Okay, I have been printing t-shirts for about 6 months now. And I have a couple questions about customer satisfaction.
1. Do you have the customer count the shirts when the pick them up? Almost every order has said the were missing a shirt or two. I happen to count the shirts about 5-6 times during the printing and packing process. So, I'm trying to figure out how to eliminate the "shortage"?
2. Do you have the customer preapprove the final design? Obviously the approve the design, but do you print it to paper and have them sign off on it? Lets say you have to make a minor change during the process....do you make them re-approve? What if the "thought" it would look bigger or whatever. How do you handle this?
I have a customer how ordered some shirts and we printed out the design which she liked. But when I was washing out the screen the fine lines between the letters washed out. So I widened the space between each letter just a tad( pain in the arse), but this caused me to shrink the letters just a tad and some how she noticed! She is coming back with the printed piece of paper and the printed t-shirts. I'm just trying to figure out what to do. And what to do in the future so that this doesn't happen again.
Okay, I have been printing t-shirts for about 6 months now. And I have a couple questions about customer satisfaction.
1. Do you have the customer count the shirts when the pick them up? Almost every order has said the were missing a shirt or two. I happen to count the shirts about 5-6 times during the printing and packing process. So, I'm trying to figure out how to eliminate the "shortage"?
2. Do you have the customer preapprove the final design? Obviously the approve the design, but do you print it to paper and have them sign off on it? Lets say you have to make a minor change during the process....do you make them re-approve? What if the "thought" it would look bigger or whatever. How do you handle this?
I have a customer how ordered some shirts and we printed out the design which she liked. But when I was washing out the screen the fine lines between the letters washed out. So I widened the space between each letter just a tad( pain in the arse), but this caused me to shrink the letters just a tad and some how she noticed! She is coming back with the printed piece of paper and the printed t-shirts. I'm just trying to figure out what to do. And what to do in the future so that this doesn't happen again.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks much!
Interesting Post.... I've never had a Customer claim a Shortage, However On our Work Sheet theres two extra Boxes on each Line... One Box is checkmarked when shirts are unpacked counted and stacked for printing.... and the other when shirts are counted stacked and boxed.. I can only Guess that them looking at their copy of the worksheet and seeing they were counted twice discourages them from makeing a false shortage claim...?
As for minor adjustments to artwork, thats pretty much a Judgement Call, on a Per Customer Basis... I have Customers that it would be absolutely no problem, and then theres the Government (US Marine Corp) they are the most anal people in the world and will complain if even one shirt is a tenth of shade different in color or the artwork devieates in even the most insignificant way... Customers from both extremes must be catered to.. Its just the Cost of doing Business..
Good Luck with it..... Chuck
I say you have to tell her the reality is that printing is a mechanical prosess. Some graphics are not compatable Its the designer's responsability to "pre-flight" a job or make it compatable with the printing process being used. Shes lucky you didn't charge her for annother setup and custom modification of her graphics. I would ask her if shes telling you she doesn't want the shirts just because its technicaly a little diffrent - she won't give them up so call her on it. If shes just whining for a discount maybe offer her a 10% discount on a future purchuse. You did what you could to help her and shes being ungreratfull.
2. Do you have the customer preapprove the final design? Obviously the approve the design, but do you print it to paper and have them sign off on it?
Usually the proof of their design is sent as an email mock up showing the ink colors to be used the garment color to be used and the size of the design in inches.
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Lets say you have to make a minor change during the process....do you make them re-approve?
I wouldn't make any changes to the customers job without them approving. That would be just asking for trouble.
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What if the "thought" it would look bigger or whatever. How do you handle this?
Make sure you include the print size on the proof. So they know in inches. Be sure to clarify on the proof exactly what they are saying is OK for you to print (print size, ink colors, garments, etc)
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But when I was washing out the screen the fine lines between the letters washed out. So I widened the space between each letter just a tad( pain in the arse), but this caused me to shrink the letters just a tad and some how she noticed!
Unfortunately, it sounds like your mistake there. You changed the design she approved and printed it without asking her. I would suggest that you redo the shirts that she approved or offer her a discount on the shirts you printed with the changed design.
I have a customer how ordered some shirts and we printed out the design which she liked. But when I was washing out the screen the fine lines between the letters washed out. So I widened the space between each letter just a tad( pain in the arse), but this caused me to shrink the letters just a tad and some how she noticed!
This is an interesting situation and I can certainly learn from it. My questions are:
Was the problem that the fine lines were too fine to be printed properly at all?
Or was it that after the first screen didn't wash out properly, you made the judgment call to widen the space rather than risk trying it again, maybe with different exposure parameters?
How close to the delivery deadline was it at the time you realized you needed to make a change?
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Originally Posted by Rodney
Unfortunately, it sounds like your mistake there. You changed the design she approved and printed it without asking her. I would suggest that you redo the shirts that she approved or offer her a discount on the shirts you printed with the changed design.
I agree with this.
I would also add that if the lines were indeed too fine to be printed at all as approved and the problem wasn't caught on your end until too late, it is better to be upfront with the customer. Explain to them the situation and point out the specific changes rather than trying to pass it off and then being surprised she noticed.
If, after that, your customer is still dissatisfied, be prepared to graciously admit fault, apologize and offer a refund and, if necessary, a discount on a future service. Your mistake may have caused your customer to miss an important deadline with no recourse (i.e. no time to have the shirts printed properly elsewhere).
This is an interesting situation and I can certainly learn from it. My questions are:
Was the problem that the fine lines were too fine to be printed properly at all?
Or was it that after the first screen didn't wash out properly, you made the judgment call to widen the space rather than risk trying it again, maybe with different exposure parameters?
How close to the delivery deadline was it at the time you realized you needed to make a change?
Yeah, that is a good question! I'm really not sure if the lines were to fine or if it was my problem. We were in a time crunch. When, it didn't work the first time, I really couldn't afford for it to happen again. So, I changed the image to be on the safe side. I guess if I had more time I would have given it a second try.
She actually never came in with the shirts. I'm hoping the she realize it wasn't as big of a difference as she originally though. I'm hopeful that she is happy with the shirts...I'll do some follow up in a week or so....I'll let her relax for a bit.
Thanks for the feed back. We currently don't have a packing slip, but we are definately considering creating one. Hopefully that would help us with the t-shirt counting problem. Thanks again.
Hi guys - I'm approaching this from the other side, where I've just received a shipment (some embroidery and some printed) and the job was not to my satisfaction. The embroidery outcome for my design did not have those clean lines that you would like, and the print looks like it has been squished to the point where so of the fine lines don't even show up in certain areas.
So I'm curious - what's the protocol? I have asked what we could do to remedy the situation, and the answer back was to change the design for next time. If it wasn't workable, and they knew that - why would they print it?
Have you had customers send the shipment back and ask for their money back? How should a good business person handle that...
Thanks for you thoughts.
Last edited by mcmartii; April 10th, 2008 at 07:29 PM.
Hey #1 the customer is always right #2 read #1....we had several customers call back and say "i'm sorry" the shirts realy do look good or we found the missing shirt or it was my fault that sequenusityy name was misspelled on my original list to you...so don't get denfisive.... cause a large measure of a bussiness is how you handle problems....jeff
Customer Satisfaction 
