There are so many printers. We get solicitations from new printers all the time. Printers come, printers go. And then we have our favorites that we like to use all the time because they are easy to work with, their quality is exceptional and they meet deadlines.
Some of our clients want to work with their own printer. In these cases, we give the client the print job on disk and they deal direct with the printers. However, sometimes, we deal with the clients’ printer direct. And, it seems like every time we do, there is a problem.
Once we worked with a printer on a job for a local retirement community. We designed a beautiful full color brochure to help them attract more residents. The printer had problems with the disk and instead of saying something to me, he went and complained to the client. (If he had told me the issue, I would have fixed it!)
Coincidentally, this same printer, came into my office today looking for work. Does he really think after that incident, we would do business with him?
A few days ago, we were working on a budget newsletter for one of the school districts we represent. They insisted on using their own printer. But didn’t know the printer. Never worked with them. They sent the print work out to bid with a Request for Proposal and the lowest bid won the job.
Lowest price doesn’t mean quality… does it?
In this case, no. The printer didn’t run enough newsletters for extras for the district and many of the newsletters had ink spots on them. We looked at the “blue print.” There were no spots on it. So how did ink get on these newsletters?
Interestingly, today, we got a call from the client who told us that 100 copies of the newsletter were distributed to the school. (I thought they ran out? That’s what they told us….)
Are these just issues of miscommunication? If so, why don’t these issues happen when we work with printers that we have relationships with?
Hmmmm….. Printer for thought…
