Be Your Own Customer
Here’s an idea you may have read about in a management text or heard at a conference: Be your own customer. It’s a good one, and you should try it sometime.
As managers, we think we know how our shops run, and we stress the importance of meeting customer expectations to our staff, but do we really understand what the customer experience is like? And why that experience might drive customers to look for alternative sources for printing?
Ray Chambers, CGCM, MBA, has invested over 30 years managing and directing printing plants, copy centers, mail centers and award-winning document management facilities in higher education and government.
Most recently, Chambers served as vice president and chief information officer at Juniata College. Chambers is currently a doctoral candidate studying Higher Education Administration at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU). His research interests include outsourcing in higher education and its impact on support services in higher education and managing support services. He also consults (Chambers Management Group) with leaders in both the public and private sectors to help them understand and improve in-plant printing and document services operations.
