Each dawn of a new year offers opportunity for celebrations and resolutions. Personally I'm good at the first, but not so great at the latter, at least in my own life. Old habits die hard, old dogs hate new tricks, etc. (All those sayings exist for a reason, right? Beyond justification? . . . Oh, well.) But in business, with the bottom line in mind, I find resolutions helpful. They provide an excellent reason to analyze what worked the previous year, what didn't; and they force us to focus on what will make the coming year successful.
Late in 1997, I had the pleasure of announcing the addition of Blake Letterpress to the Seattle Bindery family. Blake is a trade finishing shop specializing in foil stamping, embossing, diecutting-including customized presentation folders-perfing, scoring and sequential numbering. With additional production expertise and equipment, Blake extends our postpress capabilities, complementing the services we already offered. It's a perfect fit and a perfect example of one thing members of a recent focus group told us they want: postpress services of every type available at one location.
I've already, two columns ago, mentioned the helpful participants in our Fall focus group and discussed the need for digital communications and faster estimating. Now, with continued study of their responses, I've come up with our Top 5 Hot Topics for the New Year. I hope these subjects will give you reason for thought, maybe even suggest resolutions of your own. After all, to take action on an issue, you first have to name it.
- One stop shopping. As mentioned above, our customers dislike sending work to several different locations. Makes sense. Outsourcing to one vendor cuts down on travel time and the possibility of scheduling snafus. More importantly, it provides the customer a primary source of information and responsibility. If a technical answer is needed or a problem needs solving, one phone call should be sufficient. But if your jobs are traveling back and forth, different postpress shops sharing the work, then focus is dissipated and problems can arise.
- Printer/vendor relationships. An outgrowth of #1, a successful printer/vendor relationship is highly prized by our customers. The question of responsibility is, again, a sizable factor. A focus group participant defined reliability as "the knowledge that when I send them a job, it's going to be done right and on time." She added that if there's a problem, "a good vendor, one I know and trust, will always call immediately, and not only with a description of what's wrong, but with a solution." Let's all resolve to be that good vendor.
- Digital education. Yes, I've mentioned this topic before, but here's a need too important to not discuss again. And, it connects so easily back to Topic #2. Simply put, our customers expect us to lead the way-that's why we've put a computer with email capabilities on every desk at Seattle Bindery. My guess is that your customers want the same level of commitment from you. And though it might require research, time and money to keep up with the latest website, email and FTP possibilities, it's necessary; and that we teach as we learn. Think of education as a way to strengthen relationships. If we provide answers, our customers will be loyal.
- Faster responses. With the smarter use of technology-see how these topics string together?-we can also react more quickly. At the focus group, faster estimates were the number one request. As I've mentioned before, I think digital communication is the most viable answer. On a website, clients can complete a request for estimate from their desk, so we can respond immediately. Also, job status reports can be found in an easily accessible database. Email enables multiple parties to receive messages in any number of disparate locations, with a simple keystroke. And recipients can read and respond at their convenience. That's quick. That's helpful.
- Proactive vendors. Finally, our customers want us to be proactive about our place in the production process. They recognize the value of having us involved early on, as do we. Every topic above is a part of that. It's what we strive for daily.
So those are the big topics we're acting on here at Seattle Bindery in 1998. Feel free to check back in a year and I think you'll find that we've made real progress. Because as we're all constantly reminded, our clients expect us to do more than put ink on paper or saddlestitch a catalog, and rightly so. We should each be exploring and implementing new ways to keep costs down while increasing efficiencies. That is the goal for all of us.
In fact, thinking about these topics has inspired me. Maybe I should give personal resolutions another shot. I could change . . . well, maybe not.
Milt Vine is president of Seattle Bindery, a post-production house specializing in
custom index tabbing in addition to bindery services including plastic spiral, Wire-O®
and perfect binding; folding; stitching; scoring; perforating and trimming services for
the trade. You can reach Milt at 206/682-2558. ©1998, Seattle Bindery.