Quick Printing

With the economy making for tough business times, printers are looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competition in order to stay above water. Sadly, some are cutting prices to unhealthy levels. Others are cutting staff or reducing costs. Some are cutting back on marketing, which really is something they should be increasing. However, the one area of differentiation that doesn’t require a great deal of expenditure is service.

Good customer service has become such a rare commodity that when you receive it, you are usually a bit surprised. The basics aren’t that hard. Be nice. Be polite. Be responsive. Do what you say you are going to do. Help find solutions to problems. Resolve complaints, etc.

Is it really that important? Well, over the years studies have shown that the number one reason people stop doing business with a company is that they don’t like the way they were treated. I’ll bet everyone reading this has walked away from a business because they were treated badly.

However, you can’t just demand that your employees be customer service oriented. You have to instill that from the top. Other surveys have proven that employees treat customers the way their employer treats them.

Many years ago when Lee Iacocca was running Chrysler, he was quoted in an ad saying “There’s no great mystery to satisfying your customer. Build them a quality product and treat them with respect. It’s that simple.”

Well, Iacocca is gone from Chrysler, and Chrysler itself is on the verge of being gone. I have to believe that part of the reason for Chrysler’s troubles is that it forgot what Iacocca said those many years ago.

I must admit that after a couple of days, trade shows can get pretty tiresome. All that trekking from booth to booth and from press conference to press conference is hard on the feet and other body parts. With Print ‘09 on the horizon, I can already feel the aches and pains gathering for their pre-show warm up exercises.

So, one might think that I would welcome the idea of being able to sit in one place while the vendors bring their trade show presentations to me. For the most part, you would be right—although that might well cause a different sort of system overload.

Well, next month the Graphic Arts Show Company (GASC) is doing just that. Industry trade press editors will be flown to Chicago for a two day series of vendor presentations on what to expect at Print ‘09. We will be able to sit in one place and hear from EFI, Presstek, Kodak, Ricoh, RISO, and seven other vendors about their plans for the show.

Do I expect any blockbuster announcements? Not really. There will probably be some teasers and “heads-up” hints, but nothing earth shattering. Nevertheless, it probably will be worth the time and the posterior wear and tear because it will provide a pre-show roadmap of what to look for and where to find it. And it will give the vendors a chance to get their messages out without having to worry about conflicting events and their own trade show duties. I only hope that the presentations are not the usual deadly dull PowerPoint overkill. A dose of humor would be welcome, as would comfy chairs and a supply of Red Bull.

I trekked to far away Cincinnati last week to see the new xpedx Technology Center. It features three Ryobi presses, including a five-color Ryobi 525 two-up press, along with a wide variety of prepress, digital, and post press options from such companies as Kodak, Epson, Morgana, C.P. Bourg, and Secap. Other equipment and technologies from these and other manufacturers will be added in the near future.

The aim of the center is to attract some 250 printers annually to see how these various offerings can be mixed and matched. xpedx claims the center is the only one in the U.S. devoted to demonstrating and selling equipment from a wide variety of manufacturers for both offset printing and digital printing markets.

I think the xpedx approach is quite innovative and offers a great opportunity for printers to see a wide variety of equipment, including Ryobi’s line of larger format presses and the 2-up 520 series. That said, is this another sign that companies may be pulling back from trade show participation in order to exclusively bring customers into their own “captive” demo centers?

Hardly, since xpedx will have 12,000 square feet of exhibit space at Print ’09, making it one of the largest exhibitors at the show. They will be featuring the new Ryobi 42″ 1050 along with the 750 series 23×29″ press. This big iron will be in the xpedx booth located smack-dab next to the Heidelberg exhibit.

Two things come to mind. First, xpedx is serious about moving upstream to compete in the larger format arena while at the same time defending its small-format turf, represented by the 520 series and the 3304, against a shrinking number of serious competitors. Second, I think that this two-pronged approach with a well equipped demo center augmented by a select but significant trade show presence will become fairly common in the near future.

Monday morning I walked into the office that Bob and I share only to discover a soggy mess. We’d had steady rain for five or six days and Sunday night brought a veritable frog strangler. All the waterproofing and precautions that we took to correct this situation 10 years ago have held the rains out of the office until now.

My first thought was, “I hope Bob backed up those files he was working on.” Sure, all of the electronics are well off the floor, but you just never know. You know? I wasn’t worried about my own files because I knew I’d backed up everything before leaving the office Friday evening.

As it turns out, all the information was safe—no need to rewrite entire articles or any of the other nightmares that flash through your mind when you’re sploshing over what should be a nice dry office carpet. It did cause me to remember, however, just how we became so conscientious about backing up files. One disaster in data recovery and you’ll never forget again!

So please let my soggy saga be a warning to all of you who don’t backup your files as regularly as you should. Nature can throw you a curve ball any time at all. Yes, it takes a few minutes to do a daily backup. But having to recreate or recapture data takes a whole lot longer. If you’re letting your backups slide—even for a day or two—write yourself a big note on a can’t-miss-it-because-it’s-so-bright sticky note. Or print a poster. Whatever it takes to remind yourself and your staff. The old adage is true: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.