Consumers’ shifting expectations are increasing the demand for relevant and personalized communications. As a result, it is becoming ever more vital for print service providers to offer their clients the tools and expertise they need to compete on the print and mail battleground as well as the expanding digital landscape. The customer experience is a metric that is just as important for serving consumers as it is serving the enterprises that are working to capture and keep their business. Keypoint Intelligence – InfoTrends (InfoTrends) recently surveyed 24 mid-tier print service providers to learn about the professionals who make up their client care teams, how accounts are assigned to them, the roles they perform, and how much time they spend serving clients today in relation to two years ago. Our results point to a distinct evolution in communication practices and a general agreement about the importance of enterprise client care.

On average, the mid-tier print service providers we surveyed employ between 4 and 5 customer service representatives, as well as between 3 and 4 sales representatives, account managers, and production/project managers. While sales representatives most often focus on certain industry verticals, other client care employees are usually assigned to their contracts based on the complexity of the account. When respondents were asked how much time they spent with various accounts, 57% spent more time on their most profitable accounts than they did on their least profitable. Meanwhile, nearly a third (29%) spent the same amount of time on all accounts and 14% dedicated the most time to their least profitable accounts. Among all respondents, the average ratio of time spent on the most profitable account versus the least profitable was 3.7 to 1.5.

As would be expected, all of the organizations that we surveyed had sales representatives on staff. On the other hand, at least one of our respondents did not have any customer service representatives, account managers, or production/product managers. This survey also questioned respondents about the client care personnel that performed specific tasks and how much time was spent on these assignments now in relation to two years ago. The table below details the findings and provides some directional insight on these professionals’ expanding duties.