Friday, June 03, 2005
Choosing a Printer, Unemployment Report, and Technospeak
I'm often asked why people use certain printers, and they often expect some kind of quantitative answer like "it's always price," but we know it's more than that. This article by publishing guru Bob Sacks discusses it quite well. Among the juicy nuggets in the article:
1) I expect great management to be totally involved and understand the process, not from an ivory tower, but from the perspective of the pressroom floor.
2) I expect a commitment and readiness for ongoing reinvestment in the information-distribution process, sometimes referred to as printing and publishing.
3) I expect a dedication and willingness to change thoughts, processes and, with that, a headset for rapid deployment of the same.
4) I expect great management to have the proper respect and support of their customer service representatives (CSRs). A great CSR team with proper management support is like manna from Heaven.
5) The last is an intangible. The closest I can get to describe this "thing" would be chemistry. There is, at times, a unique and wonderful chemistry between the publisher's representatives and the printer's personnel... It is an exhilarating experience when that happens.
http://www.printmediamag.com/doc/284014119175820.bsp
Speaking of printers, in May I received 14 sales offer emails from Vistaprint. As we know, all of their printing is "free* ". I'm a preferred customer, you know. I ordered from them just once. I wonder how long it will take to be unpreferred. It's only June 3, and I've received two more e-mails.
Today's unemployment report was better than most people realize. The press is focusing on 78,000 new payroll jobs, but the household survey was 376,000 new jobs. Net new businesses per month moved to 71,800! The unemployment rate went down to 5.1%
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
One of my pet peeves is poorly written product information and unprofessional press releases. In OnDemand Journal, Pete Rivard pegs the issues perfectly. His article is called "Who Writes This Stuff, Anyway? : Thoughts While Walking the Floor of the AIIM/On Demand Expo." I recommend it heartily.
http://www.ondemandjournal.com/specialfeatures/rivard6.cfm
1) I expect great management to be totally involved and understand the process, not from an ivory tower, but from the perspective of the pressroom floor.
2) I expect a commitment and readiness for ongoing reinvestment in the information-distribution process, sometimes referred to as printing and publishing.
3) I expect a dedication and willingness to change thoughts, processes and, with that, a headset for rapid deployment of the same.
4) I expect great management to have the proper respect and support of their customer service representatives (CSRs). A great CSR team with proper management support is like manna from Heaven.
5) The last is an intangible. The closest I can get to describe this "thing" would be chemistry. There is, at times, a unique and wonderful chemistry between the publisher's representatives and the printer's personnel... It is an exhilarating experience when that happens.
http://www.printmediamag.com/doc/284014119175820.bsp
Speaking of printers, in May I received 14 sales offer emails from Vistaprint. As we know, all of their printing is "free* ". I'm a preferred customer, you know. I ordered from them just once. I wonder how long it will take to be unpreferred. It's only June 3, and I've received two more e-mails.
Today's unemployment report was better than most people realize. The press is focusing on 78,000 new payroll jobs, but the household survey was 376,000 new jobs. Net new businesses per month moved to 71,800! The unemployment rate went down to 5.1%
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
One of my pet peeves is poorly written product information and unprofessional press releases. In OnDemand Journal, Pete Rivard pegs the issues perfectly. His article is called "Who Writes This Stuff, Anyway? : Thoughts While Walking the Floor of the AIIM/On Demand Expo." I recommend it heartily.
http://www.ondemandjournal.com/specialfeatures/rivard6.cfm
