Brand marketing firm Polar Unlimited on their choice of print service providers:
So how do you create a great experience around a printed a product?You can decommodify even if you are in a commodity industry. We use vendors in the printing industry quite often, and have seen quite a few of them come and go. We now use a vendor that is far from the cheapest (and quite a few large brands also use this same printer). WHY? Because their focus is not just on the price and the product, but MY experience around the product. Quite simply, they find ways to make life for the people at our company easier and easier everyday. And in most cases, I'm willing to pay more for that. Create an amazing customer experience and you will create more value (and margin).
Discussion
By Michael J on Aug 05, 2008
From 30 years of selling printing, these are my rules of thumb.
1. Answer the phone (quickly, professionally)
2. Give customers what they ask for (quickly, professionally.)
3. Don't try to baffle them with bs, if you can't dazzle them with brilliance.
The critical issue is to save time and minimize risk.
How long does it take for a customer to get an intelligent, accurate response to a phone call or an email?
If it's more than one phone call or 30 minutes for an email, it's too long.
(I'll call you back means within the hour.)
How long does it take to get an estimate in the customer's hand?
If it's more than 24 hours, it's too long. If it's 4 hours that's about right.
If a customer needs a paper sample, how long?
If it's more than the next morning, it's too late.
How long does it take for the customer to get production information?
If it's more than 5 minutes it's too long.
That's the experience at Amazon and the best printing companies.
By Grover Daniels on Aug 06, 2008
Hello again,
Imagine the following scenario....
The slow down in the economy is having a negative impact on achieving your desired organizational goals, and you've been told to cut costs EVERYWHERE for the foreseeable future. In addition, you've been put on a team to review how to improve your top line results. Your team leaders are looking for the magic bullet, (not the smoothie machine) on how to increase market share with lower printing and copying costs.
Last night while watching TV, you see an advertisement about a new copy machine for the office. You think about your growth ideas, and how to develop them for a presentation to your team. While thinking about these ideas you see another advertiser boast about how adding color is an inexpensive and effective communication tool. Finally, you're about to close your eyes, and BANG, it hits you, bring all your marketing and printing needs in-house, you will save money and time by not buying the services from a vendor, and you can control your, (and your boss's) changing content/ideas up to the last minute.
The IDEA meeting begins in the morning, and you present to the team. Everyone is in total agreement with your plan, and soon you are in the IDEA delivery business. You lease digital copiers, and buy the the latest version of Adobe software, and begin an Internet chat with salesforce.com.
Trouble is, you are now in a new business (Printing) you know very little about and is changing all the time. Truth be told... those pesky color machines need TLC forever, Adobe takes months to learn and years to master, you do not know the difference between a GIF, TIFF, JPEG, and a MP3 file, your ability to maximize the resolution of a 72 DPI image in RGB does not convert to 175 line CMYK, and Purl's are nice jewelry. Clearly there is not enough time learn our business and do the job you were hired to do.
You are not the first person to convince a team to manage its own communication needs, in fact this was a huge trend in the 90's with the movement to lower costs and do more stuff in-house. In addition to printing and copying in-house, an entire new service industry was born, the Facility Management Company (FM). Recently, with Internet Marketing becoming a core need for increasing sales, Facebook is more relevant then face time. Times, they are a changing.....
Today, communicating ones ideas is not about using one print solution, it is about integrating different media to optimize results FAST. In fact, there is a small printer that recently changed their name to incorporate the name Optimization. Truth be told, some smart Printers know how to communicate beyond putting ink and toner on paper. YOU may not want to call the printer first, but marketing, advertising, administrative assistant, secretary's and online shoppers already know we are the SINGLE best resource for low cost, high ROI communication services.
I know this much about our 2 companies, CopyCop.com and Pixxlz.com; We are not available in-house anywhere; we are a dynamic group of people with years of printing and software experience. Our knowledge can make any IDEA turn into something that is great, measurable, timely, and as green as possible.
We are located in Boston, to serve our clients all over the country. Try doing that with an in-house copy machine!!
By Warren Werbitt on Aug 06, 2008
Here Ye Here Ye
At last we have someone who is not a printer talking about needing the right service before the right price. I would like to make you a spokesperson for the printing industry.
It is our job as printers to provide the best service and technology that we can. This can only be done if we are making our margins. Clients can not have the best of the best for free as nothing in life is free.
Our philsophy at Pazazz Printing (see our video, Printing's Alive on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpAuDrs5ocg) is that it is all about the "experience".
It's as simple as that!
Yours truly
"The Print Fanatic"
By Michael J on Aug 06, 2008
Another possible way to deal with the situation you describe so well might be for a printer to offer the customer the services for taking care of that pesky in house machine.
Charge them some amount for the service. Put it into the small profit/ advertising budget.
If a print job can be done in house, show them how to do it there.
When a print job has to be done outside, your company has the trust built up to take the job there. The built up trust should make it a little less price sensitive. Plus you can do it quickly and easily.
It does sound like your companies have an interesting approach. But I think it would be a hard sell into the situation you describe.
It breaks rule 2: Give the customer what they ask for (or don't even ask for . . . but have decided they want.)
Plus you have to convince the customer that something they carefully considered doing is dumb.
I agree that it might in fact be dumb. But trying to convince a customer that they are about to make a dumb decision is not fun or easy.
By Michael J on Aug 06, 2008
@ Warren,
Point well taken.
But, in the world of the savage competition in the printing world, my sense is that best way to improve margins is to keep investing in making it faster and cheaper to produce the product.
Unlike years past, when print was the default communication media, today the customer gets to decide what price they are willing to pay for a combination of minimum risk, ease of purchase and good enough quality.
Trying to convince clients that nothing in life is free is hard when the people you want to convince use Google and You Tube and Wikipedia and all the other open source stuff happening on the web every day.
By steve on Aug 07, 2008
I wrote the original post that is the topic here...and being a client of your industry, I have to say that Michael J has hit the nail on the head.
As a marketing agency, we are accountable to OUR clients. Ultimately we're trying to adhere to the same set of principles that Michael has laid out, because that's what our clients value. We are depending on you to do the same.
Those who commit to those values get the plum gigs. Those who compete on price will do the work of agencies and companies that will squeeze you for every last cent.
By Crystal W on Aug 08, 2008
As the largest trade bindery supplier to the Print market in Vancouver, Canada, it is more reassuring than ever to see that price isn't everything. I truly understand that everyone is trying to improve margins everywhere, but at what cost? Reliability? Quality?
As the newest marketing and sales representative for Pacific Bindery Services, as well as a fresh graduate from Ryerson's Graphic Communications Management program, I hope to bring to the industry something different.
Michael J's three rules of thumb I live by everyday. I find that some companies I call on don't even have something as simple as a receptionist. I usually end up being stuck punching numbers into an automated phone that never 'understands' my command.
At PBS, we aim to turnaround quotes in 4-6 hours, however, what usually causes the delay is a lack of information from the printer or end user. Communication is key.
The ultimate way to create value is to guarantee quality and reliability so they can have a good night's sleep. This is done through developing the trust of the client through open communication.
By Myrna Penny on Aug 11, 2008
I agree wholeheartedly with both Polar Unlimited’s print-buying outlook & Warren Werbitt’s response to them. As a former print buyer, I bought based on the quality of the buying experience & my ability to trust the printer to provide consistent and reliable service – at an appropriate price. I chose suppliers that delivered ROI for dollars spent. But I further recognized that for them to continue to stay in business to service my buying needs, they needed to achieve realistic margins. Then in my subsequent role as a successful print sales representative, I sold the way I had previously bought & invoiced appropriately for the customer-service experience my company provided & the technology and manpower that delivered it. Now I serve as Canadian Managing Director for PrintLink, a personnel agency for the North-American printing industry. In our job placements for the most successful companies, we find that both hiring managers and job candidates clearly understand how to contribute to a value-added and profitable business. And at all phases of my career my observation has been that an optimal buying experience that ultimately delivers a printed product also delivers high value & is driven bilaterally by business professionals, both buyers and sellers.
By Warren Werbitt on Aug 18, 2008
I just love printing. But espefcially with a higher profit margin :)