We Provide Good Service!

When I ask a reprographer what their competitive advantage is the answer is almost always "service".   If everyone's strength is service then who provides bad service?  From what I have seen service often means showing extreme flexibility to meet the demands of customers.  The problem with this is the more flexible you are the more customers will exercise this flexibility.

The concern I have for the industry is there is rarely any penalty for exercising the flexibility.  Customers are conditioned to push the limits.

I believe the industry should be moving towards a model where there are additional fees charged for higher levels of service and maybe discounts given for lower levels of service.

Great service should be meeting customers expectations and the first part of meeting expectations is setting expectations.  If the expectation you set with your customers is "we will do our best to hit whatever demands you throw our way" then I believe eventually this will work against you.  There should be different fees for different levels of performance.

The price for FedEx Next Business Morning is higher than FedEx Next Business Day!