Discussion

By Pete Basiliere on Apr 12, 2021

Good points, Preston, coupled with sound, actionable advice: Use data to know and rate what your customers want today while identifying and implementing the emerging trends and technologies that tomorrow they will want access to.

By Preston Herrin on Apr 12, 2021

Thanks, Pete. As an executive, what kept me awake at night was what I didn't know about market shifts, customer loyalty, competition, and emerging trends. Why? Because it's a full-time job to run a business and get caught up in the whirlwind of daily activity. When I built the playbooks to create more insight into these areas it was with the busy executive in mind. Insight/Action/Results is the HCG tagline!

By Cliff Hollingsworth on Apr 12, 2021

The best part of this article was the sub heading. We have been trying to solve the same problem for the last 15 years. The market has changed WAAAAAY past the print service providers. I see it as a leadership problem at the print shop level. Either it's important or it's not. 2020 put a lot more shops on the brink of disaster across the industry and 2021 is going to be all about catching up. We, as an industry are losing precious time. It's not about the tools, it's all about the culture and truly understanding how to meet the customer where they want to be met. The tools have been there and are improving every day. The cultures are what's not moving. We have lost almost 37,000 shops since the mid 90's. More to come and it won't be because they didn't automate. It will be the direct result of NOT managing the customer experience.

By Preston Herrin on Apr 14, 2021

Cliff: it's as if you are reading my playbook! You are absolutely correct in your assessment. In fact, my next article series is focusing on customer experience. This article completed the six-part "new agility" series which addressed practical ways to reshape stagnant culture. Next up is how to stay astride the customer expectations and deliver an amazing customer experience.