When I read industry magazines and newsletters all I see is companies going under or printers saying the industry is dying. Yes, I know the industry is getting tougher and smaller, but as someone who used to run his own printing company I can tell you they are forgetting to do one important thing that could help them survive – and that is to properly service their clients.

Without service, clients lack confidence and a reason to come back and do work with you. On a daily basis I send out 10 quote requests and am lucky to get three or four responses from new print suppliers, and some of the quotes would take one or two days to come back. Similarly, I have sent out briefs for work worth $13,000 and I end up chasing to get the quotes back. How can you be hungry for work if you can’t take the time to respond?

I have found that niche industries tend to be the worst offenders for being lazy in responding, or even worse just not getting back to you. These include specialist embellishments and companies that manufacture boxes, cartons, bags, and labels to name a few.

Then when I do give printers work I am chasing them for ETAs, proofs, and print-on-demand. If you cannot manually do this, put systems in place that can, and this will keep you engaged with the client.

This is not customer service, it is just plain laziness by staff and businesses. We all have to work hard for our money, so this means quick responses, chasing up quotes, or even just ringing to say hello to a customer. Printers should do this too. You need to be able to give the customer all the progress of a job as it goes instead of them having to chase you.

Because of these problems we often end up looking offshore, as we can get good service and fast quotes and responses, and in most cases the work is done quicker. While I would love to support Australian businesses, I simply cannot do so if these simple things are not done.

I also think a lot of companies are relying too much on the internet to do the work for them. Yes, it is needed, but you must be using all the available resources to bring in more work and give your business the chance to succeed, like using SEO, CPC, sales representatives, and branding – as well as networking, which to me is a major one.

Printers all think that they need to get in to price wars to win businesses and complain when the competition undercuts them, but you just need to service your clients and they will stay loyal to you. At the end of the day they are just after a fair price and a quality job in a reasonable time. These things are not much to ask for.

You love or hate print managers and brokers but we are here to stay, and we will keep doing the work your reps and companies do not do. So why not welcome us as an import client, because we will help keep your business running

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