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 We all work hard, and many days, we deal with all types of communications. Filtering out the junk emails and cold calls takes time away from the tasks at hand, especially when you’re traveling or out for a day and come back to 800 emails, of which over half are advertisements. As a marketing person, I’m definitely guilty of distributing the advertisements and sales calls, and probably shouldn’t mind getting a taste of my own medicine, but it still frustrates me. Even more so, at home, when a pesky automated call interrupts dinner, or I race to answer the phone leaving my little one in the tub for just a moment.
All of this said, there have been a few evening calls that have helped me to organize my hectic schedule. In the midst of dirty dishes, I answered the phone with a wet rubber glove, to hear an automated voice reminding me of my child’s doctor appointment the next day. Thank goodness, since I had forgotten. A few days later at work, I was racing around printing materials for a meeting, and I received a call to notify me that my flight out that afternoon was delayed, and a fax of the flight schedule was conveniently sitting in my email inbox. Good to know, since I was running behind anyway. Upon my return from the meeting a few days later, my message light blinked offering information on a package that was being held and required a signature for delivery. I had worried about it being stolen off of my porch while I was gone.
So after all, those automated, digitalized voices, emails, and faxes can be helpful, and maybe even a life-saver.
Shelley Marian
Marketing Communications Coordinator
Streem Communications--A Xerox Business Partner
Last week Mike MacDonald posted about the customer experience and I thought I'd build on that from my world...of SMBs.
SMBs are not interested in customer service as we know it… they are interested in great products that DON’T require customer service! Low touch or no touch is the key… if there is a problem… that’s Ok, but make it super easy and super fast for them to get back up and going.
The new podcast we just added to the SMB Podcast Series talks about how something as simple as getting the customer the RIGHT product to begin with can earn you big customer service points. Perry Perkins who works in Product Information and blogs about The FreeColorPrinters program, shared his thoughts concerning customer advocacy, and the importance of truly understanding the needs of the business when working with all types of customers. He also talks about how we’ve seen color usage evolve over the years, especially with small businesses.
I don't think we ever stop learning about how to provide better customer service--new challenges present themselves with each customer. But I'm definitely proud of the fact that earlier this year, Xerox earned its Second Consecutive J.D. Power and Associates Certification for Excellence in Customer Service. No company has ever done that before. When J.D. Power and Associates surveyed our customers about their experiences, Xerox scored nearly 10 percent above the industry benchmark. Now that’s what SMBs are looking for… great products and great customer service.
What do you think makes for great customer service?
Paul Gleason
Vice President, Small and Medium Business
Xerox
I had a dream,
A dream in which a multifunctional was more than just a multifunctional.
A dream in which the functionality of a machine became exponentially larger
A dream in which that machine became the entrance and exit of a network.
A dream in which one machine stood at the beginning and at the end of an information flow.
A dream in which information was never lost again.
A dream in which the machine became intelligent.
A dream in which everybody could find information with just the tip of their finger.
A dream in which the paperless office became a few steps closer.
The next day I heard Xerox was going to release a new Platform called EIP (Extensible Interface Platform), and I realized that my dream could become reality. Because that new platform from Xerox can make it all possible.
The new Extensible Interface Platform (EIP) can cause a revolution in the current assumption of information flow within organizations.
We are ready for it!
Wouter Koelewijn
CEO
X-Solutions--A Xerox Strategic Partner
What an honor to be able to make the first post to our AIIM/EIP Blog! It would be hard to go overboard describing how Excited we at Xerox are about the potential that EIP has for our customers and partners.
[A sidebar for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about: EIP stands for Extensible Interface Platform--it's a software platform. We added it to our multifunction products so developers can use standard web-based tools to create server-based applications that can be configured for the touch-screen or user interface. In other words, with EIP, developers can easily create applications that are tailored to meet specific business needs like “fax to accounts payable” or “submit to claims department.”]
And now back to my Excitement…
We’ve all seen how technological development waxes and wanes on any given product. Sometimes a steady evolution and other times more of an explosion. In my view, today’s tricked-out digital copier is in the latter camp, bursting with capability and potential. But the most useful innovations – the most powerful – are those that (despite their power and capability) are intuitive and simple to the end user. And, it seems to me that the most likely innovations are those that are enabled by platforms that are not only powerful, but also easily within the reach of the largest number of developers. That’s why EIP is so exciting – it allows developers to fine-tune their applications to work just the way our customers want by providing (among other things) complete access to the user interface. This affords the developer tremendous creative freedom to make the highly capable appear simple and intuitive. And since EIP is based on standard web technologies, the development environment is straightforward and easily within reach of even a beginning developer.
So there it is! Why I think EIP is so cool (and useful)! Tell us what you think--we're going to be blogging about it right up to and throughout the AIIM/On Demand tradeshow (where we'll be showcasing the applications). The show is in Boston April 16-18. The posts about EIP will be labeled as such, but regular blogging will continue and we'll also be chronicling the entire show on an event blog--stay tuned.
If you are a customer – challenge us with what you would like us to add – or change. If you are a developer tell us what you think about EIP, what you think you can do with it, and what we can do to make it better for all of us!
Best Regards,
Roger
Roger Ellefson
Manager, Office Solutions Marketing
Xerox
I’m in Las Vegas at THE Conference on Marketing giving a talk to a gathering of fellow marketers on improving the customer experience across all kinds of industries. It occurred to me that today, customer satisfaction is based on "Big I little t." Just a few years ago, the speeds and feeds of a product (technology) were what made it (and the brand) stand out. Today, it’s actually more about Information we share with and get from our customers.
There’s a great group of presenters lined up to speak at this event and in one way or another, they are all going to talk about how the value of the interaction/Information we offer our customers is what keeps them loyal and gets them to recommend us. For example, Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail” theory suggests that customers are more easily lost to the infinite choices available in a web based world. Fred Reichheld is going to talk about how giving customers better information and providing more value, can transform them into “netpromoters”.
The stakes are high for all companies. It means more than having superior products, it means delivering our information so that it’s personalized, easy to understand, timely and accurate.
Think of all the documents that touch customers…Invoices. Applications. Policies. Manuals. Welcome kits. Re-engineering the way we communicate can reduce service calls, boost customer retention and enhance the brand experience.
It’s the little things that mean the most--the voice on the phone, a willingness to take ownership of a problem, the way your web site is organized, whether your bill shows up on time. Take a touchpoint, learn its impact, adjust your process to enhance the experience people have when they encounter information from your company—I’m not in Las Vegas to gamble, but I bet you improve the overall experience of your customers.
Mike MacDonald
President Global Account and Marketing Operations
Xerox
Ever heard people say things like “paper is dead” or “black and white printers are a thing of the past”? Truth is, some technologies don’t die fantastic deaths but transition and adapt. Enter “the fax.” I always thought that faxing was something “low-tech” folks who couldn’t just kick the habit did - until I was a partner in a start-up. We sold to more than 800 boutique-type stores throughout the country. While most of our customers would use the internet to view our catalogue, few were willing to place their orders online. So our fax machine became our most important “order” piece of equipment. We tried internet faxing for a while but that just seemed to pile-up in someone’s (mostly the person who happened to be out of the office) inbox and we never knew if they’d been read or processed. So we ditched that. Technology didn’t triumph over information. Having a paper document sent to you that you could make notes on (special requests), modify (such as blacking out the credit card number for security reasons) and communicate to your customer (order confirmation on their original document) was priceless. So, while some may mock, I was pleased to see that of the 7 printer products we launched last month, 5 can fax…
All the best in your business.
Cheers
Paul Herman
Business Strategy, North American Resellers
Xerox
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