Archive for month: October, 2010

As a manufacturer of custom designed and printed products, I’d like to tell you that every job we produce is completed on time, flawlessly, and without any stress. I’d be lying, but I’d still like to tell you that. Not all jobs go as planned, and yes, sometimes they are due to our own mistakes. Not always, but sometimes. And sometimes, I am a firm believer that no matter what quality controls are in place, gremlins do exist and do play a role in our mishaps.

 So in honor of Halloween, we wanted to re-visit some of our scarier print jobs:

 The Re-Brand That Wasn’t

A client was undergoing a major re-branding campaign — new logo, stationery, the works — that HAD to launch on a specific date. To us, that meant that no fewer than 50 different orders of business cards had to be delivered prior to that time. Gremlins prevented us from creating the cards in the automated fashion we desired, so each card had to be typeset, proof-read, corrected, and revised in a more manual fashion. Time was bearing down upon us, the rebranding launch was near. Proofs were being bandied about like candy-corn on Halloween. Finally, approval was received, and the day before the due date, the job was in the queue for print processing. Whew!

Sadly, someone forgot to inform our client that their legal department hadn’t received permission for the new brand.  All orders were cancelled.  Still, we counted that as an on-time delivery!

  

A Not-So-Uplifting Effort

Plastic surgery is fairly common. Printing for plastic surgeons on our end is not. This was an exciting project: brochures, presentation folders, DVDs, business cards – all to be beautifully presented in un-retouched living color. In theory, anyway. Our plastic surgeon took the scalpel to our pieces on numerous occasions. The colors didn’t match, the faces weren’t adequately portrayed, the paper didn’t feel just right. And in a bizarre occurrence, the DVD we duplicated put a phantom video unrelated to plastic surgery in the middle of the video. After multiple efforts, and multiple reprints, the job was delivered and accepted by our client. I am currently in consultation with the plastic surgeon about the worry lines added to my face during that project.

  

The Job That Didn’t Print

As a manufacturer, we always fret over the details: ink color, typographical errors, shading, toning, etc. These are the areas that typically cause us to botch a job. Over the years, we’ve included automated tools that enable us to better ensure quality control and improve overall efficiencies in our operations. And that’s great for the jobs we print. But what about the ones we forget to print?! Yep, my worst nightmare job occurred with one that we never did print. We forgot. We missed it. It slipped through the proverbial crack. A client had intended to send out notices of a dues increase to its members. The dues increase occurred automatically the following month. Members weren’t notified of the increase, and members were peeved. So guess who had to cover the cost of the dues increase when members complained? It was the first time I had ever used our Errors and Omissions Policy on our insurance coverage. (Didn’t even know we had it…but thanked my agent profusely afterward.)

 So our most costly printing error ever? The job we didn’t print! Boo.
 
Happy Halloween…and feel free to share some of your job-related horror stories.

 

 

Paul Strack, CustomXM

Hey everyone, it’s Amy here. First, I have to say thanks to Paul for his awesome introduction. Yes, I’m blonde, and yes, I’m bossy. Those things may be part of my brand, but honestly, it’s not a contrived act. That’s why I really appreciate Paul and his willingness to work with someone like me, who’s a little bit unconventional and a little bit opinionated but who is a whole lot passionate about what she does.
 
Yep, just like the team at CustomXM, I’m passionate about communications. Whether it’s been writing, speaking, teaching or consulting, I’ve been involved in some form of communications throughout my career. But you know what? We all are. It’s the rare person who doesn’t use communication skills on a daily basis.

Businesses also need to be great communicators. They communicate by spreading strategic, planned messages in direct mail pieces, by having spontaneous interactions with customers, by publishing static information on a web page — it never ends. And what’s great is that these days, businesses have so many incredible new ways to communicate with existing customers, potential customers, vendors and more. And I’m excited to have the opportunity to, through this blog, share information about this field with you.

What I’ve come to learn about the CustomXM folks, both through my friendship with Paul and my experiences with them as their customer, is that they’re not just interested in encouraging businesses to spend money on print jobs. Instead, they’re interested in helping people find new, creative ways to communicate. And I’m excited to be a part of that. 

Want to explore the art of communication a bit further? CustomXM has two cool projects in the works. If you’re really interested in taking your business’ communication efforts to a new level, come learn about QR codes at the next Integrating Media luncheon on November 4. Or spend a little time thinking about what the word “communication” means to you, and capture that thought on film for our 2011 calendar photography contest. 

Amy Bradley-Hole

Having recently returned from a national trade conference, I’m determined to put into action some of the “take-aways” from that event. But I often find myself time-challenged in doing this. So that’s when I consider delegating certain tasks.
 
The term “delegation” sometimes gets a bad rap.  The book ReWork warns that “with a small team, you need people who are going to do work, not delegate work. Everyone’s got to be producing. No one can be above the work.”  Even Webster’s says that delegation involves the assignment of a task “to one who is less senior than oneself.”  In a small business, I would agree with these terms to a certain extent. After all, as a business owner, I am entitled to delegate some less desirable tasks, like payroll, to someone else, right?  (Sorry, Mom, but you really do process payroll better than I could ever imagine.)
 
But instead of these definitions, I prefer to use the term entrust.  Certainly, as a small team, we do need everyone to work. But because of our size, there are often tasks, projects, even ideas that cannot move forward until I entrust them to someone else.
 
And that’s where I turned to my favorite blonde.  But since my lovely wife really had no strong desire to assist me in our ongoing marketing and branding efforts, I’ve had to look elsewhere. Marketing projects are some of my favorite undertakings.  They allow me to be creative, and let’s face it, they’re fun.  But, since I wear many hats (except that of payroll clerk) I cannot effectively accomplish all that I want, or need to do in these areas.
 
I have often entrusted many of these duties to some talented friends.  Greg Henderson, (@jgreghenderson) helped greatly in establishing the online, social media presence of  CustomXM.  Additonally, he has shared his marketing insight in this blog, and will continue to help me with special projects.
 
But I came to the realization that if I wanted a consistent, dedicated marketing plan for my company, I couldn’t do it alone.  I needed to delga…uh, entrust this to someone else. And that’s where another of my favorite blondes, Amy Bradley-Hole (@amybhole) came into play. Like so many of the talented communications professionals in Little Rock, I met Amy via Twitter. In this forum, Amy initially struck me as a mildly irreverent, overtly outrageous individual, with uncanny marketing skills.  I mean, if anyone can parlay stolen hotel pens into a successful marketing ploy, she must certainly have some talent.
 
Amy has a strong marketing background in the Hospitality industry. Given her Southern roots, her successes in that industry come as no surprise. More recently, she has become quite a social media maven, receiving rave reviews from her presentations on blogging and personal branding. And fortunately for me, Amy decided  a few weeks ago to take a chance by going out on her own as a branding/marketing coach.  And I decided I wanted to play on her team!
 
 
In short order, Amy has has outlined my “to do” lists, projects, and other tasks and will stay behind me until they are complete. (Hey, did I mention I already had a wife?) In a nutshell,  she will be my extended communications coach.  She will help us continue to develop our brand across all communications channels. Because you see, that’s what we do, we help folks communicate. And we’ve committed to doing a better job of it – both internally and externally.
 
So thanks for joining us here.  Stick around and you and I know you’ll have some fun, and possibly learn a thing or two.  I know I will, because I have a good coach.

 

  Paul Strack, President, CustomXM