If you find yourself in a situation that makes you feel unsatisfied with your print company, whether that’s a print broker or a brick-and-mortar print establishment, you may be feeling frustrated and unsure how to proceed. You don’t want to be left high and dry with no print solutions whatsoever, and you definitely don’t want to wind up with an even worse printer.
So what’s there to do? What steps can you take to improve your situation without risking an even worse one when you need your print, signage and/or promotional items?
Okay, so the answer to this one can be a lot like those social media relationship status settings we all scratch our heads over: It’s complicated.
There’s really no cut and dry decision to be made in every set of circumstances, or we’d probably be able to run this article in about three more sentences. As it stands, you’ll have to keep reading to get our top tips for managing pain points with your professional printer. But we promise, we’ll make it as clear and uncomplicated as possible.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- How and why you should communicate print problems with your team
- When to bring your concerns up with your printer
- The top four issues many print buyers face
- Possible causes of and solutions for each particular problem
- Whether we recommend you “stay or go” — stick with your printer or consider a change
You deserve to get this problem solved so that you can rely on your partners in print and feel satisfied with the value they provide.
Determine the Print Issue and Communicate Internally and Externally
There’s one step you’ll want to take first if you find yourself between this proverbial rock and hard place (Remember, paper beats rock, so once you sort out your paper printing problems, you’ll be unstuck!). That step is communication, and it should typically begin internally.
Whether you’re a one-man marketing army or handling this work with a team of professionals, talk it out to determine how, exactly, your current printer is falling short. Is it quality? Rising prices? Have you missed deadlines due to poor planning or sluggish execution? Is their customer service unavailable when you need them most?
Maybe it’s a combination of these factors or others altogether, but the first course of action remains the same: Talk to your team, and consider talking to your printer. Sometimes you can create a world of difference just by bringing an issue to light. Maybe your printer isn’t aware that you’ve been expecting more updates, or a member of your team knows how to speed up the timeline on their end.
At the end of the day, changing printers can be a huge undertaking that leaves all parties frustrated. If an issue can be adequately and quickly resolved instead, you might find yourself with a dedicated print partner who works harder to meet your needs and keep your business. A win for everybody!
On the other hand, if you’ve already mentioned your concerns and haven’t seen improvement, it may be time to take further steps. Let’s take a look at some of the common problems you might be running into with your printer, what might be at the heart of each issue and how to proceed once you’ve pinpointed the shortcoming.
1. Your Print Professional Misses Deadlines or Works Too Slowly
This can happen in any printer-to-print-buyer situation, but it most certainly shouldn’t become a habit.
Sometimes schedules are tighter than we want them to be, deliveries can get delayed and equipment can fail. If you’ve been with your printer for years and experienced this issue just once, you may want to chalk it up to bad luck, discuss how to avoid the situation in the future and move on, keeping a careful eye on your timelines moving forward.
More than once in a short span of time or with limited projects, and it may be time to make a few difficult calls. You need to be able to rely on the schedule you’ve built, and that includes getting your printed copies where they need to be, when they need to be there.
That said, you can take some steps on your end to help speed up the timeline, including:
- Planning and ordering early to give plenty of lead time
- Discussing your timeline goals with your printer
- Knowing the type of print proofs you want and avoid excessive edits
- Ensuring your selections are in stock and choosing alternatives if they’re not
- Considering the season and your printer’s obligations during busy times
- Preparing your files adequately so the printer doesn’t have difficulty processing them for print
- Using vector images rather than raster images in as many designs as possible
If you’ve experienced delays more than a time or two with your print house due to scheduling conflicts or the print house being too busy, working with a print management company rather than a brick-and-mortar print house may benefit you. Because of their network of printing partners, a print management company should be able to pivot to a new vendor rather than extending your timeline.
Stay or go: Stay, but be ready to change vendors if the issue persists.
2. The Print Professional’s Customer Service Isn’t Up to Snuff With Your Expectations
There’s no excuse for rudeness, other than a representative having an off day, which is still unprofessional but at least understandable. If your issue with customer service is a lack of communication, however, you may need to dig a little further into the cause.
Your print partner might not realize that you want updates, or they could be in the middle of a busy season and not think they need to communicate unless something goes wrong or changes. They could also be short-staffed, which might prove to be a temporary issue.
If you’ve been working with your print company for a long time and just started noticing a customer service issue, consider broaching the issue or waiting it out for a short period of time. If the company is undergoing staffing changes or installing new equipment, they may just not have the bandwidth they typically do. In this case, they’ll hopefully return to normal or even better than normal with a little patience.
Some steps you can take on your end to help work out customer service issues include:
- Following up once on an unanswered email to make sure your correspondence isn’t going to a spam folder (Note: After one follow-up, your contact information should be saved and not sent to spam, so don’t carry on with the delays.)
- Requesting to work with one point of contact who can manage your communications (Note: Not all printers can offer this option, and not all contacts are created equal. Proceed with necessary caution.)
- Expressing your desire to stay looped in on your projects
All that said, you shouldn’t have to deal with a lack of professionalism or unresponsive print providers. Don’t wait too long or let your projects suffer as a result. Keep careful tabs on the situation, and make the decisions you must to protect your own business.
Stay or go: It could go either way. Assess the situation and decide from there.
3. Your Printing Costs Are Too High
If the main reason you aren’t satisfied with your print professionals is that the price tag is just too high, you might be able to cut costs surprisingly easily.
This situation is one that’s a little easier to discuss with the printer themselves than some of the others, because it’s a universal concern. Everyone wants to lower their costs and increase their revenue, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to any professional you’re working with that you want to do the same with your printed materials.
The ease of the conversation doesn’t necessarily mean your printer will be able to lower prices at all, but you should be presented with a number of ways to lower the overhead, including:
- Bulk ordering in larger quantities for any materials you need on a consistent basis
- Ordering as early as possible to secure inventory and avoid rush fees
- Changing the specs of your piece in a way that saves on paper or ink
- Reducing the distance any deliveries have to travel by working with local vendors
- Considering overseas printing over domestic printing for certain projects
You can also take specific steps related to the type of printing you have in mind. For instance, if mailing is a part of your marketing budget, take steps to lower your direct mail costs.
Stay or go: Stay unless your printer is staunchly against price comparisons and negotiations.
4. You Need Print Work Your Printing Provider Doesn’t Offer
This is a trickier situation. If your business is changing or expanding and you want to diversify the type of printed content you order, there’s not a whole lot you can do if you don’t want to work with more than one vendor for your print supplies. Coordinating multiple printers can be quite the headache for a print buyer, so we certainly can’t blame you if you’d rather find an all-in-one solution.
If you find yourself in this situation, the reality is that you’re probably working with a single brick and mortar print company. These locations are usually limited by their own square footage and the capability of their equipment. As a result, they tend to specialize in a certain type of printing to the exclusion of the rest.
When it’s time to either expand your external printer list or move to a new printer with more capabilities, take a little time to research the industry. You might be surprised what you find when you compare and contrast the most common business models in commercial printing.
Stay or go: Go or select an add-on print source
Embrace Printing Solutions You and Your Team Will Love
We can’t imagine you were feeling anything beyond high stress when you decided to read this article, and for good reason. Printed content is an essential part of most businesses, and you need your relationship with your print supplier to work like a well-oiled machine. Hopefully, we’ve supplied a bit of the oil.
Now that you’ve read through some of the most common friction points between print sellers and print buyers, we hope you’ll come away with some tips and tricks to help solve those issues and maintain the relationship you’ve already built with your print professional. That said, if you’re in the worst case scenario with one or more of these pain points, you may want to start thinking about a print house swap.
Wondering whether Integra might be a good fit for your business?
Whether you want to think about working with us, we already are your printer and you need to share a complaint, or you’re starting fresh with a brand new printer, our team would love to chat. Reach out below for the undivided attention of one of our print experts.
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