Powerful artificial intelligence (AI) solutions from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other developers have already revolutionized the image creation process. Forbes has written that AI could be the key to unlocking the $14.7 billion 3D printing industry’s true potential, making additive-manufacturing processes more efficient and less costly. What might AI be able to do for your business?
Establishing a robust AI strategy is crucial for future industry leadership, according to the Boston Consulting Group. Companies that fail to adopt this disruptive technology risk falling far behind. All print companies should learn how to use AI to streamline customer interactions, create innovative solutions, and revise internal processes. Sure, AI can be intimidating but, truth be told, most people have been using it without really being aware.
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For years, businesses assumed customer service and revenue growth were tightly intertwined. The best path to higher revenue, and by extension profits, was to keep the focus decidedly on customers and deliver exceptional service.
But perceptions change. Now, a constrained economic environment is forcing some businesses to shift from customers to cost-cutting and price increases to ensure the profitability of their businesses. A recent study by research and consulting firm Accenture found that 40% of CXOs surveyed said they plan to raise prices to pass costs increases to customers.
As a result, poorer quality and lower customer service are likely to follow. Service agents will be harder to reach, disputes will take longer to be settled, and
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Topics:
news,
customer service,
customer satisfaction,
chat bot,
CSR,
CRM
Our world seems inundated by video. Witness viral TikTok moments and the shocking hours of human productivity they waste. It can be difficult for printed material to rise above the noise.
It is possible, though, to take print to a level that bridges the gap with video by using applications like Augmented Reality (AR). AR technology has been around for some time, but like all things digital, the techniques become more sophisticated and easier to use as time goes by.
Augmented Reality is about creating a link between print and digital. To activate AR, printers embed triggers in printed documents. Images come alive on the screens when a smart phone or tablet reads the triggers via an app. The AR software animates the content or renders objects in 3D. AR presentations can include visuals and sounds, creating an interactive user experience that is immersive and fun.
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Topics:
news,
augmented reality,
AR,
enhanced print
Retaining clients is as crucial to the health of your business as acquiring new ones. Perhaps even more so. The best clients, and the ones you can reliably count on to run a successful company, are the ones who keep returning to do business with you.
Acquiring new customers is always a good idea, of course, but client retention should also be a top priority, backed by a management strategy that begins the minute a client signs a purchase order. Your customer retention strategy should be an intrinsic part of your corporate culture, from the CEO on down.
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Topics:
news,
customer retention,
customer experience,
ai,
CX,
artificial intelligence
Color consistency is vital to maintaining brand fidelity. With more campaigns being run on multiple devices and substrates, and with customers moving to printing on demand, maintaining color across the board is more challenging than ever.
And yet it’s necessary as color expertise may be one of those competitive advantages that sets your business apart. If your company suddenly looses the color whisperer who helps nurture that advantage, it could be tricky to maintain the status quo. But it’s not impossible. You can still support color consistency, meet customer expectations, and ensure production quality remains high with an effective color workflow system.
Color Workflow
Start by ensuring all your devices are working in peak condition. If color shifts across a particular screen, or on a press sheet, you will need to fix or replace those devices.
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Topics:
news,
color,
G7 certification,
color management,
color profile,
ICC,
color expert,
color matching
Digitization of the print industry has leaped over the last two decades. The average shop floor today is significantly more automated than it was 20 years ago. All front-end functions, administrative departments, presses, and e-commerce platforms are managed by workflow and MIS systems that share information for higher efficiency and productivity.
The bindery department, often the most labor-intensive area of the shop, had lagged somewhat, with job-ticket information not making it quite as far as the folders, cutters, and gluers. Part of the reason is the multi-faced aspects of bindery. After printing, paper can be die-cut, bound, folded, stamped, jogged, trimmed, or embellished with coatings, foils, and other decorative elements. Over the last few years, though, manufacturers have turned out automated versions of traditional devices, bringing automation to the back of the shop.
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Topics:
MIS,,
Automation,,
Workflow,
news,
post-press,
make ready,
bindery,
finishing
If one clear trend is dominating marketing, it’s personalization. In fact, personalization is now considered essential for any brand that wants to stand out with consumers and successfully nurture customer relationships. A recent study by Salesforce found that 73% of shoppers expect brands to understand their unique needs and expectations.1
The best way to demonstrate this understanding of individuality among consumers is by creating marketing messages that apply to the recipient and are engaging in their presentation.
Personalized print took a big stride forward with the advent of variable data printing capabilities. At one time, simply adding the customer’s name to printed materials was impressive. Today, marketers are using much more sophisticated approaches than simple text substitution.
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Topics:
variable data printing,
news,
personalizaton,
personalized,
segmentation,
variable data,
VDP,
embellishments
Here at Gimbel & Associates we concentrate on print–area in which we have a great deal of experience. Conversations with clients often begin with print, which remains a critical component of any organization’s communication strategy. However, content that starts out as print, and was originally designed for print, frequently finds its way into the omni-channel environment in which we all live.
Interest in digital publication is high. The global digital publishing market is exhibiting huge growth with a steady CAGR, indicating a favorable market trend. As they consider a digital publishing strategy, companies are also concerned about complying with accessibility laws. The number of website accessibility lawsuits are increasing, with nearly 2300 suits filed in 20231.
How does one transform print documents into an engaging and compliant digital reading experience and distribute the material to the widest audience? We’re working on that. It’s called Boundless - a new offering available soon from Xerox and administered by Gimbel & Associates.
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Topics:
news,
pdf,
omni-channel,
digitized print,
Boundless,
multi-channel
It can be tempting to regard skills training and staff upgrading as a cost that must be managed down, rather than an investment that promotes growth and future-proofs your business.
Skills training, from keeping up with the latest print software and equipment to mastering design or digital marketing, can be expensive, time consuming, and disruptive to daily operations. Plus, it’s easy to believe that staff will go elsewhere once they upgrade their skills, leaving you in the lurch.
In reality, a skills training program will generate handsome dividends for your company and place you in a much stronger competitive position.
Your employees are your biggest asset. They’re more important than the multi-million dollar presses on your shop floor. It just makes sense to invest in maintaining them, just as you would with that expensive equipment.
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Topics:
news,
employee retention,
skills training,
e-learning,
employee investment,
competitive advantage,
knowledge development
Remember when having your head in the clouds wasn’t a flattering comment? Times change. Today, being in the cloud is a good thing and we’re all attempting to stake out a spot up there so we can be more productive down here.
Cloud computing has been around for some time. We’re all familiar with our own personal software programs and operating systems that update automatically. Or with our photos and files being stored somewhere in the ether. But like any structural transformation, cloud computing takes time to fully permeate into businesses and market sectors.
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Topics:
news,
cloud computing,
augmented reality,
ai,
digitize,
digitization,
printing industries applications
Data enhancement and enrichment is the practice of adding details to data records, enabling marketers to fine-tune outbound marketing campaigns. Options include adding geocode coordinates for mapping, estimated income, gender, age, or home ownership to prospect records. Other enrichment opportunities include appending email addresses or phone numbers and filtering lists to remove unresponsive records. Identifying and eliminating duplicate contact records further improves data.
Transcend the Obvious
"Everyone understands that printers print and mailers mail. Show me something new and different that improves my response rate and makes me want to do business with you."
The marketplace knows what printers and mailers do. Yet most service providers' websites feature a long, lackluster list that includes business cards, envelopes, brochures, forms, binding, folding, and a hundred other products or services every printer offers. Use website real estate and the short attention span of most visitors to focus on customer acquisition. How can you escalate the success rate for your customer's printed materials en route to their prospect's mailbox?
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Topics:
direct mail,
news,
data enhancement,
append data,
enrich,
suppression,
duplicates,
response rate
The final installment of our three-part labor series focuses on employing automation as a competitive advantage.
In the first part of this series, we analyzed the aging, skilled labor market—the trend of older employees leaving the workforce and strategies for recruiting youthful as well as more mature workers. Next, we delved into how to hold on to staffers already on the payroll. In Part 3 of three, we analyze automation advancements as part of the solution to printing industry staffing shortages.
With the overall cost of doing business increasing and production volumes decreasing, how can print service providers (PSPs) maintain profit margins and still make money? The ability to print more jobs at faster rates becomes paramount. Automated technologies allow employees to perform critical pre-press, printing, and post-press operations without requiring years of experience as apprentices or junior assistants. For example, achieving precise colors on the press has become a case of science trumping subjectivity, according to Shawn Sundquist, president and CEO of Range Printing, Inc. (Brainerd, MN).
“In some respects, the skilled-labor shortage has forced the issue,” says Sundquist, a third-generation leader at the company his grandfather founded 55 years ago. “There is definitely an older demographic in our pressroom running the presses,” he notes, lamenting that the vast majority of younger workers don’t seem to care much about the intricacies of mechanical inner-workings.
“Young people are used to pressing the ‘easy button,’” Sundquist observes.
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Topics:
Automation,,
news,
printing,
labor shortage,
employee retention,
skilled labor,
employee recruitment,
printing automation
In the first part of this series we analyzed the aging, skilled labor market and the trend of older employees leaving the workforce, which can have a detrimental impact on industries, including the printing business, that depend on knowledge and expertise. “That kind of brain drain . . . could put a little more pressure on companies to figure out ways to hang on to older workers,” believes Michael Madowitz, director of macroeconomic policy at Equitable Growth.
We also suggested ways to recruit younger employees to the print sector. Enlist the help of outsiders, such as industry consultants, to work with state agencies and educational institutions. This strategy can be one smart move for printing companies trying to overcome a negative image of their industry in the minds of young people.
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Topics:
news,
employee recruiting,
employee staffing,
employees,
staffing,
employee retention,
perks,
remote/hybrid work,
employee benefits
Part 1 of this article focuses on ways print service providers can attract a younger workforce by reinventing the medium’s ‘down and dirty,’ inky image. This is a 3 part series.
Hey Boomers and Gen X-ers, our workers are aging. U.S. manufacturers faced a major setback after losing some 1.5 million jobs at the onset of the global pandemic; since then, companies have been struggling to fill job vacancies. In Q1 2023, there were nearly 700,000 open manufacturing jobs, according to consulting firm Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute. The National Association of Manufacturers reports that over 2 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030.
Print firms are feeling the pain. A good portion of experienced print industry employees are nearing retirement age. Last year, more than one-quarter of the U.S. workforce was 55 years of age or older, up from 14% twenty years earlier. In 2020, for the first time in the history of the United States, individuals 65 years of age and older outnumbered those five years of age and younger, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The U.S. print sector, which today employs over 386,500 Americans, shows negative growth (of -2.6%) again this year, reports research firm IBISWorld, and is down 1.4% overall since 2018.
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Topics:
news,
employee recruiting,
print industry labor,
recruiting for the print industry,
Gen Z,
Millennials,
labor shortage,
flexible work hours