Embroidery on products such as polo shirts, jackets and hats are a professional and cost effectively way to add value to your company and increase your brands or organizations perception.
But how do you know if the company you’re working with is really on your side. It’s really difficult to tell without intimate knowledge of the industry and almost impossible if you’ve never dealt with this before.
But now, with our 3 point checklist, you’ll be able to easily tell if the company is professional and really looking out for the best interest of their clients or providing you a disservice and just trying to get the most of you (now and potentially in the future).
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#1) Are They In It For The Quick Buck Or The Long Haul
This is probably the biggest one for us. Most other people would start off with “fluff” about generalizations but we’re getting straight to the point (and your checkbook).
We look at all our clients as long-term clients. Here is a sneaky trick that embroidery shops use to their advantage.
Many of them don’t think in the long term. They’re very focused on getting everything they can now from you with the mindset that you may, or may not, come back. If you don’t come back, they want to get the most money they can out of you now.
We understand that businesses need to make money, but here is where you can see right through their short sightedness.
There are 2 ways you will get your job quoted to you:
1 They list the set up fees as different line items on the quote
2 They will lump everything together and give you one price which includes everything (they may even say things like free digitizing, free setup and more)
You may think there’s no difference but when you break it down, there really is – and it can be a very costly one for you.
Certain set up costs, such as graphic design, converting to vector and digitizing your designs are only required once. So, what’s the big deal? Well, when they say there’s no artwork or digitizing fees, chances are they’re just “wrapping” this fee into your quote.
They’ll give you a quote of $18 per item and it’s free artwork, digitizing, set up, etc. Well, again, they’ve probably charged you for it and didn’t tell you. That’s a big deal but the real kicker is when you go to reorder the same design, you’re going to be paying $18 per item again. You’re basically paying those “one-time” fees each time you re-order.
Where if the company separates the costs, for example, $16 per item but when you add in the one-time fees, your first order comes out to $18 per item. But, when you reorder, you’ll only pay $16 per item. This can easily add up over time.
#2) Do They Know About Their Products
Custom apparel is an evolving business and manufacturers are coming out with new styles and designs constantly. This is where it’s important the company you’re working with knows things like:
• What style are you looking for?
• Are there any special fabrics you’re looking for?
• Are you looking for a specific brand?
• Any special placement or print locations (and can they do it and at what price)?
• Your budget for the project?
• The turn-around time requirements?
While this may seem like a no-brainer and it is very tough to keep up with all the latest happenings of this industry and the manufacturers themselves but because we have good relationships and buying power with the manufacturers, we’re able to get enhanced support from them so we can get you the best product for your order.
#3) Be Sure Your Quote Has These 2 Things In Them
When you get a quote or bid from a company it can be pretty standard. But, a lot of companies will leave 2 key factors out. It’s important that you look for these when getting a bid:
• The Thread Count
• The Out The Door (OTD) Price
Some companies will complain and say they don’t want to give that kind of information out. We’re not talking about highly classified documents here. They most likely don’t want to give it out because they don’t want you to shop around.
We take the opposite approach. We stand behind our work, service and competitive pricing and we believe in transparency. We’re not trying to pull one over on you. We know bad news travel fast so it’s not worth it for us. We want to keep our clients happy and we feel we do a pretty good job of that.
With regards to the out the door price, we’ve gotten several clients who have come to us from other shops saying they got quoted a price, accepted the offer and then when they went in to pay the deposit, they were told it was the wrong price and they were going to need to pay more.
This unfortunately happens quite often. A couple of times we looked at the 2 quotes (1 before the price increase and the 2nd after the price increase). We can’t confirm this for sure but it looked like they forgot to “wrap up” the artwork and digitizing costs into their initial quote and wanted to add it in afterwards.
With us, we’ll always give you the Out The Door price so you know exactly what you’re looking at.
If the embroidery Las Vegas company you’re working with doesn’t pass these checklist items, you should think twice about doing business with them. Don’t leave things to chance – contact us for a FREE quote.
