Interview | Printfac3.com – The Color of Printing

We’ve covered quite a few companies here on Bit Rebels and now it is time to feature Printfac3.com. This is an online printing service with an edge that I wanted to look into further. I went behind the scenes on another printing company not long ago, so I also wanted to take a close look to see what the differences are. Although Printfac3.com is amazingly supportive of Bit Rebels, that is not the coolest aspect of of the company, nope, not even close. In an attempt to work out what exactly goes on behind the doors of this highly successful printing firm, I was granted access to the inner core of operations.

Finding something to interesting to ask when interviewing the people in this very creative group is far from challenging. There’s a million and one things that could turn out to be a potential interesting question and quite frankly, I even had more questions I wanted to know the answers to. The creative process is what attracts me the most. Their flair and brutally precise use of colors is as inspiring as it is impressive. Everything seems to have that glow to it and in an instant I knew why Printfac3.com was one of the most successful printing companies of its kind.

It’s easy to get carried away when conducting an interview and to “write up” the interview subject. This is far from the case with Printfac3.com. Instead, I feel like I am making you guys miss out on the good stuff just because there isn’t room here for enough questions to be answered.

To solve this highly exclusive problem I urge you to further take a look at this interview and read between the lines. If that isn’t enough, I just know that the people at Printfac3.com would love to answer any additional questions you might have about the creative process or otherwise. Adjust the focus in your eyes and behold… it’s time to be inspired.

1. Can you tell us how the idea was born to start Printfac3 and when that was?

You could say our customers were the source of inspiration. We started out as a brick and mortar commercial printer and only began offering our service online domestically just four years ago (under a different brand). During those four years we received very positive feedback from our customers, many of whom suggested that we should take our business to the next level which quite frankly meant extending our services to the rest of the world. We also received quite a fair bit of inquiries from overseas but we were not ready at the time. So it was our customers who gave us the confidence to take our business on the road. And on July ’09, Printfac3 made its maiden voyage into worldwide web.

2. Judging from the layout of the Printfac3 website it’s apparent that you guys like busy designs. What is the most common design when clients want to get their own business cards? For example, do the majority like busy or clean designs?

Busy designs??? And here we thought it was exactly the opposite! Anyway, the appearance of our website is still a work in progress. Our designers are trying really hard to make our web store as appealing and user-friendly as possible without being overwhelming with information. However, its current  state has no influence to our customers’ design preference. Anyway, majority of our customers (made up of small business owners, freelance designers, and even soccer moms) prefer eye-catching uncluttered designs which our web store has a wide variety of to suit various types of business and occasions. However, we also provide customers the option to upload their own artwork for printing.

3. How long is the process from an initial contact from the client to the client receiving their orders and can you explain the process a little bit in detail?

Once you have selected the product that you wish to print, specified your  printing preference, and uploaded an error-free artwork to us, all you need to do is to confirm your order and make your payment to complete the transaction. All and all, it should take you under 5 minutes to do this.

Once the order is placed, it is automatically enqueued for printing. When printing is completed it is then vacuum-sealed and shipped to the customer by air. The shipping duration depends on which shipping option the customer chooses. Currently, our fastest shipping duration is 6 days. Customers may choose to save more on shipping cost by choosing a longer shipping method which is 16 days and above (depending of the products and finishing). However, we’re still looking at ways to improve the shipping duration and cost for customers.

4. Assuming most clients supply the logo and name, does Printfac3 have a catalog of artwork designs to choose from? In case you do, how many in-house designers do you have producing these?

We have a series of ready made design templates (over 900 designs, and steadily growing) for customers to choose from. All they need to do is upload their logo and insert it onto the ready made design of their choice, using our simple and user-friendly online design software. If they need a ready made design with a blank background, we have ready as well. Currently we have an experienced team of six designers constantly adding to the pool of designs.

5. Can you tell us a little about the average daily work and what software’s you use to finalize the designs?

The average daily work consists of answering customer emails, checking the quality of prints, prepping completed orders for shipping, checking stock inventory and system monitoring/troubleshooting. Apart from our own in-house software’s, we use popular third-party design software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Coral Draw to finalize customers’ design. Can’t tell you more then this because it’s a trade secret!

6. What has been the most fun and most elaborate project you have worked on since Printfac3 was started and why?

That would be our International Survey Contest which was launched in November 2009. The lucky winner scored a Global Wireless Kindle eBook Reader.

7. During holiday seasons surely your clientele increases significantly. How much of your yearly revenue comes from holidays and what is it clients usually asks for during these times?

• Roughly 2/3 of the yearly revenue comes from holidays.
• The most common products customers print during holidays would be Greeting Cards, Postcards and Flyers. Business Cards remain our most popular product all year round.

8. Who are your closest competitors and what do you think sets you apart from them? Why is it people prefer using Printfac3 instead of them?

We are relatively new to the scene and as such, have too many “close” competitors to mention! Why most people prefer us? We think it is because they’re just tired of getting ripped off and paying for poor print quality. While some printing service providers commonly claim to provide quality full colour offset printing at low prices, it is usually the opposite that’s delivered.  Fortunately, some people took a chance with us and we guess they’re quite pleased with what they got back. Not only do we offer one of the lowest print prices on the web today for Business Cards, Brochures, Flyers, Greeting Cards, Paper Bags and such, our customers also enjoy the widest choice of customizing options –sizes, paper materials and finishings. This allows customers more room to express their creativity when they print with us.

To minimize errors in a customer’s uploaded artwork to us which could cause unnecessary printing and finishing delays and added expenses, we auto-preflight all artworks on our web store during the ordering process. This phase is done live and gives customer’s an immediate report of the status of their artwork thereby providing customers more control over their orders and better assurance of the print results.

9. What has been your most elaborate advertising campaign so far and are you planning on any off the wall unique campaigns in the future?

That would be participating in your Biggest Giveaway Event! We feel this is most definitely an off the wall unique event. Glad to be a part it!

10. What are you excited about for 2010?

• Right now, our Spring Promotion is on, 50% discount on all print products & specs. What’s more, we have a special Spring Bonus – print Business Cards, Greeting Cards and Postcards at only $3 each.
• Also, we are offering free print sample with no shipping cost, for those who would like to check out our products and quality
• Finally, we have a free giveaway of 250 full colour Business Cards.
  

We are most definitely looking forward to a strong 2010.

• We have been getting numerous requests to ship to the countries which we don’t at the moment. So we are happy to announce that we are expanding the number of countries we ship to, so more people can enjoy our low priced, quality print service.
• The rest that we have in store is a surprise! Just stay tuned to know what they’ll be. Shhhh…..

Odd Facts

1. Come festive seasons, everyone goes all out to do up their Division areas to win the coveted title of, “Best Pimped Division”.

2. Birthdays are a blast at Printfac3! Every month crew members’ birthdays are celebrated with a cake fight and a cream war!

3. We have about 30 men strong in the administrative division and we have around 5 high-end printing machines in production and other various machines used in the finishing and packaging process.

4. Our largest order was 20,000 sheets of flyers in a single receipt.

5. We tend to go for coffee instead of Coca Cola. We’ve got one hellava coffee addict in the office; she  drinks roughly 1,450 cups a year. Match that!

6. We have regular inter-division competitions in Table Tennis, Pool, and Darts. The latest table tennis competition that just concluded in November was won by our IT Crew.

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