Printavo is simple shop management software. We help you streamline your business, keep jobs moving forward and your team on the same page.
Scheduling, quoting, approvals, payments, customer communication, automation and more. With Printavo, you’ll work smarter–not harder.
Make your customer’s final impression your best impression.
After you complete the printing and decoration process, you have to finish strong. You’ve worked hard to successfully produce your product, so you need to create a system for follow-through during post-production. Post-production serves a few powerful purposes. It assures that your customer receives exactly what they ordered, and it guarantees they get their order in a timely fashion. The most compelling reason for a strong post-production process? It creates very satisfied customers that return over and over to do business with you. They’ll even refer your business to their network.
Your post-production process must ensure that your production staff has completed the job and decorated the goods according to your shop’s standards. But most importantly, you must meet your customer’s requirements. These final steps are the quality control aspect of the manufacturing process. Include your quality control checklist with every single work order for every job.
Here’s an example of a quality control checklist:
Once you’ve printed a perfect job, have your staff carefully package and fold your items properly. Do not use boxes that are too large. Use the least amount of packaging necessary.
Here’s a quick and actionable guide to quality control and packaging:
You’re almost there! Time to finish the job. Print your shipping labels. A solution like EasyPost, that prints professional and cost-effective labels, is valuable when you’re shipping lots of items. Follow through at the end of the job by communicating with the customer multiple ways once you have printed your shipping labels and their items are ready for pick up. An email is a decent preliminary step, but a personal phone call adds an extra layer of customer satisfaction. Call to let the customer know their newly printed custom goods are ready. After you have called them, send a follow-up email with tracking info, as well as the receipt. If applicable, send your invoice as well. Be sure to clearly outline your payment terms so your customer is not surprised with your requirements.
Every shop will be slightly different. The key here? Write out a plan and implement it. Then, continue to perfect it over time based on how your business responds. While most owners might think post-production ends once the goods are out the door, you can take several measures after a job is finished to create a loyal customer. After the job goes well, ask them to leave you a review on Google, Yelp, Facebook and your social media pages. Send a follow up after their event to see how the shirts turned out – and always continue selling. Let them know about their next order way before they know they need it – and show them how simple you will make the entire process for them.
Screen printing is a multi-billion dollar industry with customers from every part of the world. Every year, thousands of entrepreneurs discover their passion for screen printing - and they want to claim their cut of the billions and billions of dollars spent on custom printed apparel.
But the majority of new screen printing shops fail before they reach the 5-year mark. They fail because of poor business planning, dull branding, and a lack of ability to scale.
Your shop can be different.
This is an excerpt from our book, The PrintHustlers Guide To: Growing a Successful Screen Printing Business. Written by Printavo's dynamic founder Bruce Ackerman, Campus Ink's enterprising Steven Farag, and Adam Cook. The PrintHustlers Guide To: Growing a Successful Screen Printing Business is the next generation's guide for building your own lucrative print shop.
You can purchase a physical copy of the book on Amazon.
Previous chapter: Chapter 15: Pre-Production
Next chapter: Chapter 17: Contract Printing Coming soon!
Next Post: Welcome Ben Liu to Printavo!
Printavo is simple shop management software. We help you streamline your business, keep jobs moving forward and your team on the same page.
Scheduling, quoting, approvals, payments, customer communication, automation and more. With Printavo, you’ll work smarter–not harder.