company’s website or a new return policy, always consider the customer experience. Our customers are usually on deadline. They need questions answered quickly. So, we make sure adform employees are versed in all active projects. A customer could call anyone in any department about their project, even if their account manager is not available.
“At adform, the left hand and right hand know what the other is doing. If needed, someone can step in and pick up where someone else left off. It makes me feel like I'm a part of the adform family."
- Carlisa Jones, Administrative Assistant, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Know thy customer
Invest the time to get to know your customers deeply. This achieves two important things. First, your customers will feel valued, not like they are a number. More importantly, it gives you insight into how you can serve them better. At adform, we seek to understand our customers’ objectives. We don’t just take orders. This allows us to bring new, creative ideas to projects and help our customers meet their goals.
“Adform understands my business goals. They ask good questions and solve problems for their clients. Adform helps me get to where I want to be with unique ideas.”
- Brian Vaughan, President, Capital Rentals
Follow through and follow up with your customers
Nothing will give customers confidence about your ability to deliver more than following through on your tasks. But don’t stop there, follow up on your customer’s tasks, too! We consider ourselves project managers on a dedicated, customer-vendor team.
"Even if I forget something, adform reminds me. They're more than a partner; they’re like an employee. Adform always follows up. It’s unnerving if I ever have to use another company.”
- Carlisa Jones, Administrative Assistant, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Communicate, communicate!
In addition to getting things done, it’s important to communicate with your customers and tell them things are getting done. Frequent communication instills confidence and trust with your customer base. It also ensures that you and your customer are aligned on a project and will respond quickly to inevitable issues that surface.
“The adform reps are fantastic communicators. They have best practices in place and always follow through. Adform manages the process very thoroughly, which allows me to focus on my priorities, instead of managing the project. I know I can always rely on them.”
-Laura Fick, Executive Assistant to President, Colliflower
As a family-owned business, you might expect that adform genuinely cares about customer success. But, there’s no reason any company can’t do the same. A deep customer understanding, execution, and communication can turn Care & Commitment into an advantage for any business.
