The Chris Fowler International Service
Customer service is key to Chris Fowler International and is integral to the Chris Fowler International culture. We aim to turn Customer service into Customer delight and this achieved by always putting the Client first. This attitude of mind is supported by having exceptional people with wide knowledge in the key roles.
We feel that one of the shortcomings of our industry is the failure to understand and appreciate the challenges that our clients face in their own organisations and how they might affect their relationship with us. We recognise that our clients are under extreme internal pressure and we aim to do as much as we are able to ease that pressure.
To achieve customer delight the whole company has to provide a quality service not just the Customer Service team. We have identified the roles we want each employee and each department to play and incorporate a Customer Service ethos into those roles. As a company, we endeavour to ensure quality of service in every department and for each department to think of the next element of the production process as their client.
The following are the key areas in which we provide our exceptional Customer Service: -
Your Ambassador
Each of our clients has assigned to them a member of the Chris Fowler International Management Team. This person owns your account and takes on the role of Relationship Manager. He or she is your Ambassador in our organisation and takes the position of you the Client in any internal debates. They are responsible for implementing your account at the outset; setting up all the mechanisms below in the manner you request; managing through to completion any issues that arise; monitoring and improving our service to you and making suggestions as to how we can enhance what is produced and how it is produced.
Your representative in Chris Fowler International
Your day-to-day contact will be a senior member of the Customer Service Team. However all Team members will be trained up and be fully conversant with your work. All Team members are fully trained in all aspects of Prepress, printing, finishing and distribution as well as pricing and invoicing and are therefore able to answer the vast majority of your questions immediately, enabling us to provide our one-stop service.
We never forget
We need to ensure that you get everything you ask for when you want it; not just the printed report, but information, analyses, feedback etc. To enable this level of service we utilise a Customer Relationship Management (CRM). This system records, tracks and plans. It ensures that all conversations, requests, requirements and communications are recorded and actions planned and followed through. It also ensures that all Customer Service Team members and your Relationship Manager know your latest status and required actions.
No hidden extra’s
Our pricing is simple and largely grid based. There are no hidden extras. Any adhoc work estimates are also clear and easy to understand. To assist you can provide a look-up table on the pricing grids for ease of use. It is our intention to enhance this via our web-link to allow you to get a price for a report on your Chris Fowler International home page and to record the final cost of each report in a history folder in the same view.
Painless implementation
Your Relationship Manager is responsible for a successful and painless implementation of your initial contract and subsequent amendments. Working to a proven implementation plan, which is bespoke to your specific requirements, they will assemble and manage an interdepartmental team to work on your implementation. Their progress is documented and reported to you for update and comment. Progress is also reviewed weekly by the Managing Director.
Ease of file transmission
We can receive your file by what ever mechanism you prefer. Our technology allows for file receipt via Chris Fowler International website transfer, email, ISDN or FTP. You choose.
10 minutes and no more
On receipt of your file the Customer Services Team carry out a 10 minute ‘Pre-flight’ check. This ensures that we can work with what we have received, that it is what was expected and that there were no problems in transmission. We telephone you to confirm this.
We will amend for you
Standard changes to your files, usually carried out by your production team can be carried out by us.
Ease of progress checking
Your personal and secure access to our website allows you to monitor production progress through our factory.
We always call first
Being proactive rather than reactive is an essential part of the service we offer. We will agree contact points and timeframes amongst your staff and ensure that we proactively update you on any and all matters in the way that you have requested.
Information as you like it and when you like it
We will provide Management reports and statistical analyses in whatever format and to what ever frequency you require. Likewise invoices and invoice summaries can be structured in the manner most useful to you.
Painless reviews
We will implement reviews to a format and timeframe that suits you the Client; you decide what is important to you. Although we do recommend a formal quarterly review as explained in the next section – How are we doing?
How are we doing?
In a product/price driven market Client satisfaction is key. Chris Fowler International prides itself on adding value, value as defined by the Client, to all its activities. We measure this in three ways: -
- Daily/weekly operational review.
- Client review meetings.
- Customer satisfaction surveys.
Daily/weekly operational review
All operational activities are monitored and recorded. All ‘issues’ are logged and reported upon. Each day the senior management team reviews any and all issues from the day before and assigns them to the appropriate senior manager – the issue ‘owner’, who is responsible for
- investigating the issue
- determining the action required
- assigning the action to appropriate line managers, with a ‘by when’ date for it’s resolution
- following through to ensure completion.
All issues are reviewed by the operational Management team at a weekly meeting, chaired by either the Managing Director or the Finance Director. No issue can be closed without sign-off by the Managing Director, or Finance Director in the Managing Director’s absence.
Key to the success of this process is that all specific issues are looked at and dealt with in two ways - specific and generic. The specific approach is to deal with the actual issue that was raised for a specific Client and on a specific job. The generic approach is to look at all aspects of the specific issue – process, equipment, QA, and people and ensure that all necessary actions are in place to avoid a similar issue from occurring for the same or a similar Client, on any type of work.
This approach means that all operational activities are continually improved.
Such reliability measurement also allows us to predict reliability in the future. It is through this effective feedback and resolution loop that our performance continues to improve.
The Client’s Relationship Manager and the whole Customer Services Team have access to this information, which is also integrated with our MIS system and are therefore fully conversant with any Client issues and the actions, both specific and generic to resolve.
Client Review meetings
Client review meetings are held on a frequency that suits the Client. However, Chris Fowler International would propose at least a quarterly formal review. At these reviews one of the matters covered will be Client satisfaction. It is an opportunity to determine and assess Chris Fowler International’s performance as gauged by the Client. All matters are documented and actioned to ensure continual improvement.
Client satisfaction surveys
In order to add more structure to the supplier performance feedback gained at the review meetings, Chris Fowler International will be implementing later this year and as part of the PAS 75 implementation a Client satisfaction survey. This should provide a more objective assessment against which our service levels can be approved.
We like to make suggestions
We like to add value to the work of our Clients. We will do this by making suggestions as to how thing might be improved and then work with you to make changes where they are agreed.
