You’d think that in this day and age, finding a great printing service to take care of your corporate calendar orders would be a piece of cake. After all, there’s about a million different services out there all competing for your business and offering generous package deals, surely it’s largely impossible to go wrong, right?
Wrong…and very much so at that!
The trouble is, ever since it became possible for anyone with a computer and a printer to build a neat-looking website for free, thousands of new ‘professional’ printing firms have set up shop despite not exactly living up to the label. According to the experts at www.allanandbertram.com, picking a printing partner at random is a wholly horrible idea for any modern business interested in a result that speaks volumes for their reputation.
With corporate calendars, what you’re actually handing out is a tangible first impression – something of a dissection of your brand and all you stand for including your attention to detail and care for quality. So, if you hand out a thousand calendars that say you’re a careless and corner-cutting amateur…well, it’s your funeral!
So, with this in mind, here’s a quick look at the most important tips to follow when out on the market for a professional calendar printing partner:
1 – Choose a Real Specialist
First of all, there a big difference between a company that prints calendars as something of an exclusively focused service package and another firm that also prints calendars along with a bunch of other things. Now, it might seem as though this doesn’t matter, but it would be a bit like deciding whether to take your care to a garage for an important repair, or to the local kebab shop where they also now do car repairs. If you want a job doing properly, you need to take it to the experts – it really is as simple as that.
2 – Image Library
In an ideal world, you’d be able to take your own inspirational shots for the calendar that were unlike those on any other calendar on the face of the Earth. Sadly, this just isn’t realistic which is why about 99% of homemade calendars feature the exact same generic imagery harvested from the Internet. This is why it’s always a good idea to try and find a printing provider that also has an extensive library of unique imagery exclusively for use by their own clients only. This guarantees a calendar bursting with visuals that the recipient will not have seen before, as opposed to the same old pictures and photos used for the millionth time over.
3 – Sample Prints
If you’d prefer not to run the risk of ending up with thousands of calendars of no use to you at all, don’t even think about going near a service provider that doesn’t offer sample prints before the full batch gets run-off. This is important for the simple reason that what looks great on the screen in front of you doesn’t always add up to a great printout for the actual calendar itself. The only way of finding out exactly what the calendar will look like in the real world is to get yourself an advance sample copy of it in order to give it a good once-over. If this request is refused, walk away.
4 – Firm Feedback
One of the most important things to be on the lookout for is strong feedback from those that have tried and tested the services of the provider beforehand. Chances are the brand itself isn’t going to be too keen to admit its shortcomings and tell you about all the people it has let down and short-changed in the past – you need to find out from the consumers themselves how things have gone down. You should be able to gain access to plenty of feedback via the brand’s website and certainly if you request to be provided with some, but if not, then a quick web search is all that’s needed.
5 – Guarantees
Last but not least, never trust a brand that isn’t willing to put its money where its mouth is by way of price promises and satisfaction guarantees. We’re living in an age these days where satisfaction guarantees are really the only acceptable standard when it comes to buying anything at all, products and services alike. So, in this instance, make sure that your purchases are covered by a rock-solid guarantee that covers everything from quality to price to satisfaction – peace of mind that should be offered as standard.