Combining Prepress and Customer Service

[jsmith]

We have been tasked with combining our Prepress Dept. and Customer Service Dept. by senior management. I have worked this way twice in the past and think I know the pro's and con's but would like to hear the opinions of others in the field.
Some initial concerns are:

1. Noise level for prepress operators
2. Too many interruptions between CSR's and prepress
3. Too much verbal, not enough written communication
4. Does prepress become a preflight and do we create an output dept.

We are medium size sheetfed shop and are looking to try to streamline these functions and also to get better info on the job ticket sooner.

 

[Greg_Firestone]

Hi James,

We're neighbors. I live next town over and work in Andover.

1&2 - When you say combining, does this mean everyone sits in the same room or will they still occupy separate spaces? If one room, re-do the layout of the room to keep noise in one area. No need to keep the existing environment as the occupants of the room and their needs have changed.
3 - do you use hand written job tickets or digital? try to re-enforce that written communication is the best way to CYA.
4 - You can always have CSRs take on the role of a prelim preflight where you check for major issues (resolution problems, colors, missing fonts, missing images). Next level is prepress which does a more in-depth check. Depends on what software you have in house and the knowledge level of your CSRs. Have you spoken to CSR and Prepress yet to see what they feel? They may feel it's best to keep status quo regarding who checks files.

Greg

 

[jsmith]

Thanks Greg- Answers to your questions:
1&2. Right now they are in two seperate spaces, we are trying to figure if they should just move closer together, remaining in seperate spaces or all occupy one area.
3. We use EPMS, I am worried about capturing the verbal communication into the system
4. Worried about the CSR getting distracted by the preflight process, they need to concentrate on all the other parts of the process.

One more question: How strong is your planning process?

 

[EZPower]

We changed the CSR's role in our company. Pre-Press deals directly with the client. Pre-press will take the job from start to finish. We let the salesman know what changes were were made and document on our system on the fly. Our production speed is much much better now, our customers love the quick turn around on proofs and the fact that they are talking to some one who is making the change now, not planning the change.

 

[jsmith]

Interesting bruceprint!
Couple of questions:
1. Is this anything like Kodak's SuperCSR?

2. Does each Prepress operator have their own accounts? My concern is that we offer Wide Format, Offset, Digital, Fulfillment and most clients utilize all these services. How do you deal with someone that is weak in one area and strong in another?