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In This Section
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P.C. (Pat) McGrew, EDP is the Data Center & Transaction Segment Evangelist in the Graphic Communications Group at Eastman Kodak working worldwide to support the needs of customers involved in high-speed, data-driven customer communication. As the evangelist for TransPromo and other effective customer communication techniques she also works with the Kodak product groups and regions supporting solutions to enhance customer success. She is the co-author of 7 books covering information and multi-channel document delivery, and the author of research studies and articles covering business continuity, disaster recovery, print-and-mail innovations, compliance issues, document strategy auditing, and the worldwide statement printing markets.
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Why Worry About Customer Notices?
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Pat McGrewMcGrew's Communicating with Color
It's become like the elephant in the room or the gorilla in the elevator that no one wants to talk about. We know color is critical to good customer communication, but if we open up the discussion about how to use it effectively we quickly get into discussions about people, processes, and price tags. This column puts it all in perspective, with topics each month designed to help you guide the color discussion in your organization. We'll look at the right questions to ask and provide guidance on how to research the answers that are right for your organization.
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Why Worry About Customer Notices?
By Pat McGrew, EDP, Kodak
The topic this month is the deluge of customer notices hitting your mailbox and mine. Have you actually opened any? Have you read them? Have you tried to understand what they are communicating to you? I’ve tried, and I am at a loss. These are customer-critical notifications, right? If they weren’t important they wouldn’t be sending them!
The requirement is to notify an existing customer of a change. It may be a change in terms, a change in interest rate, or a change in services. In all cases the goal is to let an existing customer know that something about the relationship is changing. In most cases the nature of the change is set up so that if you, as the customer, take no action then the change takes effect. You must make an effort to decline the change. We all know the routine.
Now put your “customer communication” hat on. If your organization prints these documents, either as a print-for-pay provider or through your in-plant facilities, how much attention is being paid to them? Who owns them? Do they go through a marketing review, or only a legal review? Is anyone looking at how customers react to these notices?
I could go on, but instead, let’s do some remediation. Here is my checklist for bringing customer notices into the modern era and making them part of the customer communication strategy:
- Establish a policy for each class of customer notification: good news (ex. credit line increase), bad news (ex. interest rate increase), and regulatory news (ex. privacy rights). Abide by the legal requirements, but don’t abdicate control of the brand.
- Consider formatting and branding for each type of notification: fonts, formatting and color say a lot. Just because it’s a notice doesn’t mean it shouldn’t represent the brand.
- Ensure that the content is readable. If there is legalese that is required, add “plain English” guidance and information on who to contact for help in understanding.
Remember that notices are there to convey information. If they are not read, communication did not occur. Make it clear why the notice is being sent, any action the customer must take, and offer an incentive to read the notice. Don’t forget tracking mechanisms, too.
You are already sending the notice; why not make it work a little harder?
Pat McGrew, EDP, is the Data-driven Communication Evangelist at Kodak. Her email address is Pat.McGrew@kodak.com, Twitter is PatMcGrew, and blog at http://patmcgrew.growyourbiz.kodak.com.
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