Save Customers Time and Keep Them Coming Back
July 2003

If there’s one thing everyone in our industry has in common, it’s this: We’re very busy. From owners and salespeople to the workers on the shop floor, time is precious to everyone. The same is true for print buyers and their customers. They’re constantly looking for solutions and providers that make their lives easier by saving them time - even if they have to pay a little more for them.

Opportunities Everywhere
Hang-ups and slow downs are commonplace in the print production workflow, and are a key source of frustration for providers and their customers. However, within this frustration are plenty of opportunities to forge strong relationships with customers by offering them workflow solutions that save valuable time.

One example is collaborative proofing, which allows multiple users to view and annotate digital proofs in real time over the Internet. This technology can shave hours off the initial proofing stages by consolidating the communication between harried print buyers and their equally time-pressed customers. It may also save time during press checks - another notorious time drain - by allowing customers to quickly and easily take care of content changes in advance. Of course, your customers aren’t the only ones who benefit. As they become familiar with these time-saving solutions, you become the valuable provider they can’t live without.

Before You Jump In...
As fierce price competition continues to dominate the graphic arts industry, it’s more important than ever to differentiate yourself to customers in order to keep their business. While finding solutions that save customers money is important, it’s really their time that they want you to save. A novel solution that promises to shave 25% of your customers’ costs may sound good, but it won’t mean much if it’s a hassle to use or implement. As you look to add services and technologies that promise to make your customers’ lives easier, you’ll find more success if you can put hours back on their clocks rather than dollars back in their wallets.

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