# Add VALUE to your services to give you the competitive advantage!



## schultzy1087 (Dec 13, 2009)

Lets face it, Screen printing is basically a commodity. Just like any car mechanic or electrician, we all have somewhat different techniques, recommendations, and price structures. However, at the end of the day, my company is putting plastisol ink on a t-shirt and shipping it out the door. (We do not currently embroider or do any water based printing, etc.)

What sorts of things can we do as screen printers to give ourselves *the competitive advantage?* What I mean by that is: "Why would John Johnson come get his order done by me versus the other guy?"

_*The Law Of Value: Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment”.* Now, this may seem like a paradox, you may be thinking that this is a recipe for bankruptcy, but the key to this law is really understanding what value is. Price is not the same thing as value. We are not giving more than we receive in payment, but we are adding more value to people that we serve.

-" The Go Giver"_

Enough with the lecture, now I want to share some things we provide our customers to hopefully keep them coming back.

Recently we purchased the flip-fold from Ryonet. Without slowing our production time, our operator who works to cure the t-shirts is able to fold each t-shirt off the dryer. We neatly stack them in the box and sort them in order by size. Clearly we are unable to do this with large runs (basically anything over 150pcs) but for the smaller orders I believe that this process really adds some VALUE to our product. Nothing is more annoying than digging through a box of shirts to pull out a medium buried all the way at the bottom.

Occasionally I will throw in a sample of a product. A local bar bought some t-shirts from us a few weeks back and I had an extra P170 hoodie from another order. It didn't take much to print the extra sweatshirt for the bar owner and give it to him, free of charge. This was not only a great way to show some of the other products we can offer, but now when he wears that sweatshirt he'll be reminded of the great service he received from us!

Some things, while they may add value to your services, are not plausible. Case and point: printing a sample 1-off shirt for your clients. While it would be great to produce a sample of your client's artwork and present it to them, we all know that unless you are DTG it just is not feasible to do with a screen press. 

We were in contact with a local organization who was looking for 500 shirts for their 5K event. I offered a great product and an exemplary price to them, and also offered to deliver the t-shirts to the location where the participants would pick up their shirts. We even offered to volunteer our time to help hand out the t-shirts at the event! It offered a great opportunity to gain some exposure in our community and produce a pretty profitable printing order.

Why do all of that for 1 order? It's not just 1 order. It's 1 client that can bring multiple orders and multiple referrals. It's a great feeling when your customers tell you and their friends how above and beyond your business went for their order.


*My question to you: What sort of things do YOU do to separate yourself from your competition? Do you have any ideas to help me gain a competitive advantage?*


Take Care!
-Ryan


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## DevonTheDood (Nov 10, 2012)

I was literally just about to post this question! lol

I like your extra bar sweatshirt idea. We have plenty of random apparel laying around from past orders/extras.


Would be interested to see what other people have to say as well. =]


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## schultzy1087 (Dec 13, 2009)

Thanks, hope we have some people to share some ideas!

I found this searching around the forums. 

"The Best Form of Advertisement" by tancehughes



> So how do we maximize the investment we make in our customers? Let’s take a look at five key points that are essential to creating a happy customer:
> Get to know your customer – Learn what they like and dislike. Become familiar with their expectations. If you begin to think ahead of them and prepare things the way they like them, their comfort level with you increases dramatically.
> Attention to detail – Be attentive to your customer’s requests. Remember what they tell you the first time. Keep notes pertaining to the order. Go the extra mile to ensure that every little detail is exactly as they envisioned.
> Respond promptly – Did the customer e-mail you or leave you a voicemail? Make sure to respond to their message as quickly as possible. This ensures that the customer feels valued and important and not just another number.
> ...


Entire article: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/t-shirt-articles/t173171.html


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## DevonTheDood (Nov 10, 2012)

Yeah, definitely listening to clients needs, doing quality stuff and hitting deadlines (on or before) is always a good idea.

Most places, at least around here dont really care about anything except how many shirts you're going to buy. All you are to them is a number at the bottom of the invoice.


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

We don't fold the t-shirts, but we do give something extra. They're many post here were members have posted about it.

Many times I'll give an extra t-shirt that's in another color so they see what their design looks like. It really makes a difference.


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## Red Leaf (Feb 2, 2011)

We fold all our shirts. It just looks nicer in my opinion. I put in little goodies. Pens, a thank you card. I like to cut some stickers with the clients design whenever I do a job. Not only do they love the stickers, it sometimes leads to a follow up sticker job. 


Red Leaf Screen Printing & Embroidery


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

I believe the issue in this case and many others is the idea that you sell shirts. You sell a shirt you are only going to get the average shirt price.

Learned long ago by someone smarter than myself the way to stand above the competition is to sell art (designs) that happen to be on a shirt or whatever product you are selling.

I pound that into our designers head monthly - we are selling their creativity not a jersey or a number plate. You can get jerseys and number plates in many places - but it is not so easy to find professional designs.

You sell designs versus shirts all this free shipping nonsense, etc. goes out the door. To me if you offer free shipping you are basically saying "this shirt is average and you can probably buy it elsewhere but if you buy it from me I will ship it free". We have not offered free shipping and never had a single client ask if we would ship for free.


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## schultzy1087 (Dec 13, 2009)

Very nice! I like that concept. Many times clients do come to us with an IDEA and it's up to us to turn that idea into a design and then into a shirt.

I focus too much on the finished shirt product and don't focus enough on what we are putting on the shirt. Thanks for the post!


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