Better Partner = Better Labels
Psst—what if I told you there was a big money-saving opportunity for your company “hiding in plain sight?” You would (or ought to be) interested. So today I am beginning a short series on just such an opportunity. It comes in the form of procuring the best custom labels for your business.
Custom Labels and tags are a necessity for most businesses. They depend on traditional labels, or those that incorporate more recent technologies like barcode, RFID, thermal, digital and more. Labels are especially critical in certain industries, including food and agriculture, medicine and automotive manufacturing. There are labels on products for identification, promotion, safety, legal and other reasons. Labels are also vital for packaging, shipping and logistics applications.
They’re Just Labels – Do I Need the Best?
Well, it’s just your product that they are representing. Or your distribution they are powering, Or your regulatory compliance they are assuring. Do those things matter? Sure they do.
But when I say “the best custom labels” I am talking about even more than quality. To maximize company performance and minimize expenditures, the process of ordering and fulfillment of those labels needs to be accurate, efficient and reliable.
The Three “Ps” of Custom Labels
If you regard labels as a commodity or “necessary evil” then you, in particular, will benefit from this three-part series. The best custom labels make both your products and your bottom line look good. But it takes three things to get there: a partnership, a plan, and personalization.
Today, I will focus on the “partnership” part of the equation. Because if you are going to go it alone, you aren’t going very far.
What a Partner Brings to Procuring The Best Custom Labels
Choosing the right partner for your custom labels makes a difference in many ways. Here are just a few of them.
1. You Get Your Time Back
A partner with label expertise helps you use your time more efficiently. It allows you to spend your time on your core business and not on a task that saps your time with very little obvious gain. A qualified partner will help you do it faster, and—no offense intended—probably better.
2. A Partner Can Anticipate Your Needs
We’ll talk more about a solid plan next week, but the point here is that an experienced partner can look more holistically at your business. By reviewing your label needs, your schedule and your processes, a trusted partner can make objective suggestions that can save time and money.
That partner can recommend specific steps to add efficiency. In many cases, the entire ordering and fulfillment process for labels and tags can be automated. (At Superior, for example, we can tap our Corporate Kiosk™ electronic procurement technology to provide what you need, when you need it.)
3. You Really Do Get “the Best” Custom Labels
Here, we are talking about quality. A partner with experience and expertise can assess your needs and identify the type of label that will best meet those needs. That includes not only basic labels but those that must meet specialized requirements, as for medical equipment and supplies, food tracking and produce traceability. It also includes labels that must perform under stressful climate and travel conditions like heat, cold, moisture, rough handling, etc.
A solid partner will not only provide you with the correct, high-quality label but also help you get it in the most efficient way. They should have a network of many suppliers and vendors whose work they know and trust. (We, for the record, example, have nearly 2,000.) A partner with those resources is much more likely to meet your label needs smoothly.
Label Us a Great Partner
As you can see, I’m a big believer in aligning with a competent partner that can provide efficiency and peace of mind for your label needs. We may not be the only one. But make sure the partner you choose can offer the kind of credentials we can. Ours starts with nearly 100 years of helping businesses operate more efficiently.
Look at what that partner can provide in terms of assurance in the process. (We can offer our ISO certification which holds us to high customer-service standards.) And check that potential partner’s track record. Positive evaluation from our customers has earned us three consecutive Best of Print and Digital awards.
Stop back here next week, when we’ll talk about the importance of a plan, and about how labels personalized to perform in your industry can make a difference. But if you have a question on labels and tags, or just want to start operating more efficiently sooner rather than later, contact Superior today. Labels identify products. We identify opportunities.
