Frequency: Monthly
Reason for Customer contacting CBF: Not happy with current supplier.
We were contacted by the editor of the monthly produced lifestyle magazine S.O.T.C following a string of disappointing customer service matters with their current supplier.
As a customer, they were looking for a potential new supplier to take on the production of their existing monthly lifestyle magazine. The main boxes they were looking to tick upon looking for a new supplier were strong customer service, ability to keep to strict turnaround schedules and a supplier that could fit in with their current pricing structure.
Within the first conversation, the editor was already confident with the levels of customer service that would be received based on the questions asked and answers and suggestions that were provided.
We were lucky enough to be provided with a target price that the editor was receiving from their current supplier. It has to be said the price was competitive but we not only managed to keep within the current price structure we actually managed to pass on a saving which definitely ticked another box.
Finally, all that was left to sort out was the turnaround schedule. The editor required a 5 working day turnaround. In the scheme of things this would be a walk in the park based on the job being correctly scheduled in advance but in this case, it was very last minute and we were also in the thick of our Christmas rush.
With a little moving around we managed to create the schedule needed and with that, we ticked the final box. Needless to say the customer was extremely happy with the initial process and the work was won.
Challenges overcome:
The magazine had a very high profile celebrity interview as the main feature. One of our eagle-eyed members or staff spotted a glaring spelling mistake in the main quote of said celebrities interview. We highlighted this to the customer and they managed to get the spelling changed. The editor couldn’t thank us enough as a copy of the magazine was being sent to the celebrity and we saved them a huge embarrassment.
Working on what was already a very tight schedule we then had the challenge of dealing with some freak weather, snow was covering the country making it extremely difficult for staff to make it into work. We lost a whole day worth of production due to not having the staff in to run the presses and finishing machinery. Being faced with potentially having to let our customer down by having to deliver in a day late we really had to rally together to get things back on track. Thankfully our production staff understand how important schedules are and offered to work a night shift to get everything back on track. Thankfully we managed to make up the time and the job went in on time to schedule.
Following the first edition going in we have since heard from the customer, full of praise for all the hard work we put in, high levels of customer service and most importantly for the high print quality of the magazine. We are now working together on the next edition and looking to see how we can work together to build the magazine throughout 2018.