Optimum Wins Conway Family Business Center Award

Since the Conway Family Business Center of Central Ohio has been founded in 1998, they have provided support, insights and programming to help family owned businesses thrive and grow. 2009 marks the 11th year of Conway's Annual Family Business awards.

Optimum Print is the proud recipient of the Support of a Family Business Award. This award was achieved in recognition of the efforts made by Optimum to assist the IT consulting company R. Dorsey.

(From left to right - Optimum Companies CEO John Martin, Optimum Print President Dorothy Martin and R. Dorsey's Iggy Galli, Tim Cook and Robert J. Dorsey)

On January 17th the R. Dorsey building was swept up in a blaze that attacked the Kingswood Building in Grandview Heights. At that time, two of R. Dorsey's employees were working on a software update for Optimum. They received the news at the same time as Optimum's president, Dorothy Martin.

In response, Optimum opened it's doors and allowed R. Dorsey to operate out of consolidated offices within Optimum's headquarters building. Dorothy Martin stated that "We knew R. Dorsey was struggiling with insurance. When you have everything burn to the ground, it's a long processes in learning to recover from that. We wanted to help them, and I think it's important for small business to help each other out."

Aproximatley 10 R. Dorsey employees worked inside of Optimum's building until a new Worthington office opened in late September. "We really enjoyed their company." said Dorothy. "Once a month, we do a potluck, we invited them, and they brought food. I think with today's economy, we need to be supportive and from partnerships with small businesses. We need to help each other."

Visit Optimum Print at the Ohio State Fair!

The theme of the Ohio State Fair this year is "Print is alive" and the printing industry is on site with a booth in the MarketPlace Building.

Come and visit our volunteer representative! For more information, and to find out how people in the print industry can get into the fair for free, click here.

Pride in Your Work and Good Customer Service: The Perfect Fit

Ken Renker – Director of Sales

For most of us, taking pride in what we do is an important part of our personal makeup. Doing a good job isn’t just something we’re supposed to do; it’s what we want to do. Hopefully, it’s encouraged…and even rewarded…where we work. I’m convinced these two things are “joined at the hip”. It’s like you can’t have one without the other. Without being a part of your company’s (and your personal) DNA, it’s difficult to ever really deliver world-class customer service.

For example, do you remember the last time you called a vendor and, rather than connecting with a person, you got stuck in voice mail limbo, unable to navigate through the maze? How did you feel about that experience? The odds are you didn’t like it, and they’re even better that you won’t go back.

Does this say anything about the sense of pride that company instills in their people? And, by the way, why does every computer message always include the ubiquitous phrase…”please listen carefully, because our menu items have changed”?
The flip side is that we all know companies that are great at customer service. You call with a question or problem, and the (live) person on the other end listens and responds to your situation. If needed, your item is returned with no hassle. My wife and I shop at a major retailer and one reason we are ‘customers for life’ is their return policy. They just know how to make it right.

At Optimum we work hard to provide the same level of service. Our goal is to deliver the best customer service in our industry. We believe it’s one thing that differentiates us from everyone else. That’s why if you call us, a person (and not a computer) will answer….and listen to what you have to say.

I’ve told the following story before, but I think it captures the essence of why taking pride in what you do is so important. Here goes...

For the record, I have never been a big fan of mowing my lawn. I would agree (sort of) that there is a sense of accomplishment to gaze back at a neatly trimmed yard…to both see, and smell, the fruits of your labor. I guess my problem is I simply got my fill of this when I was young and made a silent vow that someday, I would be able to afford to pay someone to do this for me.

Back in the late 1990’s I got my wish and took the plunge. I signed up for lawn service with one of those big, brand name companies. You know, the ones with the giant, extreme monster machines, with jet-propelled engines that sound like rush hour on the runway at O’Hare?

Every week, during the mowing season, you could hear them swarm through the neighborhood, the noise growing to a din, until they landed like bees returning to the hive. Seven minutes later, with grass cut, trimmed, bagged and blown, they left as quickly as they arrived. The problem was that while they were fast, quality was lacking, they missed spots and gouged the yard with their equipment. More importantly, no one ever taught the jet engine jockeys about customer service. It simply wasn’t their job and they didn’t have the time to listen anyway.

My solution was to do what I should have done in the first place. Check with the neighbors (especially the most finicky ones) and find out who they used. I found the perfect fit.

Jim had a small lawn mowing service that he ran to supplement his income from his normal day job. Jim knew about customer service. He knew it would differentiate him. He knew what I considered to be a ‘good’ job….because he asked me. He knew certain yards could only handle smaller equipment (no jet engines please…). If I happened to be there, after he was done mowing the lawn, he would ask what I thought. Was his effort meeting my expectations?

Early on, it was clear to me that Jim took tremendous pride in what he did. The best example occurred one Saturday, when his pick up truck pulled in my driveway and he got out and rang my doorbell. I asked what was wrong since he had just mowed my yard a few days prior. He pointed to his truck and said, “Oh nothing. I was just driving around in the neighborhood with my daughter, showing her some of the yards I cut. Would you mind if she got out and walked around with me? I’d like her to see the back and how good it looks.” He wanted to begin teaching his daughter that same sense of pride within him. After clearing the lump in my throat, I said, “Of course!”

We all know you lead by example. The man I hired to cut my grass was teaching his daughter, the value in doing a good job, the importance of taking pride in what you do, and the real meaning of delivering customer service. It was a life lesson for her that was just in bred into her father’s work ethic. It was a life lesson for me too.

Like I said, the perfect fit.

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To our current Optimum clients…thanks for your business. To everyone else; please give us a call. We will work hard to be your “perfect fit”.

Can You Hear Me Now? Print Industry Safety

Optimum Companies recently received this handsome award from the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation for receiving a 100% for outstanding safety performance.


In all industries, but especially in the printing industry, safety is of vital importance. This is why Optimum staff members attend monthly educational seminars conducted by the Safety Council of Greater Columbus. The last seminar was on the subject of Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) and was conducted by Doctor of Audiology Karen Mitchell.

In the printing industry press operators are surrounded by loud machinery so sharing some tips on NIHL prevention is very important to everyone at Optimum Print Solutions. Did you know that NIHL is 100% preventable when you practice the proper precautions? OSHA will be glad to visit any company to test noise levels, or meters are purchasable for around $50.00 for companies that prefer to perform their own noise level testing.

Once hearing is lost at any degree, it is gone forever. It does not heal like some other parts of the body can. For example, if a smoker stops smoking, the lungs will heal themselves in time to the status of a lifetime non-smoker. In contrast, when the nerves or hair cells in the cochlea (a section of the inner ear) die, they do not regenerate.

There are different sizes of these hair cells in the inner ear which measure different frequencies. The smallest ones are used for high frequencies and since they are more fragile, they are usually the first to be lost. This makes speech difficult to understand. Vowel sounds are about 200hz as opposed to consonants which are a higher frequency at around 800hz. Losing the ability to hear S’s, T’s & D’s make words hard to distinguish. People who are affected by hearing loss usually think their hearing is fine, they just can’t understand why so many people mumble. When in fact, they are mostly only hearing the vowel sounds and struggle to make sense of normal conversation.

A few interesting facts learned from the Safety Meeting include:

• Whereas eyeglasses correct vision and allow you to see sharp, hearing aids only amplify, they don’t clean up the signal or restore hearing to normal.

• A 25 year old carpenter who works without ear protection has the hearing of a 50 year old.
  
  
• Bose Noise Cancelation headphones actually WORK and are endorsed by audiologist Karen Mitchell Au. D.
  
  
• There are names for each section of your ears. The little knob in front of your ear-hole is called a Tragus, the top of the ear is called the Pinna.

There are many different types of hearing plugs and noise reduction devices on the marketing. This particular model, E.A.R. Classic, is the kind we provide here at Optimum Print Solutions. These earplugs have a Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) of 29 decibels when inserted correctly. Because properly installing typical cylindrical earplugs is important to their effectiveness, there are instructions for this procedure listed below:

Step #1: Wash hands.

Step#2: Slowly ROLL & compress it betwixt your thumb & forefingers. DO NOT JUST SMASH IT, ROLL IT!!! Continue rolling with pressure until it is a tiny crease-free spongy rod.

Step #3: Then gently pull your Pinna (top of ear) outward & upward & proceed with the insertion. The pulling of the Pinna straightens out the ear canal, allowing the earplug to go deep enough for a proper fit.

The right tool for the right job……

Ken Renker – Director of Sales

My father ran his own plumbing and heating business for 40+ years, and was a big believer in having the right tool for the right job. Long before the days of “Home Improvement” and Tim ‘the Tool Man’ Taylor, my Dad’s shop was jammed with the latest gadgets guaranteed to be the envy of any current day Weekend Warrior. At its peak, in order to accommodate all of his ‘stuff’, he needed to add more space and so he decided to expand into the abandoned auto body repair garage next door to his shop.

I was a 12 year old kid that loved to operate equipment and machinery….the bigger and dirtier, all the better…, and to me, this new place was a combination Disneyland & Smithsonian Museum. I experimented with acetylene torches, sheet metal fabricators, soldering equipment, pipe threaders, wrenches, cutters, die machines…and on and on.

Luckily, I never got injured, started any fires, or destroyed anything. More importantly, my mother never found out. As I got older, though, I came to understand that in the hands of real craftsmen, the right tools and the knowledge to use them, make all the difference.

Our toolkit at Optimum is pretty full too. It includes:

• Internet ordering capability – a “one stop shop” for all print and supply related needs
  
  
• Management reporting – usage and trend analysis
  
  
• 25 years of financial market experience:
  best practices to remove cost from your processes
  subject matter experts to implement those solutions
  
  
• Cost allocation of expenses – budget monitoring and reporting
  
  
• Print on demand capabilities to eliminate inventory and reduce obsolescence
  
  
• Warehouse / distribution support
  
  
• Graphic design support / on line proofing

In short, we have the right tools to help you operate more efficiently and reduce expenses.
We can make it easier for your people to do their job…and give them more time to focus on their customers. We’ll provide the reporting and budget controls needed to improve your bank’s efficiency ratio. And we’ll train everyone, so they know how to use the tools to get you the biggest bang for the buck.

The question is do you have the right tool for the right job …..and do you have the know-how to use them?

Let us know. We can help.

Personal Accountability

Personal accountability is one of the core values at Optimum Companies. That is why our team leaders are all required to read "QBQ" and "Flipping the Switch", books written by author John G. Miller.

QBQ stands for "Question Behind the Question" and is built on the observation that our first reactions are often negative, bringing to mind Incorrect Questions (IQs). But if in each moment of decision we can instead discipline our thoughts to look behind those initial questions and ask better ones (QBQs), the questions themselves will lead us to better results.

Here are some examples of IQ or "incorrect questions" - how often have you heard these before?

“When is that department going to do its job?”
“Why don’t they communicate better?”
“Who dropped the ball?”
“Why do we have to go through all this change?”
“When is someone going to train me?”

These questions put the blame on someone else and are not constructive. QBQ questions are centered around taking personal accountability. Here are a few examples of QBQ questions:

“What can I do to contribute?”
“How can I help solve the problem?”
"How can I communicate better?"

Miller’s book is a quick read that is full of practical methods for putting personal accountability into daily actions. You can tell this difference when you are working with someone from both branches of Optimum Companies, Optimum System Products and Optimum Print Solutions.

Optimum Provides Great Customer Service!

"I just wanted to thank you again for all your efforts and for providing me with such great service with my business cards. I'm sure it was much more than you wanted to spend time on but I greatly appreciate your professionalism with everything. I've already handed out about 30 or so and everyone was very impressed and immediate asked where I got them printed.

Thank you for all your help!"

- Monty
openimagestudio.com


Want to know more great things our clients are saying about Optimum?

Check out the company information section on the Optimum-Print website.

GEM (Going the Extra Mile)

Something new & exciting we’ve started at Optimum for 2009 is a little Self Promotion! In order to accomplish this, we’ve begun collecting & distributing (internally) “stories from the front lines” ~ stories we’ve affectionately dubbed GEMs. This is to remind us how we all are Going the Extra Mile. Of course, we want to share them with others who might be in need of inspiration, so we thought it wouldn’t hurt to re-post our first GEM right here:

Our First GEM...A Little Training
Last month a bank in Florida e-mailed Rita a simple question ~ "Do we have teller receipts on hand & if so, how many?" The answer was simple, "Yes, you have 34 Packs of 500". But, instead of stopping there, Rita took the time to empower the customer with the ability to use one of our system's tools - A tool that sets us apart. Here is a part of Rita's response:
You still have 34 packs of 500 (or 17,000) in the warehouse. You can find this information on the website by clicking on TELLER SUPPLIES under catalogs on the left after you log in. Click on the ? in the blue circle to the left of the item number. A new window will open. Click on the LOOKUP button (make sure the drop down menu below shows Warehouse Inventory). The number of pks., pads, bxs., etc. will display. Of course, you can order the item from warehouse stock when you close the window by entering the number of pks. like you would any office supply item. Just let me know when you're ready to replenish the warehouse stock. It usually takes about 3 - 4 weeks.Please feel free to call or email me if any of this is unclear or if you have any questions....

Nothing earth shattering...but it is how we always try to Go that Extra Mile for every one of our customers!

If you liked it, Here’s another short one…

Stories from the front lines...when a customer asks...can you really get us anything?
A bank president's secretary asked if we knew where to get a specific brand of pen with a specific color of ink. After a bit of research, we found it at Pilot Mfg...but could not get it in the USA. The rep in Tokyo (yup, we called Tokyo!) explained that Pilot markets different colored inks based on world geography. The pen we needed was only sold in Europe. We were able to get the pen from London, and our customers were amazed we had gone to such lengths - - - for a $2 pen.

Switch Kits

Are you looking for new customers?
Are you looking for tools to help you generate revenue?

With Optimum, your search is over. Our work with community banks, like yourself, makes
us an excellent resource for the marketing tools you need to accomplish your new business
goals.

We have a Switch Kit that will make it easy for you to “reel in” the new customers from
your competition. Let us help you personalize a switch kit that conveys your bank’s
image and message right away! Don’t wait, your potential customers are looking for an
easy way to sign on with your secure, well established community bank today!

ColumbusReads Recognizes Another Year of Service

ColumbusReads has recognized Optimum Companies volunteers for another year of great service!


ColumbusReads was started in 1998 by Les Wexner, chairman and CEO of The Limited Inc., at the request of Columbus Public Schools Superintendent Rosa Smith. Wexner recruited 400 employees to tutor 225 kindergartners attending three elementary schools during the 1998-99 academic year.

Every year staff members at Optimum volunteer to help elementary school children improve their reading skills. Thank you to all of our volunteers who keep this great program going!

Optimum Print Solutions Recognized for Print Excellence

Optimum Print Solutions is proud to announce it was recently awarded twelve 2009 Print Excellence Awards from the Printing Industries Association, Inc., serving Northern Kentucky and Ohio (PIANKO).

“Although the difficult economic times slightly reduced the number of entries, the creativity and quality of the entries made the judges’ selection incredibly hard,” said PIANKO president Jim Cunningham. “2009 Print Excellence Award winners exemplify the excellent work of our Ohio and northern Kentucky printers. Our members and the customers they represent should be incredibly pleased with their winning product or pieces.”

Each year, PIANKO holds its Print Excellence Awards Competition to reward Ohio and northern Kentucky printers that demonstrate excellence in 34 categories. This year member companies submitted more than 520 printed pieces and three out-of-state expert judges ranked them in a regional competition. This year member companies submitted more than 520 printed pieces and three out-of-state expert judges ranked them in a regional competition. This year’s judges were Susan Higgins, Worth Higgins & Associates, Inc; M. David Merrick, The Merrick Printing Company; and Richard Presley, Eastman Kodak Company.

Each of the gold award winners in the regional competition are entered in an association-wide competition for Best of Category and Best of Show prizes that will be awarded in June 2009 at the Grand Ceremony, being held in Columbus, Ohio.

Optimum Print Solutions won the following awards:

2 Gold Awards

4 Silver Awards

6 Bronze Awards

Printing Industries Association, Inc. serving northern Kentucky and Ohio (PIANKO) serves nearly 400 commercial printing companies and suppliers to the industry in tis service area. PIANKO provides a broad range of products and services to its membership, including worker’s compensation and product discounts. PIANKO is an affiliate of the national Printing Industries of America, the largest graphi arts association in the world. For complete information on PIANKO and Printing Industries of America, please visit www.pianko.org