Done properly, service is more than just filling orders and handlings problems. It is an ongoing endeavor that develops sustainable solutions to help customers respond to the changing needs of their businesses. This is especially true in the commercial printing marketplace where advertisers have shortened lead times, reduced budgets and high expectations about how they want their brand represented.

Suzi Richardson, Manager of Inside Sales & Operations for MeadWestvaco (MWV), describes how the company's Commercial Printing Business relies on service to differentiate itself from other paperboard manufacturers.

Q: Tell us about MWV's Commercial Printing Business?

We offer high performance Tango Advantage Coated Covers which enable many of the world's most-admired companies in the healthcare, beauty and personal care, food, beverage, media and entertainment, home and garden, and tobacco to market their brands.

Tango Advantage includes a complete range of coated one side (C1S) and coated two side (C2S) grades, supported by customized service programs and quick turnaround capabilities. They are ideal for brochures, point-of-purchase displays, direct mailers, greeting cards, calendars, book and magazine covers, and lottery tickets.

Q: What is your role?

I work closely with our Sales, Marketing and Supply Chain teams to provide value-oriented solutions to our existing and potential customers. I continually train, develop and grow the account management team as we transform inside sales and operations.

As part of the lead team, I also work closely with our Finance teams, with the Business Unit General Manager, and on a daily basis with managers across all MWV business units. We constantly work to identify ways we can get an edge in the market by delivering a unique value proposition to our customers.

Q: What's your average call volume and what are customers asking for?

The team handles an average of 200 calls per day, 1000 per week and approximately 5000 each month. These are inbound calls but we also proactively make outbound calls to our customers to follow-up on new opportunities, provide status updates on open orders, and build/maintain relationships.

Due to the down economy, printers are holding less inventory and have less cash, so they're looking for rapid response solutions. The most common calls to the inside sales team relate to product availability, turn-around time for specialty and/or custom print jobs, and prices.

Q: What type of product and service information do you provide to customers, and how often?

We offer detailed information on how our products enable customers to produce higher quality printed collateral, including detailed information on product capabilities, specifications, and testimonials from regular users. These are sent to customers on a bi-monthly or quarterly basis. The inside sales team will take the themes from the materials and proactively contact customers to ensure they are fully aware of the benefits for their business or for their customers.

My team works closely with customers to ensure that they get the products and services they need, not what we want them to have--there's a big difference. Our specialized solutions are designed for an explicit purpose, which is the result of our customer knowledge and outside-in approach.

We're in the process of launching a full range of E-Business solutions that will expedite customer responses and streamline the inquiry and ordering process. They are designed to improve our merchant partners' ability to respond to their customers. In addition, our new MWV Commercial Print "microsite" will enable printers to easily access information about our products.

Q: Take us through the sales process/customer order and fulfillment.

On special size jobs we start at price quotation and availability/turn-around time. This information is vital to our customers in securing business. After an order is placed and enters our system, we contact our distribution center to ensure that it is executed properly and on time. We then follow the order through to delivery by working with our distribution and logistics team.

MWV has technical service representatives located throughout the regions where we do business. These seasoned professionals have years of extensive experience and are trained to identify and help rectify any technical issues that may arise within printing or filling processes.

Any complaints receive immediate management attention and are handled through our technical department. Our customer service and technical teams work hard to minimize any disruption to our customers by quickly sourcing replacement stock, correcting invoices, issuing credits, etc. as needed.

Q: How do you project a professional company image through phone/email interaction?

We work as a team. Our inside sales and operations personnel back up each other. We conduct intense cross-training exercises to maintain a consistently high skill level across the team. This helps grow our business and just as important, helps our merchant and print customers gain an edge in the marketplace. We strive to enable the people who sell and use Tango Advantage, to succeed.

Our account representatives visit each customer at least once a year and work to build a deep connection. MWV encourages our customer service and inside sales teams to attend trade shows and visit customers on a one-on-one basis to understand their needs and tailor our service offerings.

We conduct ongoing skill building as a team. All of the members of the business help in this effort--Marketing conducts sessions to educate our Inside Sales team about customer benefits generated through the use and implementation of our products. Our Commercial team helps with selling skills. Our Supply Chain Manager coaches the team on order execution decisions. We hold regular team meetings and invite business experts to share their knowledge with our account representatives.

We watch the call trends as a leading indicator of our business activity, and analyze data twice a week and investigate when fluctuations are identified.

Q: Has the role of Customer Service changed?

More and more emphasis is being placed on customer service to deliver value-oriented and timely solutions to our customers. We're essentially an extension of our outside sales force. These jobs are very complex; the inside account representatives are making important business decisions on a daily basis that have a direct impact on our performance and implications to MWV as a whole.

By tracking market share of our merchants and printers, we can tell when we are succeeding. In addition, we conduct quarterly customer surveys to benchmark our responsiveness, service and performance. A recent survey uncovered evidence of the great work our reps are doing when Dave Baker, merchandising and converting manager, Spicers Paper, complimented his local sales rep, as well as the MWV team, for exceptional support and service, saying that they "go above and beyond to ensure that partnerships flourish." The sales rep had recommended a paper stock solution that helped Spicers Paper win or close on late Q3 business.

Today's customer service team is staffed with professional account representatives who have deep and meaningful relationships with and knowledge of their customers. There's a wealth of market knowledge and 'key-learnings" that are absorbed through our customer service team, which is shared within our collaborative environment. Again, our focus is to ensure that our customers maximize their potential for success.

Suzi Richardson joined MWV in September 2009 as Manager of Inside Sales & Operations. She has 17 years of experience as a Manager of Operations and a Senior Buyer for a nationwide retail company.

MeadWestvaco (MWV) is one of the world's leading paperboard manufacturing companies with 20,000 employees and operations in 30 countries. All forestlands are managed in accordance with internationally recognized forest certification standards, and the company has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for six consecutive years. For more information, please visit www.mwv.com.