The National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) will honor 11 graphic communications companies with NAPL Management Plus^™ Program Customer Plus^™ Awards at the industry-wide Vision 3 Summit in Marco Island, Fla., Feb. 19-22. For information about the conference, go to www.vision3summit.org.

The awards, which are given in recognition of companies’ superior customer service as judged by their customers in confidential responses to NAPL’s eKG Competitive Edge Profile^™ surveys, will be presented at special ceremonies on Feb. 21. The 2011 Customer Plus Platinum Awards—the program’s highest honor—will go to five companies:

·         Intelligencer Printing Company, Lancaster, Pa.

·         Japs-Olson Company, St. Louis Park, Minn.

·         Luminer Converting Group, Lakewood, N.J.

·         Neyenesch Printers, San Diego, Calif.

·         Wordsprint, Wytheville, Va.

Two companies will be presented with 2011 Customer Plus Gold Awards:

·         Classic Graphics, Charlotte, N.C.

·         Jet, Downers Grove, Ill.

In addition, four companies will receive 2011 Customer Plus Silver Awards:

·         Cenveo, Stamford, Conn.

·         Cenveo Publisher Services, Stamford, Conn.

·         Grand River Printing & Imaging, Belleville, Mich.

·         WS Packaging Group, Inc., Green Bay, Wis.

“Superior customer service has always been a key to success in our industry, but in today’s business and economic environment, it is absolutely essential to long-term growth,” said NAPL President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph P. Truncale, Ph.D. “Our Customer Plus Award winners have not only demonstrated the highest level of commitment to meeting their customer’s needs, but have distinguished themselves from their competitors by achieving, and in many instances surpassing, their customer satisfaction goals—as shown by responses from those customers themselves.”

Printing companies become eligible for a Customer Plus Award by completing an NAPL eKG Competitive Edge Profile,^™ which surveys their customers on what they most value from them as a company and how they judge them in comparison to their competitors. Results are also benchmarked against industry standards and then scored against a database of responses from more than 20,000 previously surveyed printing customers. Only companies with the highest scores in the industry qualify for an NAPL Customer Plus Award.  

Far more than a satisfaction survey, the eKG Competitive Edge Profile reveals how customers perceive a company, how they rate it against its competitors, and how they judge it in those areas they consider most important to them. “Following a Competitive Edge Profile survey, companies receive a report detailing where their organization outpaces or falls short of the competition,” says Truncale. “This becomes the basis for a customized action plan that shows them what they must do right now to hold on to current customers and win new ones.

“Our research has shown clearly that there is a direct correlation between report findings and operating profits,” he adds. “Those printing companies that know what their customers want and how they want it, that provide value in the minds of their customers, and improve client satisfaction based on defined areas of need, can drive profits up by five points in one year.”