Three-Martini lunches are kind of like the 1960s-if you remember them, you weren’t there. By the time all parties sobered up, a contract had been signed, with the advantages going to the party with the best alcohol tolerance.
These lunches still exist, but AGA Catalog Marketing & Design has found a better way: Its “Active Listening Performance Measurement System.” The printer starts each of its dealings with clients with an “initial listening” questionnaire, then monitors their needs and desires via a series of meetings, both formal and informal, and through regular “project listening” questionnaires.
“I’m not completely convinced that [the social occasions] were doing what we needed them to do in the long run,” says AGA vice president of change and innovation Jeff Insco. “They may have won us customers. But were we really getting a sense of what the philosophy of this new customer was that was going to help us serve them over the long run? We weren’t really sure they were doing that for us. They weren’t quantifiable, except for the dollars.”
“This program doesn’t replace any social activities we do with our customers. It allows us to measure, in a quantifiable way, what their satisfaction level is,” notes AGA marketing services director Robin Glat.
One AGA client needed this attention: Avon Products Inc. of New York. Avon felt its previous printer hadn’t been very responsive, says Thomas Taubes, who joined Avon as direct marketing planner in the fall of 1997 just after it switched to AGA. Avon execs had already filled out their initial listening questionnaires.
Despite the fact that it “looked like a goddamned invoice,” Taubes filled out his first questionnaire the minute he got it, sensing that AGA genuinely wanted to evaluate his answers and act on them.
Taubes was right. He checked off a box asking for a senior management follow-up call, which came within three days of putting the questionnaire in the mail. (He actually had a minor tweaking he wanted to discuss regarding the format the final pages were delivered in for Avon’s holiday catalog.) His concern was addressed by AGA’s senior vice president/COO Andy Russell.
As a relatively new hire, Taubes was impressed by the call. “I was trying to get my career going,” he says. “If someone is asking me for my opinion on a project getting off the ground, I wanted to return the favor.”
These days, while the questionnaires may not get out Taubes’ door the same day they come in, they usually don’t sit around too long; neither do the ones sent to his manager and director.
AGA sends the questionnaire to different individuals in a client firm in order to gain a better sense of how it is perceived throughout the firm’s management hierarchy. This also increases the chance of participation. Since launching the program roughly two years ago, AGA has sent out some 200 questionnaires and received around 150 back. But all of its current clients are represented among those 150 returned surveys.
Sometimes it takes a little more work to get clients to respond. The survey, says Insco, is sent to the client along with a copy of the project it pertains to, a system that adds a sense of urgency to the process and reminds multiproject clients which job it pertains to. If it is not returned in two weeks, an account representative will place a phone call and offer to fax it over or fill it out over the phone. If a client has not filled out two or three in a row, Russell will call one of the client’s senior project people.
“We don’t want to overburden them, we do want to emphasize how important it is to get their feedback,” says Insco.
In addition to the project-by-project questionnaires, there are also the “Annual Listening” surveys. These inquiries-similar to the initial listening questionnaire-are designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the client’s catalogs, freestanding inserts and other vehicles AGA has provided, while identifying future needs. It’s no accident that the annual questionnaire is timed to coincide with the planning of each client’s fiscal year.
One function of the annual questionnaire is to aid in budgeting, and to determine the additional potential value of a customer.
“We make projections based on what we learn a customer is going to need or expect from us during the year,” says AGA marketing services specialist Jason Hornik. In one case, when a client expressed concerns about the consistency of the creative talent, AGA went out of its way to bring high-profile creative talent that had been freelancing for it on staff. By doing so, AGA was able to realize a greater percentage of a major apparel niche marketer’s business.
A Very Important Question But a key component of the annual survey is the first question, which asks the client to rank, on a scale of one to five, whether or not AGA met its expectations. This question is so important to AGA that a cover letter asks “If you are short on time, please just send us the answer to question 1.” According to Hornik, the level of satisfaction has risen by 20% since the questionnaires were introduced.
If there is a cautionary note worth adding, it is that setting up a program like AGA’s can be counterproductive if the necessary follow-through is not in place.
“There has been one customer who said, very explicitly, ‘I am going to fill these out but I am going to hold you responsible for what we put on these things,'” says Insco. “[He said] ‘I am reluctant to do this because I am reluctant to believe that this information will be used.'”
Which it has, Insco adds.
United Airlines and online investment service E*Trade Group Inc. have begun a program that allows their customers to earn up to 50,000 frequent flyer miles per year.
More than 25 million United Mileage Plus members have several options to earn miles, including opening an E*Trade account and referring new customers to the online service.
The arrangement enables E*Trade to reach a large group of potential investors that closely matches its target audience.
“Our marketing strategy focuse s on the more than 10 million individuals who conduct research online but place trades through traditional means,” says E*Trade senior vice president of marketing Jerry Gramaglia.
Mileage Plus was named the best frequent flyer program by Business Traveler International in 1996 and 1997, and was recognized by Conde Nast Traveler last year for its membership privileges.
