Free Design Guides

When the idea struck me to send a list of questions to the print companies I list on my site, I had certain goals in mind. As I have previously mentioned, my foremost goal was to provide relevant information to my readers in the form of a head-to-head comparison of online print companies via a questionnaire I created so you might gain a better understanding of their capabilities and services AND to provide information that you can use to help with printing. I will not promote anything on my site that I do not honestly believe in, but I will push those few products or services that I DO think are worthwhile, such as Adobe InDesign…I REALLY believe in that!

Since my site is a very small gateway to send them business, if the reader so chooses, you would think the printing companies would be thrilled at the prospect of active participation to deliver their message to my readers rather than simply hoping for a click-through to their site. However, I noticed something when I started receiving responses from the six online printers I contacted. I sent the exact same email with the exact same questions to all six online printers I list on my site on the exact same day. The three Online Printer Profiles you see posted now are the three companies that took part in the Q&A. One company has yet to respond. The remaining two companies answered my questionnaire with a short paragraph or simply a sentence or two directing me to go look for the answers on their website. Hmmm…

If they aren’t willing to answer a few questions that could possibly lead to sales, what does this suggest about their customer service? Since I work in the printing industry, it struck me as real missed opportunity to connect with potential customers and brag about their products. Now I could easily post their responses, but since they really don’t provide useful information, what’s the point? I could easily go browse their sites and pull information that I think will answer the questions, but that’s missing the target of the exercise. I don’t want to taint or reconfigure their content in order to answer the questions, I want them to answer in their own words so that I can keep my objective viewpoint and credibility with my readers. That’s kinda why I didn’t do it to begin with.

I’m not here to sell you anything and I hope that message has come through, but if I can make your printing life a little easier and possibly lead you to someone else who can help, then I have indeed accomplished what I set out to do. I have no ill will toward the print shops that chose not to respond or respond poorly, nor do I endorse those that did respond accurately, but I will tell you that I will continue to seek active participation from the three online printing companies that answered. I have learned a lot about their services and I have to say they were a pleasure to work with.

If you want to review the posts, here they are…

Printing For Less

Express Copy

Print Place

Oh…I almost forgot, since most online printing companies compare themselves to “local” print shops, I’m going to add a post about one of those too! It will be the same Q&A format that I sent to the big boys! Stay tuned…you won’t want to miss this one!

Tags: Color Printing, Commercial Printing, Graphic Design Printing, Layout Graphic Design