July 1st, 2009
I know, we are not a marketing agency (although our custom labels and stickers are a great way to promote your excellent products), but we have seen a few things help us in the past couple of years as we chase after the label and product design market. This is part of a 3 post series that will deal with 3 different aspects of small business growth. The areas are Marketing, Customer Service and Delivery.
Customer Service
The voice that your customer hears on the other end of the phone is what often sells your product. It is crucial to have great people serving your customers whether you make custom labels or retread tires. The way that you communicate the value you place on your customer during the opportunities you have to interact with them will help determine whether they work with you ever again. We take customer interaction very seriously here at Frontier Label. We want everyone who calls us to somehow benefit from their interaction with us. I know that is not always possible, but it certainly is our goal.
Training is very important in customer service. The more knowledgeable a person is when they answer a phone or respond to a chat or email, the better chance they have of being able to serve the customer. Oh, yeah, serving the customer is the goal of customer service. Let’s not forget that. The customer is not there to serve your company. We cannot assume that the customer will know all of the terminology that is associated with our industry or know the ins and outs of our web presence. We must be ready to explain or guide every customer through our experience so that they feel comfortable enough with us to give us their money in exchange for what they really need. When a customer is passed around from person to person, they feel as if they are not being taken care of, but pushed off because no one wants to help them. When you call a company to ask a question or check on the status of your order, what is it you expect? What do you really want out of the experience? Now, make sure that your company is better than that. A piece of advice that we received is to have someone outside the company call you or navigate your site and experience and intentionally cause problems to see where you need improvement. We are currently doing a series of tests like that to improve how our customers get the product and information that they need.
Your reputation in customer service can mean the difference between a referral or a pass-over. We know that when we feel taken care of quickly with courteous and friendly interaction, we can’t help but tell folks about where we purchased items or services. But, that may just be us Frontier folks. We have been fortunate enough to have quite a few people appreciate our service over the last few years. Take a look and see if your customers say the same kind of things about you. I hope they say just as good if not better things about you.
We certainly don’t feel that we have mastered customer service, but that is defiinitely one of the things that we get the most compliments about. If you want to fill us in on some of the things that you are learning or have learned about this area, feel free to leave a comment.
Tags: Custom Labels, Custom Stickers, Customer Service, Referral Marketing, Referrals
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June 15th, 2009
I know, we are not a marketing agency (although our custom labels and stickers are a great way to promote your excellent products), but we have seen a few things help us in the past couple of years as we chase after the label and product design market. This is part of a 3 post series that will deal with 3 different aspects of small business growth. The areas are Marketing, Customer Service and Delivery.
Marketing
The first thing that has helped us is to refine our advertising efforts to try and maximize our budget. We have taken a lot of time tweaking ad campaigns (internally, we don’t have an agency working for us) to get the most effective combination of copy and keywords. We use several advertising programs, but we find that search marketing is the way to go for us. As more and more of the population of the world finds themselves turning to the internet first to find information and order consumables, we have decided to focus our efforts on being an internet based company, and marketing ourselves that way.
Another way to maximize your budget for marketing (in terms of search marketing and natural rankings) is to have as many free links as possible on the internet. Find business directories and other online listings that will provide you with a profile and links to your website. The more information (that doesn’t look like “copy-and-paste” text, write something a little different every time) that is searchable by an engine, like Google, Yahoo or Bing will help your site be more prominent. Natural rankings (where your site falls in the list of results when a keyword or phrase is searched) seem to produce better return on investment than advertisements. Putting effort into snagging as many free links as possible can pay a great dividend. Commenting on blogs (like this one) is another way to get free links if the site administrator allows comment liks to be followed by search engines.
Writing a blog is another great way to get your site indexed and frequently visited by search engines. If you have a blog for your business, it can not only be seen as helpful (hopefully someone will find value in ours), but it can also generate content that search engines index with keywords, increasing your site’s opportunities to be found and bolstering the legitimacy of your site by providing new content to add to the online community.
Branding is an aspect of marketing that often gets over looked. Branding is the total thought that occurs when your company comes to someone’s mind. This thought is not just logo, or catch phrase or price. This thought could be anything. One of the ways that we have focused on improving our branding is by becoming consistent. We have chosen set colors, fonts and images to represent our company. We have chosen words (labels, stickers, custom labels, custom stickers) to help describe what it is that we provide. We try to incorporate those consitencies in everything that we do. The fewer options that a person has to think about when your company comes to mind, the clearer their picture of your product will be.
We do offer some help with marketing and branding. We produce custom labels and stickers that can help convey the thought you want people to have about your company. We can help with logo design, font choices and getting a quality label on your product.
Whatever you do, take your time to carefully think about what will most effectively serve your customers in their search to find you. Take your time figuring out who you want to appear as in their minds. Your company’s marketing deserves to be taken seriously because it is how your customer finds you and gets to know you.
Feel free to comment and let us know what you have done to successfully grow your business!
Tags: Branding, Custom Labels, Custom Stickers, Marketing, SEO, Small Business
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June 11th, 2009
Being in the custom label and sticker providing market, we have a lot of contact with myriad customer types. Our business is run almost entirely online, so anyone in the world can potentially order from us. We have had orders from 47 states, and 4 countries so far. This kind of variety demands a staff that is not only knowledgeable about label adhesives, but also pre-press graphic techniques as well as having good manners. We strive to provide customers with the best possible experience when working with us. Taking a cue from Miracle on 34th Street, we are not afraid to help customers find a solution to their needs, even if it means recommending another online service provider or printer.
We believe that you can produce the highest quality labels or stickers and completely miss customer loyalty by treating them like they owe you their money, as opposed to taking the viewpoint of serving them and getting rewarded with their business. We don’t want to pretend that we are perfect, or that there is no one else out there doing business with the same intentions, we just want to be up-front with our customers. We want you to let us know if we have somehow not lived up to our intentions or your expectations.
That being said, we also know that it takes sales and revenue to run a business. We can’t just give away our custom labels and stickers everytime someone has a complaint. We try to balance being understanding and graceful with customers and being truthful and realistic. We have a lot of customers that are not familiar with the process or results of printing on any scale other than a desktop printer. We have the privilege of helping them understand the label production process.
If you have any suggestions for us, or want to share how you serve your customers, feel free to comment on this post.
Tags: Custom Labels, Custom Stickers, Customer Loyalty, Customer Service, Miracle on 34th Street
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June 2nd, 2009
We produce custom labels and stickers for just about anyone. Sometimes we have the pleasure of helping our customers create the art that we print for them. We enjoy working alongside our customers to help create a pleasing, attractive and relevant branding compliment to their product. With this opportunity for being so involved in the custom label process comes the task of billing artwork time. There are also other items in our business that require a detailed application for biling.
On that note, we have been investigating ways to cut costs and some of those ways are through change-overs to less expensive software (when we need to upgrade) or software that saves precious time by combining functionality or features. We don’t want to sacrifice quality for a little money savings, so we have been looking into options that will improve our work-flow, if possible. One of the pieces of software that we liked was Billings 3. This is a beautiful application that helps with keeping track of billable time. There is a very slick interface and the invoices are customizable to fit with the feel of your business. This software is a dream come true for those looking to improve their branding control. The price is very attractive for small businesses, as well. If you don’t already have a solid solution for billing, check this option out.
We may not go with this option for now because we already use Quickbooks and it does all of the same things and more, but we are certainly open to trying it in the future.
What software or upgrades do you recommend to other small businesses?
Tags: Billings 3, Branding, Custom Labels, Custom Stickers, Functionality, Productivity, Quickbooks, Work-Flow
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May 22nd, 2009
Another of the custom labels that we chose from April is from the creative genius of Susie Ghahremani. She chose to use Estate 9 paper to produce her labels which goes right along with the whimsical, subdued tones of her art. We all really liked this label because the art on it really embraces the feel of childhood. Susie took advantage of the paper’s ability to help you not only see the art, but feel it. The slight texture to the Estate papers makes them ideal for custom labels or stickers that need to communicate more than just 1000 words.
If you are interested in commisioning some fantastic art for a children’s project or just for fun, contact Susie at BoyGirlParty.com.
Tags: Custom Labels, Custom Stickers, Estate 9, Illustration, Susie Ghahremani
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May 20th, 2009
Like everyone who takes time to craft a thoughtful design, our company apprecaites when someone posts their work for use and modification for free. That not only helps us save money for our customers who have us help with designing custom labels and stickers, but also with finding elements that stretch our capabilities. As it turns out, people who post portions of projects for free on the net, those pieces can help inspire the starting or finishing of a project for someone else. Already finished work has no where to go, but pieces are begging for use and inclusion in another project.
If you do design work or are looking for resources to improve your project, check out this site. BittBox is a fantastic blog that provides lots of free resources, contests to win software as well as a lot of learning opportunities through tutorials. We, here at Frontier Label, have certainly enjoyed and learned from this wonderful site.
“I like to give away only the best quality stuff to help designers everywhere. I also like to post workflow tips to help people work faster. These are the posts where everyone can chime in until we find the best way to do a certain task.” - Jay Hilgert
Tags: BittBox, Blog, Custom Labels, Custom Stickers, Design, Freebies
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May 18th, 2009
This month, we selected some really great labels to represent our capabilities. The custom labels that Clear Design ordered have this fantastic retro look, which compliments the diner for which they are made. Everything from the color scheme to the type used for the name convey a very consistent feel. The use of gloss laminate gives the labels a great feel of trying to look slick and modern, which was in style back in the 1950’s. The whole package is flawless. We applaud the designers.
If you are interested in getting some quality food in Charlotte, check out Big View’s website.
Tags: 1950s, Big View Diner, Charlotte, Custom Labels, Custom Stickers, Digital Labels, NC
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May 15th, 2009
Recently, there have been two big conversation topics in the business world. Green and Recession. Many things have changed in the last year because of those two words. And many of them for the better. I know that it may seem like a bit of a paradox, but it is proven that creativity flourishes in a lack of funding. The most influential and creative changes in business come from people who are forced to change or invent becasue they can’t buy something that already exists. A lot of the great advances in automotive technology were brought around by people who were working out of their own garage, or low-level employees of big companies who were too new to be relient on money to solve problems.
If we are honest with ourselves, being “Green” is not a cost effective option for most businesses. Materials cost more, retrofitting costs more, green waste disposal/recycling services cost more. This in turn can raise the prices that customers pay, jeopardizing potential business. That does not mean that it is not worthwhile. It just means that because it is valuable, and because you may not have the ability to spend capital on conventional method of greening up, you get to be creative.
In light of thesel factors (environment and economy), we at Frontier Label have taken several steps to become not only more efficient, but also greener. We value the planet and the great things that it affords. We like to go hiking and enjoy the park in the middle of downtown as well as the next company. In light of that and the need to change the way we do business in small ways to accomodate for a recovering economy, we have these changes to present:
Cloth towels instead of paper towels for the kitchen/break room and bathrooms. We take them home and wash them with the our other laundry to conserve water, but also to make sure that we are not wasteful with consumables of various kinds.
Less waste at press. We have changed the amount of setup labels that we print before running the orders to become more efficient. This was not a planned way to become greener, but it sure works in that way. The fewer feet of material that we end up tossing, the better. Trying to use only what you need and not more is a great way to take steps that cannot be green with the things that our industry demands.
We upgraded the whole office (both sides) to have electronic thermostats with timers so that we are not wasting energy.
Turning off as many of the machines at night and over the weekend as we can for the same purpose.
We are also currently investigating greener inks, materials, laminates and packaging solutions. We aren’t claiming to be the only ones exercising the above changes, but we aren’t done yet either. Not all of the solutions was arrive at will save us money, but the ones we have put in place so far have. That’s a really good thing.
How is your company becoming more green or saving money by becoming more economical in your practices?
Tags: Creativity, Custom Labels, Custom Stickers, Economy, Environment, Green, Innovation, Recession
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May 11th, 2009
Like any company, we are always trying to improve our processes and products. We believe that providing the best quality product is the best way to honor our clients and their money that they chose to spend on our services. Whether that means we improve the printing, prepress or customer service areas, we are striving to make sure that everything is as accurate, efficient and helpful as possible. Being a small business of less than 15 employees, we are able to intensely focus on personal improvement and bettering the company.
Dan, one of the guys who helps run the place, used to do a lot of flying in small craft for both business and recreation. The rigor that is required to manage and fly and aircraft has shaped his outlook on how we do business. He introduced the idea of using strict policies and thorough check-lists into our work place to improve our ability to serve our clients and customers. The common business term to help define our goal is “Six Sigma” stringency.
Late last year, we put in place a system to reward employees who had achieved a level of excellence that resembles the Six Sigma range. What that basically means is that, over time, the person has only 1 mistake or defect for every 294,000 opportunities. That is 99.99934% correctness. That’s pretty a pretty tight margin. Our lowest level for entry into the program, is roughly 1 mistake per 5000 opportunities, or 99.98% correctness. The program goes up to where the top level requires having completed 13,000 opportunities with only 1 mistake or defect. That equals roughly 99.993% correctness.
Matt, one of our converters, is the first person to be inducted into the program. Sam, and Dillon recently joined him in the program’s entry level. Congratulations to all of the members!
We are hopeful that this kind of culture of excellence will not only help us to continue improving over time, but also impact the way that people who interact with us do business as well.
Tags: Custom Labels, Custom Stickers, Efficiency, Productivity, Six Sigma, Small Business, Solar Excellence Program
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