Monthly Archives: October 2011

How eight simple questions can prevent you choosing the wrong print supplier

Imagine that you’d promised someone a really special meal.  Maybe it’s an anniversary.  Or a special celebration.

Imagine if you didn’t deliver that meal.

It’s easily done.  Perhaps you wrote a shopping list of all the ingredients.  But perhaps you missed one vital ingredient off.  And now you’re in the kitchen and you’re supposed to be serving the meal soon.  But you’ve just realised that this one missing ingredient will prevent you from creating the dish that you wanted.

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Three questions you should ask your print supplier (they’re not what you think!)

I love it when people start talking to me.  That’s when I really get to know them.

Before I met my wife, I went out on a few dates.  And I wanted to get to know the women I was dating.  I wanted to learn all about them.  I wanted to get them to tell me all about themselves.

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Why will the DM principle ensure the success of a service level agreement?

Red?
Yellow?
Green?
Stripy?
Plain?
Spotty?

These are the decisions with which my young daughter struggles every day.  Every day she agonises over which pair of socks she should wear.  For her socks are as a confusing but important issue as a service level agreement can be for print buyers.

Writing a service level agreement is something that many print buyers agonise over.  The print buyer often puts pressure on themselves to create the perfect service level agreement.  They need a service level agreement that should cover every aspect of service from their printer.

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Is buying on price costing you money?

I once managed a team of print buyers.  Pete was one of the members of the team.  One morning he came up to me with a great grin on his face.  “Matthew, I just reduced the price by another £50,” he said.

I was delighted

“Yes, it took me three hours, but I got there in the end!”

My heart sank.

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