The fall season is here. For many, the mindset shifts from summer vacation to back to school and back to work. It’s the perfect time to arrange a business planning meeting with your clients. It can be a regularly scheduled quarterly business review (QBR) or annual business meeting. Take the time to pause and step away from daily production. Conducting customer planning meetings will enable you and your team to gather valuable input about your customers’ desires, goals, and new initiatives.
These meetings are different than a status or check in meeting. They are not focused on specific jobs. The purpose of a planning meeting is to foster the relationship between your team and your customer’s key decision makers. The meeting will focus on learning about the business impact of the services your operation is providing. This allows you to get clarity and alignment about how best to serve their future needs.
Your Customers’ Voice
You must ask to learn. Your customers are relying on your team to bring them ideas that solve their business issues. Every department in your organization is likely managing significant changes in the current business environment. Changes that may not trickle down to your operation unless you seek and ask. Customers may have longstanding jobs that now need to change, and they may have new business challenges to respond to in the next year. Establishing value for customers starts with understanding your customers’ goals and business needs.
One question to always ask at a planning meeting is whether there are any new hires on your customers’ team. How many times have you heard, ‘we didn’t know your operation could do that.” Offer training, support and a tour of your operation to new hires, so they fully understand all the services your operation provides.
Break the Bubble
Get out of your office and plan an in-person meeting in their department. With my colleague, we are planning an annual business review with an important client. The senior leader asked us to research and come prepared to discuss ideas and strategies for their sales and product development efforts.
We have committed time and resources to bring industry updates, legislative considerations, and research to inform their strategy. You and your team are experts. Share your wisdom. Your customers don’t know about industry changes, the new tools, capabilities and potential new workflows your team has implemented. Ask and understand their goals and initiatives. Share information about your new capabilities and services to support them. Take the time to research and share industry trends.
Consider the following questions as you plan an agenda.
What organizational goals are they focused on achieving?
What new projects are being planned?
How can your operation be a resource?
What results did print/mail/signage enable? What could be better?
What jobs are outsourced? Why?
When QBRs are initiated, I often hear the customers share issues and concerns that can easily be resolved by the print operations team. Customers may need better scheduling, a confirmation report with multiple tracking links, or assistance with design. By regularly asking what customers need, your team will foster better relationships with customers and instill confidence to support new jobs and projects. Planning meetings allow your team to demonstrate they care, they are experts, and they have solutions to share. Another win-win, the operations team is often inspired when they understand the organizational results from the jobs they produce.
IPMA members shared many success stories at the annual conference. Some were the direct result of conducting planning meetings with key customers. We heard about distribution of new samples for a K-12 school district. And an updated website promoting new services.
A bank in-plant had a difficult quarterly project. Something always went wrong or there were new requirements sent at the last minute. The operations manager began QBRs to plan and better understand expectations. The difficult job improved when the operations team could provide input prior to production runs. The customer was pleased when the big job ran smoothly, and the operations team no longer dreaded the ‘difficult customer’.
Demonstrate Value
Planning meetings serve many purposes. Asking the right questions will allow you to understand why your customers need your services and the impact to your organization. When your customers see your effort to provide value and knowledge, they will become your cheerleaders. This opens the door to internal referrals to other departments where your customers can share their success in working with your operation.
Leaders who embrace process, purpose and customer value will encourage a culture that motivates teams to think creatively and offer new ideas. 2026 will be different. Be willing to embrace change and continue to deliver value to your customers and organization.