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Volume 4, Issue 1 Survey
Says …
The
results are in from United Litho’s customer satisfaction research. Is
it possible to measure customer satisfaction? In a service industry such
as printing, nothing could be more important. Accordingly, every year,
United Litho conducts a satisfaction survey using an objective, third-party
research firm. The results of this year’s survey, conducted by Shugoll
Research in Bethesda, Md., showed that satisfaction with customer service
is at an all-time high. The
reason? According to Wayne Peterson, vice president of sales and marketing,
United Litho has made a substantial investment in its customer service
people. Not only has the company continued to recruit actively and develop
employees’ skills and competencies, but it’s working to create a better
environment for the staffers in this department—from redesigning their
workspace to launching Customer Service
Toolbox, software designed to simplify order entry. United Litho is
also training its customer service employees to help clients better navigate
their printing challenges.
Of
course, while client service is key, most customers (82 percent) said
the quality of the product was the most important consideration in selecting
a printer. This comes as no surprise to President Ken Garner, who considers
quality essential. Many years ago, he says, the primary criteria were
price, quality and service, and vendors would try to satisfy at least
two of the three. “That’s just not the case anymore,” he explains. “Successful
vendors now know that print quality has to be
a given, or they won’t even be in the running.”
Shugoll’s
research findings show an increasing number of clients satisfied with
United Litho’s technical quality—again, no surprise in light of the company’s
investment in new equipment since its move into the new plant in 1997.
With the recent acquisitions of a new The
company’s commitment to quality is also evident in its adoption of new
technology, such as the January 2000 launch of a direct-to-plate option.
“We’re consistently making large-scale investments,” Peterson notes. With
regard to price—the third piece of the printer-selection process—Garner
says that United Litho’s pricing is always set to be competitive. He explains,
“We’re not always the low-cost producer option; instead, we’re the highest-value
option.” Indeed,
United Litho has concentrated on value to distinguish itself in the marketplace.
“We’ve made a substantial investment over the past year in creating digital
connections with our customers,” Peterson says, moving beyond digital
proofs and electronic file transfer services to offer clients free
access to—and training in—Proteus.
A
sophisticated publication-planning application, Proteus will not only
streamline clients’ dummy-creation process but will import data directly
into Toolbox, eliminating the need for paper-based instructions from customers. Almost
half (47 percent) of the customers surveyed expected their printing needs
to increase next year, with a similar percentage forecasting that their
needs will remain the same. Garner, who sees electronic media not as a
replacement to the printed piece, but as a “synergistic companion,” is
not surprised. He expects the magazine industry to remain strong, given
the solid advertising revenues that accompany a booming economy. “And
feeding a presence on the Internet, as well as a printing presence, will
be healthy for the enterprise,” he says. Although
the Shugoll research is the most formal means the company has for acquiring
specific data, it’s certainly not the only one. Garner says United Litho’s
customer service team meets with customers and prospects on a regular
basis to identify the types of products and services clients would like
to see and determine how the company can add value to each relationship.
“Our antennae are always up,” he says. From
the results of this research, it’s paying off. TechTips:
The Top 10 While
the introduction of the digital workflow has been a boon for publishers
and printers alike, digital file submission is not without its pitfalls.
On these pages are the 10 most common digital prepress problems, as identified
by the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF), together with my tips
to keep them from happening. No.
10 Resolution too high or too low in customer-supplied scans (3.2%) Placed
art should be 266 dpi for four-color and grayscale images, and 1200 dpi
or greater for line art (bitmap) images. Make sure that Photoshop is displaying
resolution in pixels/inch, since a 266 dpi image is equivalent to 104
dots per centimeter. Tip:
To find out the maximum size you can make your graphic, load it up in
Photoshop and choose Image > Image size. Verify that “constrain proportions”
is ON (it may be grayed out) and “resample image” is OFF. Then type 266
into the resolution/pixels per inch field, highlighted above. You’ll notice
that the width and height will change. If you save the file now and place
it at 100% on your page, you’ll be OK. If the graphic is too small at
this point, you’ll need to rescan; if it’s too large, you may reduce the
graphic, but understand that you’re wasting disk space. The perfect job
will have all graphics placed at 100%. No.
9 Missing graphics (4.5%) Above
is an example of a PageMaker Links Manager window with missing graphics.
See the question marks? That means that PageMaker cannot locate the graphic
file on your hard drive or network. That’s bad news.
The upside-down question mark on the right indicates that the object
will not print in high resolution because of either a missing file or
a required filter that is not available. Both of these situations should
be resolved by Tip:
Make sure that you never paste graphics into your document; always use
the place command. Never
place graphics off a zip drive or other removable media since they will
be difficult to locate later. No.
8 No laser proof supplied (4.6%) Not
getting a laser proof is a huge problem for us, since lasers are used
in nearly every department in our plant. It’s very important that the
laser be output at 100%, so that we can check our proofs against your
lasers on a light table. Additionally, the colors used on that page should
be handwritten at the bottom of each page so that our plate checkers can
verify that the plates were made correctly. If they notice a portion of
a plate with no dots on it, they will want to check your lasers to verify
that you weren’t expecting that color on that page. Tip:
Use Quark’s “print styles” or PageMaker’s “printer styles” command to
ease the printing of your pages at 100% with no crop marks. No.
7 Incorrectly defined or undefined bleeds (5.2%) Bleeds
should always be 1/8". The graphic above from Quark depicts a perfect
bleed at the top of the page. Note that it is bleeding on the left, top
and right sides by 1/8". Use of the measurements window in both Quark
and PageMaker will make this process very easy. Tip:
Create a few guides that are 1/8" off the page so your graphics and
boxes will snap to the exact bleed amount. No.
6 Graphics not linked (5.3%) Fixing
a graphic that isn’t linked is just as time consuming as fixing a missing
graphic. If any art in your document is FPO, mark “FPO” clearly on the
lasers. If you want us to place a graphic, write the file name clearly
on your laser. No.
5 Incorrect page settings or page setup (7.4%) The
golden rule of DPP: Make your document size your trim size. It’s as simple
as that. Don’t try to accommodate bleed into your page size; don’t add
any for grind-off; no change is necessary for live area, spine size or
any other factor. Your document size is your trim size. If
there is a discrepancy, there is no easy fix. Outputting your pages at
a percentage won’t do it, since the bleeds are scaled with the rest of
the page, making those pages out of spec. It’s important to get this piece
of information right from the start. Our maximum size for a perfect-bound
publication is 8-1/4 by 10-7/8"; our maximum size for a saddle-stitched
publication is 8-3/8 by 10-7/8". By the way, all magazines have facing
pages (different left- and right-hand pages), so be sure to click that
on when starting a new document. Tip:
Create a document with the right trim size and save it as a template.
That way you will have already set up a file with the basic information
you’ll need for every issue! No.
4 Scans supplied in wrong file format (7.8%) GIFs,
JPEGs, CTs, BMPs, WMFs, PICTs, etc. are great for screen displays and
the Internet. But
they don’t fit well in the print production workflow. Convert these graphics
to Tip:
Go to www.unitedlitho.com/amoore/PSHOPatn.sit to download a Mac Photoshop
6.0 action to automate this process. No.
3 Files defined with incorrect color, e.g. RGB vs. CMYK (10.9%) RGB
or indexed color mode graphics won’t print correctly and will certainly
not look in print like they do on your screen. Tip:
Simply go into Photoshop and choose Image > Mode > CMYK Color to
fix. No.
2 Missing or incorrect trapping (11.5%) Good
news! You won’t have to worry about trapping with any job you send to
United Litho. There is one exception, though, and that is when 100% black
type or 100% black boxes partially overlap a four-color element. In that
case only, use a “rich black,” which is defined as 100% black and 30%
cyan. Our ripping system will trap these colors correctly and not overprint
the black. If you don’t do this, the page will still output correctly,
but you’ll notice that there is an ink density change between the black
that’s printed by itself versus the black that is printing over the picture
(see the example above). Tip:
Create a color that’s called rich black in your document for these special
cases. Be sure not to use a rich black for the main text of your magazine. No.
1 Missing or incorrect fonts (22.2%) And
now for the number-one reported problem: Fonts. Fonts have always been
a problem to printers. They get corrupted, they change over time and they
reflow. The best thing to do is organize your fonts in a secure location,
and then back them up in case any of them go bad. Be especially attentive
to the fonts folder on your Mac or PC after installing new software. The
screen capture above is merely a small subset of the fonts installed without
notification after loading Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and a few
other utilities. When
sending your job to ULI, send only the fonts used in your documents. It’s
important that we get the actual font files that are being used on your
system to avoid getting reflow. Tip:
FlightCheck or FlightCheck
Collect can help with the font collection process. Another helpful
piece of software to manage fonts is Font Agent by Insider Software (www.fontagent.com).
We use it at ULI to manage our font sets and have had a lot of success
with its use. See the screen captures below to see how easy the program
is to use. Note that the demo version, which is a free download, functions
well as a scanner for problems; the full version adds the ability to fix
them. An Extraordinary Service Experience: Onsite Fitness What
did United Litho have to do to convince OnSite Fitness to convert to the
Proteus system? “Nothing…
we were begging them for it,” says co-publisher Don Elfant. “We wanted
to be the first guinea pig.” OnSite
Fitness is a bimonthly trade magazine for the owners and managers
of commercial fitness concerns: hotels, property developers, corporate
wellness centers, university recreation facilities and the like. Its content
covers legal, liability, maintenance, marketing and equipment issues—everything,
as the magazine’s tagline says, “for managing your fitness investment.” The
magazine averages 64 pages per issue and has a print run of approximately
20,000. Founded in 1997, the publication had been printed for over a year
by United Litho when the Proteus system was installed in OnSite Fitness’
Austin, Texas, offices. “We
just think it’s tremendous that United Litho offered it to us,” says Elfant.
“Everything
they’ve done has been exemplary. I’ve been impressed with their willingness
to get us up to speed.” One
of the challenges OnSite Fitness faces is fitting together the
“puzzle pieces” that make up each issue. Proteus allows publishers and
art directors to impose pages the way they will be printed, and can even
be set up to track advertisers’ desired placements and ensure the separation
of competitors’ ads. To
further complicate matters, because many of OnSite Fitness’ advertisers
are regional distributors of national-brand equipment, the magazine is
printed in five regional editions to allow for targeted ad placement to
the appropriate region. Proteus’ ability to manage those editions has
made regional ad placement a much easier proposition for Art Director
Perla Arce. Arce
is also a big fan of Proteus’
conflict-checking capabilities. “We had a situation where we had specified
a particular sequence for the placement of three or four ads, and had
also assigned each of them specific instructions about how far away they
should be from competitors’ ads. When Proteus alerted us to the fact that
we couldn’t satisfy both the placement order and the competitive separation
requirements simultaneously, we went back to the drawing board to re-evaluate
the priorities and resolve the conflicts. “The
ability to easily generate different scenarios of a dummy in progress—‘what
if we led with this article, or rearranged these ads this way?—really
saves me a lot of time,” Arce adds. The
customized training that United Litho provided on Proteus particularly
earned Elfant’s admiration: “I have to give the company credit for hiring
someone specifically to provide this training, and for their dedication
to making it work.” Although
the software was not installed at OnSite Fitness until October
2000, preparations OnSite
Fitness’ first Proteus-produced issue was on press as we spoke with
Elfant. Although he characterizes his experience with the software as
“incomplete,” he says he and his staff are “looking forward to using it
to its fullest capacity.” In particular, he hopes that the system will
help the magazine’s staff to compress the production cycle in two crucial
areas: creating the dummy and prepping the mechanical. “We’re
very thankful,” he says. To
find out more about how Proteus can improve your operation, contact your
account executive and request a demo today.
Copyright 1997 - 2008, United Litho, Inc. All rights reserved. |
