We’ve all experienced that dreaded moment. You are trying to meet a tight deadline when you receive the proof of your client’s business cards from the printer and notice a spelling error. It’s an easy fix, or would be if you had the editable file. Unfortunately that’s not the case, so you spend an hour and a half fixing the issue before sending it back to the printer. Your quick thinking saves the day but it makes you wonder if there is a way to prevent a fiasco like this from happening in the future?
Preventing Order Issues – Proof Approval
There are a few features you can activate in your Company Store to help prevent order issues like these. The first, is to require proof approval. When activated at the product level, this feature requires any shopper who orders that specific item to manually approve the product proof before they are able to add the product to their cart and check out. As you can see in the example below, if a shopper tries to checkout before approving the proof, a red error bar will appear letting them know that they need to review the image and check the approval box.
We encourage using the Proof Approval feature on any print or promo product in your clients store that allows personalization because it let’s the user visualize what the customized product will look like when they receive the order. This helps eliminate phone calls or emails stating that the shopper didn’t expect the logo to be that size or in that specific location. The proof also reminds users to make one final check for any spelling, grammatical, or spacing errors.
Print Ready, Layered PDF
When faced with order issues, having access to a print ready, layered PDF is key to resolving the issue quickly. With the Virtual Samples add-on, once an order has been submitted, you receive the order confirmation along with a link that grants you access to view and download the layered PDF. You can use the file yourself or send it straight to your printer or supplier.
Using the same scenario introduced in the beginning, let’s say that you just received an order, along with the layered PDF, for a box of business cards. You send it off to the printer and receive the proof a few hours later and notice a spelling mistake. Previously this would be a time-consuming problem to fix. Luckily PDF editors can read the layers of a PDF allowing you to copy, paste, and edit elements like text and logo right in the PDF. In this scenario, you can open up the PDF, fix the spelling error, and quickly send it back to the printer making sure that you still meet the in-hands date. You also turn on proof approval for the business card to remind shoppers to look over the virtual sample for any spelling or grammatical errors before adding the personalized item to their cart.
Next Steps
Both Proof Approval and access to a print ready, layered PDF come with the Virtual Samples add-on. The feature isn’t for everyone as it requires dedicated time and training in order to use the feature to its full potential. However, if your client is asking for a store in which shoppers can personalize print and promo items by adding multiple fields of text or logos, this feature can be a huge time saver when it comes to last minute changes or issues. The feature also allows you to:
- – Adjust DPI Settings for High-quality, Crisp Images & Text
- – Create Quick Fills
- – Add Multiple Logos
- – Set Logo Locations
- – Create Product Templates
- – Charge for Logos
- – Add Logo Permissions
- – View Side-by-Side Images
If you have a store that you think would benefit from the Virtual Samples feature, reach out to our team at marketing@brightstores.com and we’ll put you in touch with one of our Company Store experts right away.