Running a business quickly teaches you that being busy and building your business aren’t always the same thing.
At National Media Services, Inc., we work across several areas. We produce CDs and DVDs, handle printing projects, create signage, and provide custom apparel. Our customers come to us because they need something produced, printed, or created correctly and on time.
When you’re busy doing that work, it’s easy to concentrate on the jobs sitting in front of you.
That’s also when you can make a mistake I’ve seen many businesses make: You stop thinking about where the next job is coming from.
Over the years, I’ve learned that marketing and sales can’t be something you turn on only when business slows down. You have to keep communicating with customers and prospects even when you’re busy.
Technology, including AI, is giving small businesses some useful new ways to do that.
Your Customers May Need More Than They Realize
One advantage of National Media Services is the variety of products and services we offer.
A customer may first know us because we produced a CD or DVD project. That same customer may later need banners or signs for an event.
A business that comes to us for printing may also need shirts for its employees.
An organization ordering apparel may need printed materials, signs, or another product for an upcoming event.
That’s why staying in touch matters.
You can’t assume customers know everything you do just because they’ve done business with you before.
Sometimes the best sales opportunities aren’t about finding a stranger. It’s reminding an existing customer that you can help with something else.
Don’t Wait Until The Phones Get Quiet
A cycle can happen in almost any small business.
When things are slow, you start marketing.
You send emails. You make calls. You contact previous customers. You follow up on estimates. You post online and start looking for opportunities.
Then the orders start coming.
Everyone gets busy producing the work, and marketing moves down the priority list.
Eventually, those jobs are finished, and suddenly everyone wonders, “What’s next?”
Then the marketing starts again.
I’ve learned that a better approach is to keep some level of outreach going all the time.
It doesn’t have to mean constantly bombarding people with sales pitches. In fact, it shouldn’t.
It means creating a process to stay visible and remind people you’re available when they need you.
Use What You Already Know About Your Customers
Businesses collect more useful information than they sometimes realize.
Think about what you already know.
A customer ordered banners for an annual event last year. There’s a good chance that event is coming around again.
A local company ordered employee shirts. Eventually, it may have new employees who need shirts too.
A nonprofit ordered printed materials for a fundraiser. It may hold that fundraiser every year.
A customer ordered DVDs for a project and may have another project in development.
Those aren’t random cold leads. They’re opportunities to provide better service by remembering what customers need and when they tend to need it.
A good customer database or CRM can help organize that information. Technology can help with reminders and follow-ups so those opportunities don’t depend entirely on someone’s memory.
AI Can Help A Small Business Stay Organized
This is where I think AI becomes interesting for a company like ours.
There’s a lot of talk about artificial intelligence replacing jobs or completely changing businesses. I’m more interested in the practical question:
Can it help us do something better?
For example, AI can help draft a follow-up email to a customer based on the type of project they previously ordered.
It can help organize information about potential customers before someone contacts them.
It can help develop ideas for reaching different types of businesses.
It can help turn basic notes into a more useful sales message.
And it can save time creating first drafts of emails, marketing material and other communications.
The important part is that a person still needs to review what comes out.
AI doesn’t know a customer the way we do. It doesn’t automatically understand every production issue, deadline, material or special request.
It is a tool.
Used correctly, it can help a small team get more done without losing the personal service that helped build the business in the first place.
Don’t Send The Same Message To Everybody
One of the things technology makes easier is communicating with different customers in different ways.
That’s important for National Media Services because someone looking for custom apparel doesn’t necessarily have the same needs as someone ordering signage.
A school may have completely different needs from a church, nonprofit, musician, local business, or event organizer.
Instead of sending everybody the same generic message, we can communicate based on what is actually useful to them.
A business might be interested in employee apparel, signs, and printed marketing materials.
A school or organization may need shirts, banners, and materials for an event.
An artist or content producer might be more interested in physical media production.
The more relevant the communication is, the more useful it becomes to the customer.
That’s a much better approach than simply sending, “We haven’t heard from you lately. Do you need anything?”
Don’t Forget The Human Side
I’ve been in business long enough to know that technology changes.
Customer service doesn’t.
People want someone to answer their questions. They want accurate information. They want to know what something will cost, when it will be ready and whether you’ll stand behind the finished product.
That’s especially important in a production business.
A customer isn’t just buying a sign, a printed piece, a shirt, or a DVD. In many cases, that product represents their business, organization, event or creative work.
There are details that matter.
That’s why I don’t see AI and automation as replacements for customer relationships. I see them as ways to help us manage those relationships better.
If technology reminds us to call a customer at the right time, that’s useful.
If it helps us prepare before making that call, that’s useful.
If it helps us write a better first draft of an email in 30 seconds instead of 15 minutes, that’s useful.
But eventually, somebody has to take care of the customer.
Look At What Else You Can Solve
I’ve learned another lesson from offering different services under one roof.
Listen to what your customers are asking for.
Sometimes a customer comes to you for one thing and, through the conversation, you discover another problem you can solve.
Maybe they’re ordering shirts for an event and haven’t thought about the banner they need at the entrance.
Maybe they’re printing materials for a promotion and also need signs.
Maybe they’re planning a project and don’t realize you provide another service that could save them from finding a second vendor.
That doesn’t mean trying to sell customers something they don’t need.
It means understanding the full project and letting them know how you can help.
Some of the best business opportunities come from solving one more problem for someone who already trusts you.
Use Technology To Make A Good Business Better
I’m interested in AI for the same reason I’ve been interested in other technologies throughout my career: I want to know whether it can help us serve customers better and operate more efficiently.
Not every new tool will.
Small business owners don’t have unlimited time to experiment with every new piece of software that comes along.
Start with the problem.
Are we forgetting to follow up on estimates?
Are previous customers going too long without hearing from us?
Do customers know us for one service but not the others?
Are we spending too much time writing routine communications?
Are there good prospects in our market that we’ve simply never contacted?
Once you know the problem, then look for the technology that can help solve it.
Keep Talking To Your Customers
If there’s one thing I’d tell another small business owner, it’s not to disappear when you’re busy.
Keep talking to your customers.
Keep following up.
Keep reminding people what you do.
And pay attention to what they’re telling you they need.
For National Media Services, our business has changed over the years, and the products customers need continue to change as well. Technology will keep changing too.
But the foundation remains remarkably simple.
Do good work. Take care of customers. Stay in touch. Look for problems you can solve.
And don’t wait until business gets slow to start looking for the next opportunity.
