Does your team understand the value of what “good” customer relationships should look like? In the article, contributed by Leslie Groene, President, Groene Consulting, find out how “bad” customer service can hurt your company. It is interesting to look at the world around me through the eyes of a sales coach and consultant…always evaluating the service of a company’s personnel or their sales person. I seem to see and ultimately measure my experiences by asking the following questions: Do they treat all of their customers like that? Why did they say that? Do they have any clue what conclusion I come to when I hear that? I had a couple of interesting things happen while on a recent business trip…you decide how you would judge the companies… I boarded a one-hour flight at 9:30am out of the Los Angeles area and requested coffee. The flight attendant told me that there was no longer coffee on short flights after 9:30am.”oh really?” I said. He said that that was the new policy of the airline (He did not offer me any other explanation except that I could have Diet Coke.) Upon my return home from said business trip, I realized that I had left a small (high-end brand) travel case behind at the hotel. I called and was transferred to the security department. They said in fact they did have the case and would send it to me. I received it via registered mail a few days later with all of the contents intact. With the first story, I was disappointed that I could no longer get coffee but more displeased with his “dismissive, snotty” attitude and demeanor. The second story was worthy of a letter to the manager of the hotel to express a “thank you” to his staff for not only turning in the case but sending it to me so promptly. Below are some statistics about clients and what drives them away…make sure you are aware of how your service and attitude affect your clients! 96% of unhappy customers do not complain, they just stop doing business with you. 91% of those who don’t complain will share the negative story with at least 9 other people, 13% will tell more than 20 other people about their experience. The average unhappy customer will remember the incident for 23 years. The happy customer will talk about the pleasant experience for 18 months. For every complaint heard, the average company has 25 other customers with the same problem. Want to learn more about improving customer relationships for your company? Leslie is presenting “Who Is the Correct Customer for You and Your Company” at the 2013 BIA Annual Conference, April 8–10, in...

The following is a guest blog post from Joe Marin, Sr. Instructor/Manager Training Programs, Printing Industries of America, encouraging graphic arts professionals and industry newcomers to attend Orientation to the Graphic Arts, April 15–18, 2013. The printing industry is complex and constantly changing. I’ve found that one of the biggest problems for those who are new to the industry—and even those who worked in the business for a while—is understanding terminology and workflow. Administrative, sales, and even production employees are often focused on their specific task without completely understanding how what they do impacts the job being produced. Add this to all of the industry terminology and jargon and the printing industry can quickly become a confusing place to work! The Orientation to the Graphic Arts workshop addresses all of these issues and so much more. During this class you won’t just see workflow, you’ll be immersed in a graphic arts workflow set in Printing Industries of America’s amazing production laboratories: Be a designer, and create a job to print on our digital press. Be the prepress operator, and understand digital file problems, create proofs and plates. Be the press operator, and print a job on our 6-color offset press. Be the bindery technician, and operate a cutter, folder, and saddle-stitcher. Check out the video above, which provides an overview of our amazing training facility. Also, check out some of the pictures below that illustrate the laboratories used in Orientation to the Graphic...

Printing Industries of America has teamed up with Staples Advantage to offer an unbelievable cost‐saving program exclusively for its members through Printing Industries of America affiliates. With this Buying Program, your business is eligible to save on office products and more via the Staples Advantage program. This program allows you to leverage the Buying Program of all participating members through Printing Industries of America affiliates. Staples Advantage can help you reduce expenses through our competitive prices on more than 180,000 products available through the proprietary Order.StaplesAdvantage.com® website. The website allows you to place orders, track orders 24 hours a day, check product availability, review pricing, set up reusable shopping lists, and make returns. You can count on Staples to provide you with: Significant savings—an average of 55% off of list prices on office product purchases Online ordering, returns, and control on Order.StaplesAdvantage.com® Hassle-free 30-day return policy Ability to order by phone and fax FREE Next-Day Delivery on minimum orders of $30 Reporting capabilities Members also have access to a dedicated account manager for assistance and special pricing on business machines and supplies, furniture, electronics, bulk purchases, and special order items (i.e., rubber stamps, notary seals, etc.). For additional information or to get started, go to www.printing.org/staples. To see a listing of all the National Buying Programs, visit www.printing.org/buyingpower. For questions regarding the Staples program or any of the Buying Programs, contact Justin Goldstein, Director, Member Services, at Printing Industries of America, at info@printing.org or...

Printing Industries of America has teamed up with Staples Advantage to offer an unbelievable cost‐saving program exclusively for its members through Printing Industries of America affiliates. With this Buying Program, your business is eligible to save on office products and more via the Staples Advantage program. This program allows you to leverage the Buying Program of all participating members through Printing Industries of America affiliates. Staples Advantage can help you reduce expenses through our competitive prices on more than 180,000 products available through the proprietary Order.StaplesAdvantage.com® website. The website allows you to place orders, track orders 24 hours a day, check product availability, review pricing, set up reusable shopping lists, and make returns. You can count on Staples to provide you with: Significant savings—an average of 55% off of list prices on office product purchases Online ordering, returns, and control on Order.StaplesAdvantage.com® Hassle-free 30-day return policy Ability to order by phone and fax FREE Next-Day Delivery on minimum orders of $30 Reporting capabilities Members also have access to a dedicated account manager for assistance and special pricing on business machines and supplies, furniture, electronics, bulk purchases, and special order items (i.e., rubber stamps, notary seals, etc.). For additional information or to get started, go to www.printing.org/staples. To see a listing of all the National Buying Programs, visit www.printing.org/buyingpower. For questions regarding the Staples program or any of the Buying Programs, contact Justin Goldstein, Director, Member Services, at Printing Industries of America, at info@printing.org or...

Many companies say they want to increase their company’s competitiveness and accumulate improvement goals more quickly. They want to maintain higher profits, increase production, and reduce waste. But where do you start? Lantech, a leading U.S.-based manufacturer of shrink wrap equipment used in the printing industry, turned to Lean Manufacturing over a decade ago in order to regain its competitive edge. It created a successful Lean environment and maintained it, becoming a benchmark for the application of Lean practices within U.S. manufacturing. Here is Lantech’s advice to other manufacturers: Implement Standard Work and Kaizen Lean Manufacturing is a management system born out of the philosophy and practices of the Toyota Production System—considered by many to be the world’s best manufacturing company—and have since been adopted by North American companies to systematically reduce waste, lead time, and achieve a better production flow. This is a proven model to implement a Lean system. Jim Lancaster of Lantech on the importance of Lean management Maintain Your Past Improvements After all of the effort you put into making your improvements, make sure they last. Stabilize your conditions and focus on continuing to improve. Do not concentrate only on the planning but rather more on the execution. This is done by relying on management to maintain quality as a key initiative. Each subsequent improvement should aim higher than the last, so that the pace of progress continues steadily. Practice PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act/Adjust) By applying PCDA principals throughout your operations, you repeat a cycle until you achieve sought-after results. Plan: Develop a way to effect improvement Do: Implement the plan on a small, manageable scale Check: Review for any variance between the predicted results and the actual conditions observed Act/Adjust: Take action or  modify based on your review By creating a standardized management system and a process to continuously make improvements, your company can reach goals and not just fall back into the same old processes that were setting you back. If you are interested and would like to learn more about creating and maintaining Lean Manufacturing practices, take a look at the video featuring Jim Lancaster, CEO and Owner, Lantech. Lancaster will also present Lean Management: Staying on Course with Improvement Goals at our annual Continuous Improvement Conference, April 7–10, in Indianapolis, Indiana. The conference also features a tour to one of Toyota’s largest plants in North...

The Premier Print Awards are the most highly anticipated awards competition each year. The program is one of the most prestigious international print competitions in the graphic communications industry. Thousands of entries are received from all over the world from some of the best printers in the industry. All entrants are competing to be awarded the Best of Category, or “Benny” and to be honored for their excellent craftsmanship. All types of printers are encouraged to enter. With more than 100 categories, a company is certain to find one that best suits their needs—including company size and specialty printing. While winning pieces are based on the outstanding printing that was done, one group in particular that has enjoyed success in the competition has been smaller-sized companies. Companies with 50 or fewer employees have been known to win big in past years. Our awards program offers sub-categories for smaller companies. While a small-sized company can enter any category, certain categories are broken into sub-categories based on small,  medium, or large-sized companies, which creates a level playing field for all printers. Such categories include Booklets, Catalogs, Fashion and Magazine inserts, Business and Annual Reports, and Print/Graphic Arts/Self-Promotion.* Some big winners from the past have been small-sized companies: Infinity Press, Inc.: A Benny winner in the 2009 competition with an employee count of 20 or less. Adams Lithographing Company: This 2010 Best of Show recipient is a small-sized company out of Tennessee. Body of Work: This 2012 Best of Show recipient from Sidney, Australia, has eight employees. In addition to their Best of Show win, they were awarded four Bennys. All Best of Category winners are invited to attend the Premier Print Awards Gala Featuring the InterTech™ Technology Awards and web2awards. This event is held in conjunction with either GRAPH EXPO or PRINT each year in Chicago, Illinois. Here, Best of Category recipients are honored with their Benny statue in front of an impressive audience of industry notables. Attendees of this event have the opportunity to network with other professionals and view all Benny-winning pieces on display—even more great benefits for a small printer! Get the recognition you deserve. Show the world that even though you may be a small printer, you can produce great pieces. For more information, visitwww.printing.org/ppa. For more information about the 2013 Premier Print Awards competition, visit www.printing.org/ppa or call Mike Packard at 412-259-1704. Enter online at www.printing.org/ppaentries. *View a complete listing of categories at...