A rising tide lifts all boats. How working with a network partner benefits your printing business.

I talk a lot about my time at Corbis and Blurb . The reason is that in both instances we were building the plane while we were flying it—figuring out the business when there was no model in existence. Those situations can be a bit unnerving, but also have great payoffs and excitement. In the direct-to-consumer marketplace, a lot of planning is necessary. But I’ve always enjoyed when the planning stops, and the delivery begins. Such is the case now, as my direct-to-consumer clients are deep in the throes of holiday peak.

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At Blurb, part of that planning was how to guarantee the quality of our product (many of our early customers were pro photographers and marketers) while not seeing the final product before it left production. One of our fellow innovators in the print sector in the early 2000’s, MOO , had all of their orders shipped to HQ for quality check before sending along to the end customer. We knew up front that was not sustainable. So how would we assure protection of our brand while getting quick turn around and maximum efficiency? The answer was building win/win relationships with our print partners.

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That concept is alive today with print aggregators that value customer NPS and maximum margins for the brand and the fulfillment partner. For the production hubs, having additional eyes on the products, along with a quick feedback loop from the end customer, naturally drives quality. And meeting those quality metrics requires efficiency in the production workflow, finding problems early before too much time, effort, and materials have already been invested.

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Even in those early days, we required our print partners to maintain a manufacturing defect rate of less than 1%. In contrast, many of the consumer photo brands at that time accepted 3% as the standard. To get our network to our goal, many of our printers had a >5% internal reprint rate to meet our 1%. That’s a tough one to accept, given the margins for POD were already slim as we were competing with retailers that often did volume production, many times overseas.

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I use the word “partner” very seriously and consistently. Having good, open communication about how to work together for overall quality control is key. This is where working with a network partner can pay dividends.

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Consumer brands and those that support them directly live in a world of NPS, Net Promoter Score. It’s that word of mouth that comes after a delightful purchasing experience that drives business or dooms a brand to failure. Having experts that are constantly culling data and consumer trends is a luxury most printers can’t afford. Having that network partner on your side adds those resources to your team.

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Finally, a printer quickly finds that having a robust networking partner driving quality benefits all of the printer’s customers, not just the work generated by the network. This is where the rising tide lifts all boats. It’s a losing strategy to try and have multiple quality levels in a single facility. I can tell you from experience it just doesn’t work. And as a content aggregator, I’ve always embraced the concept that my competition may benefit from the work I’ve done to assure the quality of my products. Having strong partners, known for care and quality, is the best way to assure a win/win for both parties. As quality becomes table stakes in the production facility, growth naturally happens, new capital equipment becomes affordable, and my customers ultimately benefit from improved pricing and turnaround.

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I encourage you to consider the big picture when thinking about joining a production aggregating partner. The power of data and additional eyes on your facility can be a huge win for your entire business.