Copy & Print -- Too many sales under $1.00 ?

[jdr999]

Hi Guys,

I think the title says it all!

I run a small, full service copy & print shop in NJ. I'll admit -- I'm new to the game and just learning the ropes! We've been quite busy the first three weeks and do have our profitable jobs - event posters, invitations, graduation banners, menus, etc. But then there are the time wasters I'm not sure how to handle -- other than just chalking it up to "good will."

I'm seeing too many customers who hand me a USB drive expecting me to load it up, locate the one pdf in a puzzle of files and folders, open it, print it, eject the card, and then charge them $0.20 for the two B&W pages..

And naturally I get customers with a pile of checks they want copied on as few sheets as possible.. And the customer with 30 crumpled & ripped originals who want $0.10 copies of each..

What am I doing wrong? :-D

I don't want to appear greedy or alienate my customers but seriously, a few minutes of our time should be worth more than twenty cents ...

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Joe

 

[steveclv]

We get the same but I put it down to 'filling the hopper' for future business. You will be surprised just how many of them will return for bigger jobs or pass the word around that you are the man to go to for work.

We have a competitor in town who has a reputation of being greedy with his prices - he isn't - he just prices a job on the minutes it takes to complete but as he charges a setup fee for non-standard copying he gets that reputation and I pick up some of what should really have been his work. It's not always about the steps you take, it's about winning the race.

Alternatively you could install a self-service photocopier and let the customer do their own work laying out the checks or inserting the USB.

 

[Reprography]

A self service machine is the ideal solution when it comes to customers bringing in hard copies, but it's not quite that straight forward when it comes to USB media. Having worked with self service a lot of customers find it difficult to navigate the often slow and clunky menu systems (I think a lot of the time, they just don't have the patience to follow simple instuctions) so it can cause more time waste by having to leave you front desk, than just doing it yourself.

Charging a file handling fee is an option, but this often ends in the customer being disgruntled and will probably put them off coming back to you, this could result in you loosing out on any bigger job they may have to do in the future.

As a compromise I would in your situation, instead of investing in another copy machine install a monitor, or have one that can easily rotate on your front desk and have a usb hub and mouse on there too, this way they can locate the files themselves.

 

[kdw75]

We are a commercial printer, but are happy to take walk in jobs. We charge a minimum fee and then waive the fee for regular customers. In some cases we will just do the job for free and tell them we hope they remember us for future work. It depends on the person and their attitude.

I have seen the people at the office store copy centers spending way too much time trying to please a person that isn't happy because their picture, taken with a flip phone, doesn't look good when printed as a 24x36 poster. They will spend money running several prints and getting a manager to help with "enhancing" the file, only to have the person firmly demand that it should only be a few dollars as advertised. They can keep those customers.

 

[jotterpinky]

We have struggled with this problem as well and decided to charge a very small fee of $1.00 per file to open and print (plus the print cost) pdf files. If the file comes in another format it's $3.00 per file to offset our additional software cost to always have the latest version of the most popular ms office and adobe software. We often waive extra file fees if they have say three pdf files that we open and print each charging just the $1 if it's a quick and dirty and people bringing in fifty odd pdf files to print get charged an hourly rate rather than a per file rate. However we make them aware of the fees upfront prior to opening any files so they know what to expect and we have had surprisingly very little pushback. There is the odd customer who thinks its outrageous but we don't feel like giving away our services in hopes of making it back later. Due to the higher cost of the non-pdf files we've converted many customers to pdf only files too saving quite a bit of headache. Bottom line for us was customers expect to pay for good service and they do. We also make it known that if we have to make changes we have a set $5 minimum charge. If they prefer to make the necessary changes we have two customer workstations setup for that purpose. If you have a precedent set of not charging for your services word gets around and you get the "bargain shopper" types that come in and waste your time with quote requests and the like that you will never get without dropping your pants on the price. We try to charge fair prices, we don't gouge customers that would likely pay more and we don't give our work away. I would make sure that they know of your new fee and be willing to perhaps waive it the first time for customers that are not expecting it. However after their first visit they know the new rates and should pay accordingly

 

[Possumgal]

If something is going to look crappy when printed, always warn them first to eliminate or cut down on do-overs. Any enhancement should be charged for extra.

 

[unoprint1]

Regarding computer files:
$2.50 a file $5.00 minimum (PLUS COPY CHARGE). If not, it would be impossible to recover time for a customer that brings in 50 files on a usb with different quantities for each one. Need to charge for the time needed to open and print.

Our full service copy price(non-computer) assumed auto document feed. Extra charge for manual placement (each piece). Again, need to charge for extra time involved to stay profitable (including labor cost).

I wouldn't consider it greedy. Need to recover labor cost. If not, you will get more of these customer that will bring you the unprofitable orders while still taking the profitable orders someplace else if the larger orders are cheaper to run someplace else.

 

[BobRym]

We are a digital print and copy centre in business for 20 yrs. - here is our solution - a self serve machine (for the people that want to do things like copy many cheques or crumpled originals etc.). For the file downloaders - we have an old laptop set up on our counter for those who bring in usb drives to print files from - if we have to assist them then we charge a minimum $2.50 plus the charge for printing. Files sent by email or downloaded to our website also incur a minimum charge of $2.50. We also sell prepaid copy cards - customers who do lots of self serve or machine fed b/w copying are encouraged to purchase one - this is a good revenue stream due to the fact that people move or lose their cards (we do offer to hold them for them but some people insist on keeping them) and a certain percentage of these prepaid sales are never redeemed.