Communicating Job Status to Customers...

[Hopkins Printing]

Hi all,

Is there a system out there can be used to communicate job status to a customer via website?

The ideal system would be SIMPLE to use both internally and externally. The idea is to reduce the amount of email and/or phone calls our sales and customer services reps receive from customers wanting to know the status of their jobs.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks,
Jon :-)

[david]

You might take a look at OnTimeProof. It has a job status indicator and handles email notices plus a lot more for a very little!

[Winness]

Is it because as printers we are always the last in line and we dare not tell the customer the truth that he has to wait!

Even now when the wet ink has gone and prepress is almost non-existent we still under-estimate the length of time it will take to get to the job in the first place, and to do it in the second.

ITs not a new program you need - its realistic planning! But I bet you dare not tell the customer!

[DanB]

How to you track jobs internally? If you use an MIS like Logic and keep job status updated you have plenty of options.

For example, I wrote a trigger in the Logic SQL database that sends email to customers when we enter shipments into Logic. The same kind of thing can be done with Job Status updates in Logic.

I'm sure other MIS systems could be customized to do the same.

[powerquote]

Many years ago, we tested a feature that automatically faxed the customer when the job reached certain stages of production. Overwhelmingly, the customers disliked it and we discontinued it. Now you would notify by email and folks are used to sorting through it. Still it would be beneficial to set a preference for each customer individually so those who don't want it, don't get it.

Bruce Moore

[DanB]

Still it would be beneficial to set a preference for each customer individually so those who don't want it, don't get it.

You are right. If any customer wanted to opt out you could simply create a custom table with the customers preference and have whatever triggers the email check the table before sending it.

[mattbeals]

I've got to agree with David Lewis about On Time Proof.

If you're interested I can set up a virtual server for you to download already configured and ready to run. Or even easier we can put one in your shop for a full demo. It's pretty easy software that requires very little overhead or setup. And it's *VERY* affordable.