Surprises are for birthdays and anniversaries, not forms and labels jobs. When you place an order, you want things to go smoothly, with no hiccups along the way. We checked in with one of our Customer Service Managers, Christie Reynolds, CSM for the Anderson, SC label plant, to see where common oversights can cause things to go awry. She gave three scenarios to watch for in order to save yourself (and your clients) time and money and keep things on track.
1. When schedules change or run behind, doublecheck that the ship date can still be met.
Every once in a while, schedules will change between the quote and the order. As a result, distributors will order jobs with different specs than were quoted. If the turnaround window is longer, that’s rarely a problem. But if a distributor quotes a turnaround of 15 days, then submits the job with a deadline of 10 days (or even less), that can be problematic.
A good example, Reynolds notes, is when jobs use semi-gloss material, which can take two to three weeks to come in. However, if the job can be printed on something similar, such as a standard thermal transfer that Wise keeps in stock, faster turnaround times can be accommodated.
“But highly technical jobs, such as durable goods labels or maritime labels that need specific types of adhesive, can be difficult or impossible to accommodate,” she says.
2. Include special shipping or delivery instructions in your RFQ.
When shipping addresses change, pricing and schedules can change, too. This can create surprises for customers who change the “ship to” address at the last minute or who forget to include special instructions when they request a quote
Examples include when the end user needs inside delivery, doesn’t have a loading dock, or the logistics don’t allow a standard-sized truck to reach the delivery location so the trucking company has to go back and make the delivery with a smaller truck. These are considered nonstandard deliveries, and the truck line will bill back for them. That surcharge ends up on your bill.
“Sometimes the customer will express surprise at these additional charges, saying they weren’t charged extra last time,” Reynolds says. “But that might have been because, in the previous case, they told us in advance, so they were billed correctly in the first place.”
Include special shipping or delivery instructions in the RFQ so you don’t end with a surprise later!
3. Always work from a recent quote.
Sometimes customers will submit jobs based on old quotes. This can result in unwanted surprises. (This was especially the case during the volatile market we saw in 2022 when materials prices were subject to rapid inflation.)
Reynolds has seen customers come back to her with quotes as old as one year ago and ask her to hold the price “just this time.” “If it’s something we have on the floor that we previously purchased at a lower price, sometimes we can,” she says. “If we have to order materials at higher market prices, then often we can’t.”
Our quotes expire after 30 days. If it’s been longer than that, it’s important to have the job requoted.
It Just Takes Communication
The good news is, all of these situations can easily be avoided. It just takes a little extra care and communication:
- Include all of the job details (from ship date to special delivery instructions) on the order sheet.
- When quotes are more than 30 days old, get new quotes before placing the order.
- If anything changes between the time you get a quote and an order, have the job requoted.
This little bit of extra communication can go a long way toward keeping your jobs flowing on time . . . and on budget, too.
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