THESE DAYS, the market is extremely competitive. One wrong move and a prospect will run to your competition so fast it will make your head spin. Fortunately, the customers that you have been serving well are less likely to leave on a moment’s notice, but you can’t take those relationships for granted.
 

From my perspective in buying print, printers often make the same frustrating mistakes. These aren’t mistakes at the production level, though. The mistakes that cause me the most agony are on the service level. Here are some of the worst.
 

Nothing is more difficult to deal with than a printer who makes promises about delivering proofs or finished work and then fails to meet the deadline. In a business where so much can go wrong (and it usually does) it seems foolish to make hard and fast commitments. Once, the delivery truck that was taking marketing materials to our distribution centre was involved in an accident on the highway. Things happen.
 

Most clients understand a delay caused by an accident. But most clients don’t understand the printing business. So, hearing that delivery will be delayed because of a problem at the production stage just makes them angry. Plus, it makes the agency they’re working with angry, too. Now you have upset two sources of revenue.
 

The key to making this work is to ensure that you control the scheduling and workflow as much as possible and not the client. It’s a losing game to try and meet client demands. If they are unrealistic, it’s better to walk away than to try and cut corners to complete the job. You’ll only overwork your press operators and risk damaging the customer relationship.
 

It’s far better to underpromise and overdeliver. Build in enough time in the production schedule to handle unexpected problems. Have contingency plans in place in case things don’t all come together as planned. But most importantly, make sure you share the responsibility for unplanned delays with the customers. If everything runs according to plan, you’ll finish ahead of schedule. Imagine how happy the client will be if the job he expects on Wednesday arrives on Tuesday.

 

Resist the temptation! It may be tempting at first, but submitting a low bid to win an account is truly setting yourself up to fail down the road. I’ve walked away from printers who offered to do an entire job for free. Printers run businesses and have the right to be properly compensated for their time, energy and effort. 
 

Some customers may not agree, but I’ve always found that a transparent and open relationship is best for the long term. I’ve heard all the pitches, including the one about a discount on the first job with subsequent jobs billed at the standard rate. I have major problems with lowball quotes, and you should understand that every time you submit a lowball quote you are establishing a new benchmark in the mind of the client for the cost of your services. That customer will develop very specific expectations about what he’s willing to pay you on future jobs. If your quotes then fall outside of that range he will shop elsewhere.
 

Another problem with low quotes is that savvy print buyers already have an idea of what a job might cost. A quote that falls outside that range may raise some red flags: is this printer cutting corners? Is he ganging up my job with others? However, my big issue with a low quote is that it eliminates consistency from pricing and makes budget planning very difficult. It’s hard to demonstrate to a repeat customer—we like those—why one job costs significantly less than another. Consistent pricing is a far better option.

 

Printers provide valuable services. But before you offer to help the customer out of a difficult spot, be sure you aren’t biting off more than you can chew.
 

A printer once promised to hand-deliver samples to my office by 9 am the next morning. Unfortunately, something came up and the material arrived late. I didn’t need the material right then, nevertheless it left a bad impression. I would have been happy to receive the samples via overnight courier. The well-intentioned print rep turned what could have been a positive experience into a negative one. 
 

As an example, I’ve asked many printers to take responsibility for picking up files, conducting press approvals, or delivering material to various addresses. Sometimes all three. Generally, everything goes smoothly—until it doesn’t. Insist on being held responsible for only those portions of a project that you can control directly. Don’t risk a long-term relationship by saying “yes” to every weird and wonderful request from a client. If he truly is a good business partner, he’ll understand.