2016/2017 Xploration Tour Premiers in Dallas

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Latest Trends and Best Practices in Customer Communication Management

Lutz, FL – October 5, 2016 – Xplor International, today announced the 2016/2017 Xploration Tour that will premier in Dallas, Texas on November 10, 2016.

The Xploration Tour is a joint-venture with Xplor USA designed to provide educational programming, information, and networking opportunities to members as well as industry professionals across North America.

The 2016-2017 Xploration Tour speakers will delve into the latest trends and best practices in Customer Communications, sharing trends in the industry as well as what they have learned dealing with their own CCM strategy.

The one-day events will each feature an industry analyst overview, four educational sessions, and a speaker panel discussion. Registration includes a continental breakfast, all six sessions, lunch, and in selected cities, a facility tour.

“With multi-channel and omni-channel communications playing a more integral role in the discussion of the Customer Experience, CCM is no longer an option”, says Skip Henk, President/CEO of Xplor International, “Whether a company already has or is looking to implement and/or enhance their CCM strategy, these one-day sessions will provide insight and direction.”

The Xploration tour will target US cities across North America and include:  Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis and Omaha*. The events will begin on November 10, 2016 in Dallas and run through October of 2017.

Confirmed events include Dallas, Texas on November 10, 2016 which is exclusively sponsored by Pitney Bowes. The second event will be in Atlanta, Georgia on February 9, 2017 and is sponsored by Racami. Additional cities and events will be announced when confirmed.

For more information about the Xploration Tour, visit www.xplor.org.

For information on becoming an Xploration Tour sponsor please contact Deborah Green, Director of Sales, at +1-770-444-3845 or email deborahgreen@xplor.org

*Final city selection may vary.

About Xplor International
Xplor International is a not-for-profit association that provides thought leadership to the customer communications industry. As a community Xplor provides advocacy, education, training, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Our members are decision makers and recommenders who are involved in the conception, design, implementation production and delivery of multi-channel client, member and customer communications.

Xplor’s mission is to enhance organizational success and advance the careers of our members by providing research, publications, industry certification, professional development, web-based events, and conference programming. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida, with affiliated offices around the world. Further information is available at www.xplor.org.

Facebook: facebook.com/XplorInternational
Twitter: twitter.com/Xplor_Int or @Xplor_Int

Xplor International Media Contact:
Chad Henk
Marketing Manager
+1-813-949-6171
Chad@xplor.org

Xplor at Graph Expo Breakfast Panel Deemed a Success by Attendees

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“The Customer Experience” continues to be a hot topic

Lutz, FL — October 3, 2016: Xplor International, the worldwide electronic document systems association, today announced that the Xplor at Graph Expo Breakfast event held on September 27, 2016 at the Orange County Convention Center was deemed a success by the attendees.

Tweet this: @Xplor_Int at #GraphExpo announces their keynote panel was a success and that #CX continues to be a hot topic http://bit.ly/2dVaobX

The Xplor at Graph Expo Breakfast panel was introduced four years ago with registration limited to 200. The event once again reached capacity marking its fourth year in a row.

Registration to the Xplor at Graph Expo event included admission to the panel, breakfast and a Graph Expo exhibit hall pass, courtesy of sponsors Canon Solutions America, Compart, Pitney Bowes, and Xerox Corporation.

“We received great feedback from attendees about both the subject matter and the panel itself. Attendees I spoke with enjoyed the real world applicability of the discussion.” said Skip Henk, EDP, President and CEO of Xplor. “A special thanks to our panelists and moderator Matt Swain for making the session very informative and once again our sponsors of the Xplor at Graph Expo breakfast.”

As a follow up to the breakfast panel, a webinar will take place November 1, 2016 at 1pm ET that will summarize the findings of the panel and allow our sponsoring companies an opportunity to share their opinions on the topic as well. Attendees can register here: http://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6950831413555867651.

Xplor International’s next event, Xploration® 17, is being held March 28-30 and will feature over 60 educational sessions, five panel sessions, a keynote, and an Industry Analysts Workshop, all in addition to the vendor forum and daily networking events. The event is being held in Orlando, Florida at the Caribe Royale Orlando. Preliminary event information can be found on the Xplor website (www.xplor.org/xplor17) and we are currently accepted application for speakers (http://www.cvent.com/d/jfqb85).

About Xplor International
Xplor International is a not-for-profit association that provides thought leadership to the customer communications industry. As a community Xplor provides advocacy, education, training, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Our members are decision makers and recommenders who are involved in the conception, design, implementation production and delivery of multi-channel client, member and customer communications.

Xplor’s mission is to enhance organizational success and advance the careers of our members by providing research, publications, industry certification, professional development, web-based events, and conference programming. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida, with affiliated offices around the world. Further information is available at www.xplor.org.

Facebook: facebook.com/XplorInternational
Twitter: twitter.com/Xplor_Int or @Xplor_Int

Xplor International Media Contact:
Chad Henk
Marketing Manager
+1-813-949-6171
Chad@xplor.org

Automating the steps in a standard purchasing process to improve customer experience

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Submitted by Alexandra Truchot, Content Creation Specialist for Objectif Lune.
September 29, 2016

Purchasing one of your products or services is only one of the steps in a more complex customer journey. By the time your customers get to the payment stage, they will have gone through many other crucial stages during which they also interacted with your company. Furthermore, following a purchase, the journey continues because if you want to build customer loyalty or have customers make another purchase, you have to keep in touch with them.  So the journey begins with the discovery of your brand and continues with the order, payment and delivery, not to mention the after-sales service, if required.

All of these steps are just as important in order to build customer loyalty and turn your customers into ambassadors of your products and services.

Managing them, however, can be complex and often involve many small and tedious manual tasks. By automating the most essential processes, you could save a lot of time and gain your customers’ trust by offering them a better experience when dealing with your company.

Here are a few steps in a standard customer journey which you can easily automate.

Communications with potential customers
Sales cycles are often long. Prospecting is a complex task. It takes months to strengthen ties with your network and in order to do so, you need to provide high-quality content to potential customers.

Accounts opening
The creation of new accounts is a defining moment in the customer-company relationship. But if this step is made even more complex by the excessive use of paper or tedious manual data entry by your employees, it can be frustrating for potential customers.

Order-taking
Managing purchase orders often requires scanning piles upon piles of documents every day. Employees have to manually enter numerous data to launch the subsequent phases of the process. This causes many delays and orders can sometimes take several days before being confirmed!

Deliveries
When delivering the products to your customers, you have a golden opportunity to interact with them and ensure that their experience is a good one.

Invoicing
Did you know that transactional messages are 8 times more likely to be opened than other types of communications? This is therefore a great opportunity for you to communicate with your customers.

Document management
According to the Institute of Financial Operations, 43% of organizations say that being unable to find the right data in their different customer files remains their greatest issue where after-sales services are concerned. When Customer Service wants to respond to a request, it often wastes valuable time trying to put the information together, or simply even finding the information!

Get closer to reaching your productivity, operational efficiency and customer experience objectives one step at a time!

AlexandraTruchot ThumbnailAlexandra Truchot – Content creation specialist with Objectif Lune. Writer and compulsive reader. Eager for unknown destinations and exciting encounters. Anything is possible, you just have to believe it. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Objectif Lune has 20 years of experience developing Customer Communications Management solutions. Our solutions bridge the gap between systems and automate more personalized, relevant, multichannel customer communications. Learn more at: www.objectiflune.com.

Xplor International Issues 2017 Conference Call for Presentations

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Three-Day Event to Host Over 60 Educational Sessions, Vendor Forum, and Networking Events

Lutz, FL – September 29, 2016 – Xplor International, the worldwide electronic document systems association,  has issued a “call for presentations” for their annual event, Xploration® 17, taking place March 28-30, 2017 at the Caribe Royale Orlando in Orlando, Florida. The event will feature five distinct tracks which include over 60 educational sessions, 40 solution snapshot sessions, five panel sessions, a keynote, and an Industry Analysts Workshop, all in addition to the vendor forum and daily networking events.

Tweet this: @Xplor_Int has opened up the call for presentations! Share your knowledge in Orlando on various topics! http://bit.ly/2cYVNrw #Xplor17

Xplor has opened up the call for presentations with the ability to submit as either a Session Presenter or a Panelist. However, Xplor is doing things a bit different this year. Session Presenters will have the option of a 25-minute Lightning Learning or a 50-minute Deep Dive timeslot.

“Delivering educational content from those that live, work and breathe customer communications helps make our conference successful”, says Roger Chamberlain, 2017 Conference Chair.  “For the last few years, the number of submissions has surpassed available opportunities to present, so we encourage you to submit early.  Sharing your knowledge and experiences is paramount to ensuring our attendees have the best opportunity to learn!”

To view a full list of conference topics or to submit, please visit the Call for Presentations website. Please feel free to sign up as both a panelist and a session presenter. Due to past demand, we can only accept one entry per person for session presenters, so choose your best one! Those selected will be notified of the status of their submission in November.

If selected as a session presenter or a panelist, business end users will enjoy the conference with a complimentary Platinum Passport.  Industry partners/vendors will save over 50% with a discounted rate of $499 for the Platinum Passport.

Not quite sure you want to present? Get some advice from Xplor’s President/CEO here.

Five Educational Tracks
In preparation for Xploration® 17, Xplor is seeking speakers from the business analyst and vendor communities on topics across five different tracks that encompass the entire document lifecycle and includes, but not limited to:

  • Business Management: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Justification, Dashboards, Data Security, Metrics, Production Control Management, Production Integrity, RFP, Workflow
  • All Things Data: Accessibility, Compliance, Composition, Data Management, Data Transformation, Design, Print Stream Engineering
  • Distribution: BYOD, Email, Mail, Mobile, Print, Social, SMS, Video, Web
  • The Customer Experience: CCM, Changing Workforce, Cross-Channel, e-Commerce, Listening/Response Management, Managing Multi-Channel, Marketing, Mergers/Acquisitions, Mobile Strategies, Multi-Channel ADF, Omni-Channel
  • Fundamentals: EDBOK Document Fundamentals taught by acadami

Five Panel Topics
Xploration® 17 will feature five panels throughout the event (that you can be involved in!) on the following topics:

  • Can Digital Transformation Revolutionize Your Business?
  • Collaboration: Expanding the Communication Ecosystem
  • Does Channel Preference Drive Results?
  • Is the Ideal Customer Experience a Moving Target?
  • What Role Does Mobile Technology Play in Delivering a Great Customer Experience?

Vendor Forum
The event will also feature a vendor forum that is designed to capitalize on the wealth of knowledge within the Xplor vendor community. These forums provide an opportunity for both attendees and vendors to share ideas and information on applications, industry trends and products.

Networking Events
Xplor’s Conference is known as the number one networking event in the industry. The 2017 event will once again continue that tradition as participants can attend educational sessions during the day while networking at lunches and evening events.

For more information or to apply as a speaker, please visit http://www.cvent.com/d/jfqb85. For more information about the conference, please visit www.xplor.org/xplor17. Any questions should be directed to Register@xplor.org, +1-813-949-6170, between the hours of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (ET), Monday through Friday.

Vendors interested in exhibiting or being an event sponsor should contact Xplor’s Director of Sales, Deborah Green, at 770-444-3845 or via email at deborahgreen@xplor.org.

About Xplor International
Xplor International is a not-for-profit association that provides thought leadership to the customer communications industry. As a community Xplor provides advocacy, education, training, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Our members are decision makers and recommenders who are involved in the conception, design, implementation production and delivery of multi-channel client, member and customer communications.

Xplor’s mission is to enhance organizational success and advance the careers of our members by providing research, publications, industry certification, professional development, web-based events, and conference programming. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida, with affiliated offices around the world. Further information is available at www.xplor.org.

Facebook: facebook.com/XplorInternational
Twitter: twitter.com/Xplor_Int or @Xplor_Int

Xplor International Media Contact:
Chad Henk
Marketing Manager
+1-813-949-6171
Chad@xplor.org

Xplor International Announces 2017 Conference Event

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Xploration® 17 to be held March 28-30, 2017 in Orlando, Florida

Lutz, FL — September 28, 2016: Xplor International, the worldwide electronic document systems association, today announced the dates and location for their 2017 annual conference. The event will feature five distinct tracks which include over 60 educational sessions, 40 solution snapshot sessions, five panel sessions, a keynote, and an Industry Analysts Workshop, all in addition to the vendor forum and daily networking events.

Xploration® 17 will take place March 28-30, 2017 at the Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida.

Tweet this: @Xplor_Int announces March 28-30 at the Caribe Royale in Orlando for their Xploration 17 conference #Xplor17 http://bit.ly/2cVtpGI

Also known also as The Customer Communications Conference, the two-and-a-half day event will bring together end-users, analysts, consultants, industry experts, and vendors who will share the latest best practices and trends in the customer communications industry.

For anyone involved in the creation, design and/or delivery of customer communications, this is a great event to hear the latest industry trends, best practices and to find solutions.

“Xploration® 17 will be capitalizing on the well-received educational matrix we introduced at last year’s event.” says Skip Henk, President/CEO of Xplor International, “We have made some adjustments to the event based on attendee feedback. The event will once again feature great content and networking at a beautiful venue in March, which is a great time to be in Florida.”

The five educational tracks include: Business Management, All Things Data, Distribution, The Customer Experience, and a Fundamentals course taught by acadami. Within these topics, Xploration® 17 will also feature five panels throughout the event. They are:

  • Can Digital Transformation Revolutionize Your Business?
  • Collaboration: Expanding the Communication Ecosystem
  • Does Channel Preference Drive Results?
  • Is the Ideal Customer Experience a Moving Target?
  • What Role Does Mobile Technology Play in Delivering a Great Customer Experience?

Vendor Forum
The Vendor Forum will feature 38 leading industry vendors with an opportunity for attendees and vendors to share ideas and information on applications, industry trends and products. 

Networking Events
Xplor’s Conference is known as the number one networking event in the industry. The 2017 event will once again continue that tradition as participants can attend educational sessions during the day while networking at lunches and evening events.

Interested in speaking at Xploration® 17? Our Call for Presentations is currently open and if you are interested in speaking at the conference, you can apply here. You can also check the official 2017 Annual Conference page anytime for the most up-to-date information.

Questions should be directed to Xplor HQ via email at register@xplor.org or by phone at +1-813-949-6170, between the hours of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (ET), Monday through Friday.

Vendors interested in being an event exhibitor or sponsor should contact Xplor’s Director of Sales, Deborah Green, at +1-770-444-3845 or via email at deborahgreen@xplor.org.

About Xplor International
Xplor International is a not-for-profit association that provides thought leadership to the customer communications industry. As a community Xplor provides advocacy, education, training, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Our members are decision makers and recommenders who are involved in the conception, design, implementation production and delivery of multi-channel client, member and customer communications.

Xplor’s mission is to enhance organizational success and advance the careers of our members by providing research, publications, industry certification, professional development, web-based events, and conference programming. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida, with affiliated offices around the world. Further information is available at www.xplor.org.

Facebook: facebook.com/XplorInternational
Twitter: twitter.com/Xplor_Int or @Xplor_Int

Xplor International Media Contact:
Chad Henk
Marketing Manager
+1-813-949-6171
Chad@xplor.org

Xplor Breakfast Panel Features Industry Leading Panelists

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Lutz, FL — September 19, 2016:  Xplor International, the worldwide electronic document systems association, today announced the final line up of leading industry experts who will be participating in the Xplor at Graph Expo Breakfast Panel, September 27th at the Orange County Convention Center.

The event, sponsored by Canon Solutions America, Compart, Pitney Bowes and Xerox will feature panelists:

  • Mark DeBoer, Director of Customer Experience at Darwill
  • Patrick Maurer, President of Apex Revenue Technologies
  • Michael Miller, SVP, Client and Business Solutions at Broadridge Customer Communications
  • Bill Reboul, SVP, Strategy, Product Management and Marketing at Fiserv

The breakfast keynote session, moderated by Matt Swain of InfoTrends is titled “Customer Experience: A Critical Factor for Achieving Success”, the panel will focus on the importance of the customer experience, as well as understanding customer expectations, with end user panelists sharing their insights in their efforts to create the perfect customer experience.

The breakfast session is complimentary and space is limited to the first 200 people who register. Approximately 40 seats remain.

When:  September 27, 2016
Where: Orlando Convention Center
Time: 7:30 AM-10:00 AM
Registration:   Complimentary  – (Registration Required)

Click here to register or visit the Xplor website at www.xplor.org.  Questions and requests for additional information can be directed to Xplor Headquarters via phone at +1-813-949-6170 or via email at info@xplor.org.

For more information on becoming a sponsor of a future Xplor event, please contact Deborah Green, Director of Sales, at +1-770-444-3845 or deborahgreen@xplor.org

About Xplor International
Xplor International is a not-for-profit association that provides thought leadership to the customer communications industry. As a community Xplor provides advocacy, education, training, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Our members are decision makers and recommenders who are involved in the conception, design, implementation production and delivery of multi-channel client, member and customer communications.

Xplor’s mission is to enhance organizational success and advance the careers of our members by providing research, publications, industry certification, professional development, web-based events, and conference programming. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida, with affiliated offices around the world. Further information is available at www.xplor.org.

Facebook: facebook.com/XplorInternational
Twitter: twitter.com/Xplor_Int or @Xplor_Int

Xplor International Media Contact:
Chad Henk
Marketing Manager
+1-813-949-6171
Chad@xplor.org

Providing a more relevant customer experience

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Submitted by Alexandra Truchot, Content Creation Specialist for Objectif Lune.
August 3, 2016

Do you dream of flexibility when communicating with your customers? Do you want to offer a better customer experience? Are your organization’s systems too inflexible, keeping you from using all the data you need to provide superior service to your customers?

More than ever, organizations are being asked to make dramatic changes to how they communicate with their end clients. There are many occasions for communicating with your customers: welcome messages, invoices, orders, confirmation of payment or invitations to evaluate the services.

Consumers have high expectations and demand personalized, relevant communications. They no longer want multi-page transactional records that do not take their uniqueness into account or highlight the relationship they have with you. Personally, I hate receiving useless paperwork. I don’t want to feel like just another number, and I will always choose a company that offers me service that looks like me.

This is a huge issue today. Organizations that do not make the effort to optimize customer communications are going to quickly lose their clientele to competitors that have been able to get onboard sooner.

So, to keep your customers, your communications have to be responsive. And to do that, you have to be able to quickly and easily modify the documents you send them, based on their purchasing history, geographic location, or marketing campaigns in progress.

In addition to wanting to satisfy your customers, you have to fulfill numerous legal requirements related to transactional records. You have to add specific phrases to comply with a new law or modify certain segments of the invoice in accordance with more stringent laws in a country where you have a subsidiary. In these cases, you have to know how to respond quickly to comply and you really have no choice.

So what to do?

Take back control of your templates by modifying them in a tool specifically intended for document design. The design tool should give you access to advanced functions for personalizing your documents and give you greater flexibility when you want to modify them.

But obviously, you don’t want to get rid of the old templates created using your ERP system and start completely from scratch.

There are now business document composition tools that go beyond mere design. Getting a tool that functions like a middleware system and regenerates the old templates into something more dynamic and modern, will give you greater flexibility. You will not lose your old templates – you’ll improve them. You’ll make them relevant, customizable and interactive.

In addition, you will be able to take advantage of them to move to multi-source communications. A good tool will enable you to easily send your documents using various means. But to smoothly make the switch to digital, you can refer to my advice in my previous note.

AlexandraTruchot ThumbnailAlexandra Truchot – Content creation specialist with Objectif Lune. Writer and compulsive reader. Eager for unknown destinations and exciting encounters. Anything is possible, you just have to believe it. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Objectif Lune has 20 years of experience developing Customer Communications Management solutions. Our solutions bridge the gap between systems and automate more personalized, relevant, multichannel customer communications. Learn more at: www.objectiflune.com.

“Xplor at Graph Expo” Event Sponsored by Industry Leaders

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Lutz, FL — July 26, 2016: Xplor International today announced that Canon Solutions America, Compart North America, Pitney Bowes and Xerox Corporation will be sponsoring this year’s Xplor at Graph Expo event being held September 27, 2016 during the Graph Expo show.

Customer Experience: A Critical Factor for Achieving Success will be moderated by Matt Swain of InfoTrends who, along with panelists, will address whether the advancements in technology and changes in human behavior make superior customer experience a moving target. A superior customer experience has emerged as a critical success factor for companies. It is about meeting, and ideally exceeding, the expectations of your customer.

The complimentary event is limited to the first 200 registrants. Registration includes admission to the panel session, a networking breakfast, and a Graph Expo exhibit hall pass, all courtesy of the event sponsors. For more information, or to register for the event, visit the event page: http://bit.ly/1U9jX6g

“Over the last couple of years the concept of delivering a great customer experience has taken center stage and has become a critical success factor for companies.” says Skip Henk, President and CEO of Xplor International. “Our panelists will discuss the critical success factors in delivering a superior customer experience, as well as the obstacles and how companies can overcome them.”

Event Details:

Date: September 27, 2016
Time: 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM (Breakfast starts at 7:30 AM)
Location: OCC North Building – Level 3, Room N310 E&F
Cost: FREE (Registration required and limited to the first 200 registrants)

For information about Xplor at Graph Expo, please visit: http://bit.ly/1U9jX6g. You can also contact Xplor Headquarters at +1-813-949-6170.

About Canon Solutions America
Canon Solutions America is a leading provider of digital document technology solutions.  The Océ brand has a reputation for delivering high speed, outstanding quality and rock-solid reliable production printers to some of the biggest industries and brands. From cut-sheet to continuous feed, monochrome to full-color, and toner to inkjet, these scalable printing and workflow solutions are customized for your business and backed by award-winning service. As part of Canon Solutions America, we have the brightest R&D minds advancing tomorrow’s innovations to help you grow your business, control costs, and practice environmental stewardship. Whether it’s improving productivity or opening new markets and applications, we can help you be ready for the future. Learn more at pps.csa.canon.com.

About Compart North America
Over the course of two decades Compart has helped over 1,200 companies worldwide, across a broad range of industries, to successfully implement output management solutions. Our international team has extensive technological expertise in providing output management solutions for complex enterprise environments. We work with you to design the ideal output management solution for your business. www.compart.com

About Pitney Bowes
Pitney Bowes (NYSE: PBI) is a global technology company offering innovative products and solutions that enable commerce in the areas of customer information management, location intelligence, customer engagement, shipping and mailing, and global ecommerce. More than 1.5 million clients in approximately 100 countries around the world rely on products, solutions and services from Pitney Bowes. For additional information, visit Pitney Bowes at www.pitneybowes.com.

About Xerox Corporation
Xerox is a global business services, technology and document management company helping organizations transform the way they manage their business processes and information. Headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., we have more than 140,000 Xerox employees and do business in more than 180 countries. Together, we provide business process services, printing equipment, hardware and software technology for managing information — from data to documents. Learn more at www.xerox.com.

About Xplor International
Xplor International is a worldwide, not-for-profit professional association that consists of thousands of users and suppliers of the products and services that create, modify and deliver customized information using a wide variety of document technologies. The association provides educational products and programs for its members and the industry at large through conferences, meetings and annual events. Xplor International has its worldwide headquarters in Lutz, Florida, with affiliated offices around the world. Further information is available at www.xplor.org.

Facebook: facebook.com/XplorInternational
Twitter: twitter.com/Xplor_Int or @Xplor_Int

Xplor International Media Contact:
Chad Henk
Marketing Manager
+1-813-949-6171
Chad@xplor.org

Why is it so difficult to switch to digital?

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Submitted by Alexandra Truchot, Content Creation Specialist for Objectif Lune.
July 20, 2016

According to IDC, a market research firm, by the end of 2017, two-thirds of the 2000 largest companies (ranked by Forbes magazine) will have digital transformation at the centre of their corporate strategy. Most already see digital transformation as a must. Moreover, 55% of those organizations feel the urgency to act within the year, at the risk of falling behind their competitors.

However, few of them have already completed the conversion. In fact, some have hardly begun.

That’s because switching to digital is no easy task, and here are the three main reasons.

Lack of flexibility in terms of communication
You have to be responsive in your communications in order to keep your customers. And to be responsive, you need to be able to easily and quickly change the documents you send them, based on their purchase history, geographic area, or even your current marketing campaigns.

You also need to be able to send those same documents digitally (email, web portal, EDI transactions, etc.)

Nonetheless, InfoTrends estimates that it takes an average of three months to make small changes to document templates, and twice as long (seven months!) to make major changes. Some examples of small changes to document templates include updating a company’s logo or a signature, or changing small segments of a text or paragraph. Major changes include completely re-doing the template, including the style, messages and branding.

An aging architecture
Do you sometimes feel trapped by your rigid systems that never seem suited to your organization’s changing needs?

Older systems rarely provide interactive or digital features, because they were designed long before the Internet played such a huge role in business.

For example, the inflexibility of many ERP systems complicates and slows down document updating processes. ERP systems don’t allow you to take into account the new trends in managing customer communications (modern graphics, Internet and HTML use). It gets very costly to make changes directly and requires setting up long-term projects, involving the cooperation of several departments in an organization (IT, operations, and finance).

Managing data from a number of sources
Over the years, a company puts many systems in place to meet the business needs of its various departments. The company ends up with several systems from different eras that often don’t interact well with one another. It would be quite costly to replace all of them for the purposes of data exchange.

Workers have often get into the habit of directly printing documents from each system to collect the information they need. What a waste of time and money when it would have been easier if the systems exchanged data automatically.

Not only do you need a middleware system that allows you to bridge the gap between your systems and retrieve the data you need, but you’ll also want to easily convert and standardize the data moving between systems, if necessary.

AlexandraTruchot ThumbnailAlexandra Truchot – Content creation specialist with Objectif Lune. Writer and compulsive reader. Eager for unknown destinations and exciting encounters. Anything is possible, you just have to believe it. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Objectif Lune has 20 years of experience developing Customer Communications Management solutions. Our solutions bridge the gap between systems and automate more personalized, relevant, multichannel customer communications. Learn more at: www.objectiflune.com.

Customer Experience: Put the patty on the damn bun!

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By Skip Henk, EDP, President/CEO of Xplor International

Over the last year I have been spending a great deal of time better understanding the varying intricacies of a customer experience, its relationship to our industry, and how a great customer experience can pay big dividends.

An article I read the other day by Warren Buffet said, “Your business will succeed if you execute this three word mission, DELIGHT YOUR CUSTOMER.” Speaking at the 20th Graduation of Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses at LaGuardia Community College, Buffett told the graduates: “Tomorrow morning when you look in the mirror after you’ve gotten up, just write — or just put it in lipstick or whatever you want — ‘delight my customer’ not ‘satisfy my customer.’ ‘Delight my customer.’”

This perhaps is the most descriptive and succinct definition of a the Customer Experience I have read.

(To read the article http://tinyurl.com/jxgghuy )

We have dozens of customer experiences each week which can vary greatly. Whether you are dropping your clothes off at the cleaners, going to the grocery store or ordering on Amazon we have plenty of opportunity to be delighted.

Some of the most mundane of interactions can be delightful with delight being driven by expectations.

Setting Expectations
Customer experience is how we expect to be treated in a given situation. When we go to the cleaners, we don’t want to wait in line too long to drop them off and we want our clothes cleaned properly and ready when promised. At the grocery store, we expect shelves to be well stocked, for the store to be clean and for there to be plenty of cashiers or self serve kiosks to minimize our wait when leaving. When ordering online, we look for availability, price, shipping costs and time. Then we expect our purchase to arrive on or before the date promised.

Expectations vary based on the task and whether we have high or low expectations. When expectations are met, it represents a good experience.

Put the Patty on the Damn Bun
I occasionally go to a fast food restaurant, typically with fairly low expectations. I do expect to wait if I go during a peak times and I automatically assume my order is will not be right, so I check it. I also expect that it is at least warm.  Reasonable but certainly not high expectations.

hamburgerLast week, I had a Big Mac craving and ventured to McDonald’s to order myself a Big Mac and fries.  (Don’t judge me, I know the Big Mac is 560 calories and fries add an additional 368 calories; this isn’t the point)  The “customer experience” was going along well, I did not have to wait long, the order appeared correct and I saw the fries come out the fryer, so they were nice and hot. I was good to go. I sat down to eat and opened my Big Mac finding BOTH patties were hanging halfway off the bun. Not sure exactly why it crossed me but it did.

As I looked at my burger I contemplated taking it back but decided not to do so. What I realized is that the customer experience can in fact be a moving target with expectations theoretically changing with each transaction. The same may hold true for our industry.

At the Xplor at Graph Expo breakfast session, September 27th in Orlando, our panel, moderated by Matt Swain of Infotrends, will try and answer the question:  “With advancements in technology and changes in human behavior, is offering a superior customer experience a moving target?”

If you are planning to attend Graph Expo, I invite you to attend our complimentary breakfast session sponsored by Canon Solutions America, Compart North America, Pitney Bowes and Xerox Corporation. For more information and to register, visit the event website.

As far as my Big Mac expectations, “Put the damn patty on the bun!”

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Skip Henk, EDP
President/CEO
Xplor International