We’ve all been there. We have a perfect idea and want to print it and show it to the world, but we don’t know of any printing company we can trust. We get it; choosing a good printing company can be challenging, especially if you have specific printing needs. But if you’re in a hurry and need to pick one right away, here’s how you can choose a good printing company.
To choose a good printing company, you need to make sure the company is above average in the following aspects: customer service, years of experience, portfolio, and turnaround time. Also, picking a local printing company will allow you to see their work firsthand.
So basically, if the printing company you choose to work with has these aspects covered, you’re probably in good hands. But how can you be sure this company is actually good? In this blog, we will show you how to tell if the printing company you choose will help you or if they just want your money.
How To Choose A Good Printing Company – 5 Steps To Do It
Choosing the right place to print your designs is crucial if you want your marketing efforts to perform their best. Here, I’ll give you five steps you can follow to make sure you’re picking the best printing company in the least amount of time possible.
1- Pick a local printing company.
Although we’re sure there are hundreds of reputable, trustworthy printing companies anywhere and online, you should pick a local one whenever possible. The reason is simple: you can get to see their work firsthand, have quicker turnaround times, and overall make sure there’s someone personally checking that everything related to your order runs smoothly.
In our experience, we can tell that a considerable amount of customers come by our office because they had a bad experience online. They visit us because they want to make sure they get a product they will love from beginning to end, and that’s something you can only get if you pick a local printing company.
P.S: We are located in Downtown NYC, so if you’re looking for a local printing company in New York, feel free to visit us or email us at info@japanprint.com. We will be glad to assist you with your order.
In a nutshell, picking a local printing is ideal but not mandatory. You can still find outstanding printing companies online. We will help you identify a good printing company when you see it in the following steps.
2 – Look for legendary, personal customer service.
We know good customer service is something we should always look for in any company, but we consider it critical when picking the right printing company. This is important in printing because printing is a lot more complicated than it looks. Any business card, brochure, folder, etc., looks perfect in design. However, that doesn’t mean the printed product will look as good as the design if you don’t optimize it for printing.
A good printing company will ensure their clients get impeccable printed products, as their reputation depends on it. Based on this, if the design you send doesn’t meet the company’s criteria, they should let you know before printing it.
So, how is this related to making sure the printing company offers legendary, personal customer service? Because machines won’t let you know that your file isn’t ready for printing. If there isn’t a person behind your printing order, their system will print any design you send. You can always ask for a refund, but we know that’s not an ideal scenario.
In a nutshell, if you pick an online printing company, at least make sure there’s personal, active customer service. In addition to that, reading some reviews about them might help you see how they operate.
Let’s move on to the third step.
3- Pick an experienced printing company.
When it comes to printing, there are hundreds of options. Most people are familiar with digital printing, but there’s also offset printing (a method used to match colors and make sure you always get the same one) and many other things we don’t want to bore you with. But in summary, since there are so many printing techniques, it’s very easy to make mistakes when you don’t have enough experience.
For example, a very popular special feature people order for their business cards is Spot UV. In theory, you can apply Spot UV to any laminated business card. Still, it’s important to note that if the amount of Spot UV you want to apply to it exceeds the recommended amount, the finished product won’t be as good as it could be. Also, if the spot UV areas are too small, many details will be lost. This is something that has happened to many of our customers, and they choose us because they want to fix what they couldn’t figure out in other places; most of the time is not that other printing companies don’t want to help you; they aren’t experienced enough.
In a nutshell, when you look for a good printing company, checking how many years they have been in the industry will increase the odds of them knowing what they’re doing.
Let’s move into the fourth step.
4- Check their portfolio.
Even if the printing company you’re considering the most has the best customer service ever, offers the best prices, and is experienced, you need to look for someone else if you don’t like their work.
If you’re picking local companies, you can visit them and see their work in person and then decide if you want to work with them or not. However, suppose the options you’re checking are all online. In that case, you can do a simple thing to make sure they produce unique, premium work: check their gallery or portfolio and make sure they upload real pictures and not digitally created products. If all the images on their website are digitally created, I might consider requesting a sample pack before ordering from them. Instead, if all the photos you see on their website are actual pictures of their products, you can expect to receive something of the same quality.
If the company you’re about to work with doesn’t have real pictures and uses digitally created products, and you cannot get a sample pack from them, ask them to send you pictures of the products they have printed in the past.
In a nutshell, it’s risky to order from a printing company if you can’t see their work. If you can, always pick a company that shares their work, and you’ll have a better chance of not being wrong about choosing a good printing company.
And last but not least, the fifth step.
5- Make sure they can print what you need on time.
One of the first things you should let a printing company know before working with them is your deadline. They can be perfect in every aspect, but if they cannot get the flyers or envelopes you need on time, you need to start to look for more options. If you’re in a hurry, don’t worry; most printing companies will have regular and rush turnaround times. Of course, they might charge you a little more if you need your order to be rushed. To make sure you get what you need on time, we recommend doing the following:
- Let your printing company know how many things you need and your deadline.
- Take into consideration the time it will take you and the company to approve the designs and place the order.
- Don’t forget to ask them about the shipping. If you’re nearby the company and can pick the order up, great, but if you need the company to ship the cards, make sure your order can arrive on time!
And that would be all for this blog. And we hope you the best at picking a good printing company for your projects!
If you still have other questions related to this, you can continue reading our blogs or contact us via email at info@japanprint.com or call us at 212-406-2905! Our NYC business card experts will be glad to assist you in getting your business card order ready.
