At 4pm on a Wednesday, an event organiser realises the banners for Friday's conference were never ordered. She messages four print shops. Can they print two roller banners and five hundred flyers by Thursday afternoon? Three reply on Thursday morning, too late. The fourth has a clear rush service page, confirms the cut-off time for next-day jobs and captures her order details that evening. It gets the job, and her next three events.
Rush print jobs are stressful for customers and profitable for printers. The printer who confirms fastest wins.
The teardown: why rush jobs are lost
Customers with a deadline contact several printers at once. They need a quick yes or no. Printers are busy at the machines and cannot reply immediately. By the time they do, the customer has gone elsewhere. The difference between an urgent and routine job matters, as covered in urgent vs routine enquiry triage.
What rush customers ask
Rush customers usually ask whether the job can be done by a certain date, what the latest time to order is, whether there is a rush charge, whether they can collect or need delivery, whether artwork needs to be ready and whether proofs can be skipped to save time.
Publishing turnaround times
A clear page listing standard and rush turnaround times for each product, with cut-off times, answers the key question before it is asked. Customers can see instantly whether their deadline is possible. Same-day questions in other businesses are covered in walk-in and same day appointment questions.
Capturing the job
For a rush job, capture the products, quantities, sizes, deadline, collection or delivery and whether artwork is ready. The full spec is covered in print quote requests missing quantities and specs.
SpideyChat for printing and signage companies answers turnaround questions from your own pages at any hour and captures rush jobs for the team to confirm.
Organiser: Can you print two roller banners and 500 flyers by Thursday afternoon? Assistant: The rush service page explains that next-day printing is available for orders with print-ready artwork received by the cut-off time shown, with a rush charge listed. So the team can confirm first thing, could you share the sizes, whether your artwork is ready and whether you'll collect or need delivery?
Artwork is often the bottleneck
Rush jobs are often delayed by artwork that is not print-ready. Publishing simple artwork guidelines, and letting the assistant point customers to them, saves precious hours.
Rush charges
Being open about rush charges prevents disputes. Most customers with a deadline are happy to pay for certainty.
Out-of-hours enquiries
Many rush enquiries arrive in the evening, when someone realises what they forgot. Capturing them overnight, so the team can confirm at opening, gives the printer a head start. After-hours handling is covered in after-hours emergency triage.
Saying no honestly
Some deadlines are impossible. A quick, honest no, with the earliest possible date, is better than silence. Customers remember printers who were straight with them.
Repeat rush customers
Event organisers, agencies and marketing teams often need rush jobs regularly. A good first experience turns them into loyal customers.
Getting started
Publish your turnaround times, cut-offs and rush charges, and capture urgent jobs at any hour. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.