Digital over runs. What do you do?

[BigSi]

Staff member mis-reads job bag. Prints x1000. (should have been x500 as the job was 2up)
Do you-
1/Throw x 500 in the bin! and take a long walk before you do/say something you will regret.
2/Put x 500 on the shelf ( in the very remote chance that the customer will order again with no changes, yeh like this ever happens).
3/Explain to the customer the situation and see if they would like to take the extras at cost price. (not very professional).

None of above.

The joys of having a click charge

I realise it depends a bit on what you have printed. option 2 is a waste of time if for an event or similar.

Your thoughts? thanks Simon

 

[joshlindsay]

Hey Si,

We'd just wear it and remind the staff member to be more careful. We seem to have the same learning exp with all staff as to whether something is single or double sided. 2500 letters printed double sided that were meant to be single Not so fun.

If it's on a decent card stock you can use it for bottom sheets on guillotine.

If it was a good customer, or hopefully a good customer to be, I'd give them the extras and just say we accidentally printed double.

 

[BigSi]

Hi Josh

Good to see you're still alive and kicking. What did you do regarding upgrading your Irides? (or is it still in the pipeline?)

Yep if a good customer just giving them to them is not a bad idea. Unfortunately it seems to happen more often than I would like.

 

[joshlindsay]

Have just moved factories in the last week and tried that in with installation of a new Revoria. Moving.... I don't rate it.

Ahhhhh that's a bummer. Maybe when you're opening the jobs have them write up a simple digital job sheet where they need to factor in the copies required, number up and sheets required. Seems basic but it might be enough for them to think about it.

 

[pauly92]

Mistakes happen,

Let your employee know a mistake was made and how it can be solved in the future.

Give the extras to your customer free of charge (we accidently printed double, the other half is on us)
if you're going to throw them away, you may as well give them to the customer.

 

[pippip]

If there's a possibility of it being re-ordered in the future we'd pack and keep.

If it's for an event, I'd just keep them back until that event is over, then dump.

I don't think I'd ever just give them double an order, if there's any chance of them needing to order more at another stage you've just done yourself out of business and the chance to recoup some of the costs.

If you let the customer know you've made a mistake you're just damaging their view of you.

 

[Shawnd]

I would have followed up with the customer and made sure that is the QTY they needed and while on the phone let them know that btw, if you order double your amount it will be $xx and make it a deal. If not I would keep on the shelf if it is a repeat order.

 

[chrisio]

I do this more than I would like to admit to. I never give them to the customer but depending on the customer we keep them on the shelf if they are evergreen. Things like church magazines just get skipped. For some reason I have the most problems when printing books and I really need to catch myself otherwise I will print 700 instead of 350!.

 

[Ynot_UK]

Option (2) if it’s a regular replen item.
Otherwise keep and use for setting up the laminator, folder, for drill padding, etc.
Giving it away is not a good idea, since if it’s for a dated event, they’ll remember next year they got loads of overage this year and either order less, or curse when receiving the right amount! If a replen item, giving overage away is totally shooting yourself in the foot.

 

[bcr]

I would have followed up with the customer and made sure that is the QTY they needed and while on the phone let them know that btw, if you order double your amount it will be $xx and make it a deal. If not I would keep on the shelf if it is a repeat order.

then what if next time they expect the same double quantity at the same special price?

 

[Shawnd]

then what if next time they expect the same double quantity at the same special price?

Wasn't saying to give it away, make it something you can live with, something is better than nothing.

 

[davarino]

It's OK to give away over-runs if you're willing always to give them away. (I don't think it's terribly intelligent, though.)

I would rather be up front and say "We had an over-run of 500 pieces. Would you like to purchase the whole thing at the 1,000 price? And I'll give you a one-time 10% discount on the whole thing. Otherwise we always chop up over-runs and get paid by the recycling place."

This makes it clear that you're doing a favour.

And make sure that the billing shows that it is a favour: "One time 10% discount for over-run error."

That way, when they come back and order 1,000 they have no reasonable excuse to think they're going to get the discounted price.

When your customer is lucky, always document it loudly. On external documents as well as internal.

 

[tngcas]

Every

It's OK to give away over-runs if you're willing always to give them away. (I don't think it's terribly intelligent, though.)

I would rather be up front and say "We had an over-run of 500 pieces. Would you like to purchase the whole thing at the 1,000 price? And I'll give you a one-time 10% discount on the whole thing. Otherwise we always chop up over-runs and get paid by the recycling place."

This makes it clear that you're doing a favour.

And make sure that the billing shows that it is a favour: "One time 10% discount for over-run error."

That way, when they come back and order 1,000 they have no reasonable excuse to think they're going to get the discounted price.

When your customer is lucky, always document it loudly. On external documents as well as internal.

I take this approach as well.
One time had a customer who complained because we gave them the extras. They thought they had ordered it wrong and the next time they ordered half as many expecting that they were going to get the same quantity as the previous time.
Since then we've been more careful about how we handle overruns. We don't just give them the extras for free and we make sure we document things clearly so the boundaries and expectations are clear for future ordering.

You also want to be careful about your reputation. If we make a mistake on an order we don't offer customers "badly produced" prints at a discount because that will make them question our quality. They will then look at every future job more carefully and then ask for discounts on jobs that are well within standard margins of errors. It's less expensive to reprint the job than to have to offer discounts on every future job.