In this economy print shops are trying to
maximize the investment of their imaging systems. Printers of all sizes from a local quick
printer to a large commercial printer all share the same goal, keep the
equipment running jobs so it will pay for itself and put money in their
pockets. With the age of the light production equipment and the improved
quality of digital, more and more of these printers are utilizing this
technology. Ways of keeping this
equipment running rely on finding alternative ways of reaching the market and
their customers. In this fast pace world, people don’t want to run down and
drop off their information, submitting jobs in an easy and efficient method is
becoming the most important need.
How can you do it?
Everyone has email…
let’s have customers email us documents.
That can work sometimes but how good are our customers at
giving us accurate directions in an email about creating a finished document? How large can the files be with our current
mail system and will our mail provider allow us to receive those big files in
our inboxes?
What about FTP? Will
that solve our problems?
Who will manage that FTP server? We still have the issue of
our customers filling out a form correctly, ensuring the job ticket is correct
and requiring the operators to contact the customer to ensure proper
imposition.
What if the customer wants a 16-page brochure printed and
saddle-stitch bound with a different cover and body media? I work in the printing business so I could
probably describe how I want this done; however most customers don’t speak the
printing language. What if I want the
cover to be printed on 100lb gloss cover and the body to be 80lb gloss text? Maybe you only have 80lb gloss cover in stock? Do you make a special purchase for my job or
call and ask if I will take the 80lb cover you have on hand?
Enter Web Submission…
Web submission allows users to visit your website to order
their particular job and given the exact choices available, they can make their
selections on media, finishing and quantities through a simple “shopping cart”
method that most people use every day. They simply upload their document
through this new portal on your website and the job ticket options they just
selected attaches to that document to be printed. This makes getting things printed at your shop
easy, efficient and your site will be perceived as being more professional with
these capabilities.
Just like any software solution the market is full of
choices. Take some time and look into
this option so that you can stay in the game and keep those printers producing
for you.
-Troy: Production Specialist
-Troy: Production Specialist
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