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 To view Kinko's Killer Part 1 click here. To view Kinko's Killer Part 2 click here. To view Kinko's Killer Part 3 click here. To view Kinko's Killer Part 4 click here. This is the final Kinko’s Killer. When I offered to share my Kinko’s Killer information about my new copy shop and my plan to compete with Kinko’s, I didn’t have any idea what a big project this would turn out to be. However, I got so much feedback from printers – literally hundreds of emails – that I decided to spend a little more time and provide more details, hoping that I could provide more help and direction for many of my printer friends. Dozens upon dozens of you told me (in some manner) that your print shop is struggling and that the Kinko’s Killer offered some hope. Before I begin, I wanted to mention that in the future months, I’ll continue to share free monthly sales and marketing ideas that will be emailed to you from me (Mike Stevens), under the subject “The Underground Printer.” So please watch for it. Since it is getting harder and harder to get through spam filters, let me know if you don’t get it. If we lose touch, you can contact me at my new website, www.mikestevens.com, which we plan on launching around the 4th of July. The Kinko’s Killer Part 5 of 5 Beating Kinko’s – The Twelve Elements of Success This will be the final segment of the Kinko’s Killer. In my previous writings about The Twelve Elements of Success for competing with Kinko’s, I wrote in-depth about elements #1 – #6. Today, I will provide shorter overviews about elements #7 – #12, since they are areas that can be easily summarized. At the end of this issue of the Kinko’s Killer, I’ll also summarize what results we’ve had sales-wise since implementing all of these new ideas. Element #7 An Energetic and Enthusiastic Front Counter Team This may be the single most underrated factor in the success of any print shop. Everybody knows it’s important to have a good front counter team, but very few printers actually spend the money and time to build an exceptionally strong front counter team. The kind of people we need at our front counter are the kind of people every business wants – so that means they’ll be hard to find and they’ll need to be highly paid. Here are the other characteristics of a front counter super star. Ignore them at your own risk.
Element #8 A Change in Your Commitment to Speed I could literally write for hours about the importance of speed as a force multiplier. Here’s what it boils down to: no matter how fast you are, you need to be faster. If you’ve got employees who really genuinely believe that “to do it good, you’ve got to take your time…” get rid of them. Our customers are expecting more and more from us. If we don’t provide solutions fast, they’ll go to another printer – or they’ll do it themselves in-house. Most of the 800 lb gorillas, including Kinko’s, aren’t very fast. I think this is one of their vulnerable areas. But, they can still be tough to compete with because of their extended hours. We work faster, but they work longer. You need to look at every single aspect of your production process and ask yourself the question: “How can I do this faster?” You’ll win battles often when you’re fast. Here’s a photo of one little thing we did to speed up our turn around. We organized all of our color papers so that we don’t “have to go looking” for it when a customer walks in. Somebody needs 100 copies on 60# Planetary Purple we’ve got it right there, organized and ready to go. This display also looks good to customers because they can see it when they stand at the front counter.  Element #9 Simplified Order Entry Systems This may shock some of you, but we don’t use PrintSmith in The Unsloppy CopyShop. Our reason? It’s too slow and cumbersome in a fast-moving copy shop environment. We needed a faster way to enter jobs into the system. Since most copy jobs are not complex, we use a hand-write system. We have two “job tickets” – one is a small post-it note for the simplest jobs, while the other is a 11 1/2” x 14 1/2” envelope/job ticket that is more complex. Both of our job tickets work well and save time.  Our job ticket for smaller, easier copy jobs – a 4” x 6” post-it note that we attach to the original.  Our 11 1/2” x 14 1/2” envelope ticket for bigger more complex jobs. The originals go inside the envelope. We file envelopes when finished. Element #10 On-Demand Digital File Capabilities We almost screwed up here. When we started, I thought I’d give all the responsibility for downloads and customer files to my print shop staff and have them output everything. We’re fast at my print shop … but we weren’t fast enough. In a copy shop like Kinko’s, most digital jobs get attention right away while the customer waits – on demand – not put on a schedule to be finished tomorrow morning or later like they do at my print shop. We lost a good copy job to Kinko’s right after we opened because they couldn’t wait “hours” to download their files for a copy job that could be completed on our Docutech in 30 minutes. We quickly learned it is essential to have our front counter project managers “trained and ready” to be able to retrieve and handle customer files by themselves. Being able to do so is an essential element to your success. Element #11 A Focused Sales and Marketing Plan Well, I could write a book about the importance of a good sales and marketing plan … but here’s what it boils down to – in my opinion. You need both. You need a sales plan and a marketing plan. The marketing plan should be the basic foundation of your company’s success. A good marketing plan should create front of mind brand awareness so that your prospects will at least think about you before they order printing or copies. Kinko’s has a simple marketing plan. They use direct mail monthly and they regularly run newspaper display ads. That’s it. It’s simple, clean, and effective over the long haul. I’ve been told their advertising budget is 4.5% of store sales. You’ll need to do something as good or better, or Kinko’s will wear down your customers and eventually win them over. We mail jumbo 4-color postcards every month that attack Kinko’s and CopyMax’s prices, and invite them to use our “copy shop for businesses.” We don’t sell too hard on price to the big buyers, we focus on our accuracy, our speed, and the fact that we have a full-service print shop for many different support services that is staffed by full-time career graphic arts professionals – “not part-time college kids like some of our competitors.” My manager at The Unsloppy CopyShop also makes sales calls to big accounts, and really provides a very high level of customer care to her best clients and customers. Element #12 A singular commitment to doing it better than you ever have before, the willingness to see things from a fresh perspective, and the discipline to implement a lot of changes quickly. Do you still have fire in your belly? Are you totally committed to your print shop’s success? Many of us in printing are now middle-aged. We’ve been doing this a while. We can choose to get “tired” or we can “light the fire” and begin the battle. Kinko’s or any 800 lb gorilla won’t be easily beaten. They want your customers, and unless you provide a better solution – they’ll own your customers. When I began my Kinko’s Killer project for myself two years ago, I went forward determined to do whatever it would take to create a copy shop that was better than Kinko’s and CopyMax, my two biggest competitors. It was a David and Goliath battle. They seemed so big, and we seemed so small. At times, the biggest battle I fought was with myself. Sometimes I’d ask myself, “Why am I working so hard at this point of my career?” – because I regularly work longer hours than any of my employees or managers. Sometimes I’d get tired and weary – something I don’t remember dealing with 20 years ago. I kept reminding myself that even though Kinko’s was bigger, stronger, and better financed – that didn’t mean they couldn’t be beaten. After all, David beat Goliath, didn’t he? Sometimes, just like in sports, the person who wants it bad enough muscles up the determination to win. Well, we haven’t killed Kinko’s yet, but we’ve had some fun, we have built a really cool copy shop, and we feel good about what we’ve done. We did our best, and that’s the ultimate feel good. Oh, by the way… I’ve only been using my Kinko’s Killer for six months now, but after six months, I’m happy (and relieved) to report that sales are up 107%! Other notable successes and items of interest at the Unsloppy Copyshop:
Our actual results exceeded our expectations. We hope for maybe 15% to 20% growth – which would result in us doubling sales in 4-5 years. So we are thrilled with our results. The last few years haven’t been easy for anyone in the printing industry, including us, so it was especially encouraging to discover growth – big growth – is still a possibility if you find the right approach. I sincerely believe that our success at The Unsloppy CopyShop is repeatable. In other words, I think you can do this, too! But … closely following each and every one of the Twelve Elements of Success that I’ve outlined over the last few months would be mandatory. I’m sure John Stewart, who I consider our industry’s leading consultant, would probably tell you one of the most frustrating things he has to deal with is when he outlines a plan to improve a consultee's print shop, and then have the owner respond by doing some of the suggestions John made, instead of everything. (It’s the old “my print shop is different” scenario.) On a slightly different note, I’ve received a lot of emails and phone calls asking for sources, suppliers, and vendors. I’m sorry to say I don’t have a compilation of them yet, but I will provide that at some point in the future. A lot of you asked where I bought our signage, and I can tell you it is all 100% original. We designed all of the graphics at Ink, Inc., my ad agency for printers, and we output everything on our Epson 9600 big color printer. So … there you have it, the final issue of “The Kinko’s Killer.” I sincerely hope that I’ve provided you with some good applicable ideas for your print shop. I really enjoy helping other printers and would love to hear/see your future implementation of these ideas. It would also be a boost to hear your feedback about The Kinko’s Killer. You can email me at MikeStevens@ExpressPressUSA.com. Kindest Regards and Happy Printing! Mike Stevens
 The regular Marketing Idea of the Month will return June 25, 2004, after "The Kinko's Killer" series is complete.
 The regular Management Idea of the Month will return June 25, 2004, after "The Kinko's Killer" series is complete.
 The regular Website Idea of the Month will return June 25, 2004, after "The Kinko's Killer" series is complete.
 The regular Teamwork Idea of the Month will return June 25, 2004, after "The Kinko's Killer" series is complete.
 The regular Interview of the Month will return June 25, 2004, after "The Kinko's Killer" series is complete.
 The regular Quick Quotes of the Month will return June 25, 2004 after "The Kinko's Killer" series is complete.
 The regular Sponsor News will return June 25, 2004 after "The Kinko's Killer" series is complete.
The Underground Printer is written by Mike Stevens and is available via e-mail on a free subscription basis. You can subscribe at any time. |
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