Home | Subscribe | Contact Us | Advertise

Suppliers Behaving Badly

Editor’s Note: The Print Education Research Foundation (PERF) teamed with BFMA International, Clemson University and California Polytechnic University to survey print buyers about their attitudes toward suppliers, buying habits and plans for the future. The results are printed here as the last of a three-part series. Part 2 appeared on page 68 of last month’s issue.

What Makes Buyers Unhappy
According to the survey, 36 percent of corporate buyers complained that their manufacturers or distributors regularly miss deadlines; 29 percent said that the quality is poor; and 27 percent said that their vendors regularly make mistakes. More than 14 percent said that, when confronted with these mistakes, the manufacturer or distributor argued with them and refused to make good. A shocking 12 percent said that their print vendors regularly lie to them and 7 percent said their vendors make changes to specifications without asking. One in seven said that there are mistakes on invoices and one in five said their print partners are either poor at communicating, slow to return calls or don’t call them back at all. Print buyers cited the following vendor behaviors as problematic:
• Not meeting agreed-upon deadlines
• Sending inaccurate invoices
• Over-promising and under-delivering
• Covering up errors
• Playing the blame game
• Supplying orders late without notification
• Producing substandard print quality
• Not returning calls
• Arguing about mistakes or failing to respond professionally to issues
• Not backing up the product with a guarantee
• Not adhering to specs or making changes without authorization
• Saying they can do something and then failing to deliver
• Lying, cheating and overcharging for simple things

These do not appear to be isolated incidents, but rampant challenges facing forms manufacturers and distributors in this industry. Of the 39 buyers who responded to questions about vendor behavior, 82 percent cited at least one of the above problems.

Leaving a Vendor
Some of the most common reasons buyers leave vendors are price, poor quality, regular mistakes, refusal to take responsibility for errors and consolidation of suppliers. Buyers are also offended by printers who don’t return calls, who argue with them or who make them feel unimportant. Twenty-eight percent said they jettisoned suppliers they felt didn’t care about their businesses—twice the percentage that gave any other reason. Fortunately for poorly performing vendors, buyers also say that switching suppliers is time-consuming and frustrating, and often bound by contracts. Sometimes they don’t switch, even though they should.

Even if manufacturers or distributors have made mistakes—or even completely botched an account—all is not lost. Corporate buyers indicated they were ready to forgive if the vendor was willing to make things right. One buyer wrote, “It comes down to service. There is no problem if it is reacted upon the right way and taken care of.” Another wrote, “Be honest with your customer. We are more reasonable than you think.”

One buyer even tells the story of how his forms manufacturer saved a seemingly irreparable relationship by changing reps. “We had a terrible problem (bad representation, dishonest, bad pricing) with our main print supplier. I informed my management about the situation. I approached the printer’s management and told them that the account was in jeopardy. Here were the things they needed to do to even have a chance of keeping the account. They responded immediately and we got a new excellent rep.”

Reducing Buyers’ Workloads
How can distributors and manufacturers make buyers’ lives easier? They want sales reps to have greater knowledge of their businesses, greater knowledge of technology, and to update their technology and provide them with more internet services, such as online bidding, job tracking, inventory management, estimating, pricing calculators and ordering. Buyers surveyed offered the following feedback:
• “Be knowledgeable about the industry. It’s amazing how many forms salespeople do not know the industry or how to price products cost-effectively.”
• “Provide online access to order history, with the ability to select, reorder and pay online.”
• “Have a good back-end accounting system that has flexible options on payables and accurate invoices.”
• “Respond and deliver a quality product, on time, according to specs.”
• “Supply us with better cost spec sheets and keep them updated. Have current software, such as Adobe InDesign. Stop using Adobe PageMaker.”
• “Be able to handle products electronically. Proof using PDF. Have competent staff.”
• “Provide products online through a Web storefront.”

Takeaway Ideas
Your competitors already compete on the same things you do: quality, service, turnaround and price. Buyers view printing as a commodity, and much of it may be converted to web-based documents. It’s time to retool and sell new services, to new customers, using a business model that is more sustainable in the long-term.

The issues faced by many print buyers are fostered in an environment dominated by price, where pricing pressures prevent forms manufacturers from making the investments in their businesses that buyers require. Where possible, buyers should give suppliers the flexibility to increase prices to make those investments, or work with suppliers—even if they charge a little more—who have already made them.

If the industry is to change and grow, there must be change on both sides. Manufacturers and distributors must take a more consultative approach to their businesses, rather than seeing themselves exclusively as output providers. Print buyers must see suppliers as true partners, whose time and services are worthy of their wages, and be willing to pay a fair price based on value provided, not simply price-per-page.

This article is reprinted from the April 2006 issue of PERF Print Report, a newsletter focused on industry-specific research. Visit www.theperf.org.