CB Richard Ellis is one of the top real estate firms in the world with over 10,000 employees in nearly 250 offices across 44 countries. The company completes more successful transactions each year than any other firm in the world. This unrivaled transaction volume creates market knowledge that allows CB Richard Ellis to seize opportunities, speed the transaction process – and better advise clients on all their real estate decisions.  

Michelle Pingel has worked in the graphics field since 1986, starting at a small newspaper, designing ads on boards. Michelle says she really prefers PCs to using X-acto blades, although border tape is something she misses. Michelle is the Marketing Coordinator at the Kansas City, Missouri office of CB Richard Ellis. She creates property brochures and helps interview prospective printing vendors.

Michelle, tell us about your vendors and do others there order print?

At this location, I am one of four graphic artists. We each order printing. It has taken some testing with local and out of state sources, but we are pretty settled now on who we use. We do not use just one source. The lone out of state vendor is who we use for digital copies because of their low price and fast turnaround. They do not do 4-color. Locally we have 4 vendors. Two of them we use for 4-color jobs. One has extremely high quality, yet they do not have a very fast turnaround. The third we use for mailers only, and I do not like any copy jobs we've sent them - poor job, but have had them as our mailing source for several years. The fourth vendor is relatively new, having been started by a salesman at another printing company that was vying for our business. We have used this fourth vendor in emergency situations, and they have come through nicely. They were the only one, for instance, that could print an 11 x 17 overlay project in 24 hours.

We assume you would advise other buyers of print to have multiple vendors.

It is a process, to find a vendor that you are happy with. After interviewing a dozen or so vendors, I feel comfortable with the situation as we have it now. It's sad that one vendor couldn't do everything, but that is how it is. While I still get vendors calling, I am pretty much not interviewing anyone now. Too tired!

How do you monitor these vendors?

I watch them and their performance with a close eye and if there is ever a problem, I call it to their attention, but in a very nice way.The out of state printer is more careful now, and they've only had a few instances of error. They were quick to rectify that situation. One of the local printers is slow to get back to me on quotes. Or maybe I'm just impatient!

Tell us more about the vendor that is slow to quote jobs. What do you mean by slow and do they compensate with service?

One of the local printers - ProPrint - has gone out of their way nicely to keep our business after our rep quit. I understand the printing business can have a high employee turnover. ProPrint has room to improve, they are the one who takes several days to get back on quotes, if I e-mail the request. Perhaps they are busy on sales calls and do not check e-mail. If I call in the request, I've got the quote in a matter of an hour or two - but I prefer to use e-mail. I do like a printout or fax quote that way I can keep it handy. ProPrint personnel are very friendly. I like dealing with them the best for this reason alone.

Have you ever stopped using a printer and what led to that decision?

Yes, seeing how they treated their employee/salesman. I have worked for a sweatshop or two in my past and I have zero tolerance for such organizations. I used to say that I stopped working at a printing company because I was expected to grow two more legs and work like a dog. No matter what field is involved, everyone should be treated with respect. It is possible. Here everyone respects each other and that is very nice. Another reason I have stopped using a printer is because they have no follow-through. They don't respond to my questions in a timely manner, or they don't call from time to time to see if I have a job I can send them. ProPrint surpasses the others in this area. They have excellent customer service.

What trends do you see for the future of print within CB Richard Ellis and are there other services you would like to see offered?

Overall: direct PDF to printer; more web-based ordering. Within my firm: Increased demand for printing services. I would like a fax-out service. Give the vendor a list of fax numbers and the item to be faxed, let them do the job and bill me. We sometimes like to fax out to other brokers in Kansas City. That list has over 200 contacts. We cannot do a broadcast fax because we cannot store that many numbers on our fax machine.

You mentioned a vendor that was out of state - do you use the web to communicate with them?

We do all ordering with our out-of-state vendor, Expresscopy that way. It is quick. Expresscopy has excellent communications with us if they have a question. Their technical support staff is incredible.

Does each CB Richard Ellis office have their own graphic designers?

All designing for the Kansas City office brochures is done in-house. If we need any assistance, there are about a hundred other graphic designers throughout the company who are eager to help. We share ideas and get feedback from each other.


Thank you Michelle for being a member of PrintPlanet and allowing us to get your input.