C&S Press -- Service With a Savings

WHAT MAKES a visit to your favorite restaurant even more enjoyable and memorable, notes Frank Tantillo, is when the staff brings you "a little extra touch of something." Be it a complimentary glass of wine or a dessert, the gesture—no matter how small—is enough to bring the customer back.

Tantillo should know. As part of a triumvirate of owners behind Orlando, FL-based C&S Press, along with Dan Ellis and Ray Cody, Tantillo has put this theory to practice with the company's printing clientele. It doesn't take a grand gesture to capture someone's attention, as the smallest niceties can often make a buyer feel positive about the overall experience.

As Tantillo sees it, the smallest outlay on the front side can be more than recouped on the back end. "Sure, that little touch goes against your bottom line, but those customers come back again," he notes. "We spend a small portion of our profits to go the extra mile and to do the extra steps.

"Once we capture new clients, they stay with us. We do all the right things and, because of that, we're very well respected in the industry."

Responding to print buyers' wants and needs is the hallmark of C&S Press, according to fellow owner Dan Ellis. The company's 60 employees embody the firm's tag line, "Total Client Commitment," on a daily basis. And, it's not just happy talk for use in the firm's marketing materials.

"We differentiate ourselves with immediate response times to client needs and offer customer service that is second to none," Ellis remarks. "Some buyers have even said that they'd love for us to train their other print vendors on how to provide customer service."

C&S Press doesn't thrive on customer service alone. The printer runs the general commercial sheetfed gamut by offering annual reports, brochures, pocket folders, publications, direct mail, as well as corporate and marketing collateral. Tantillo considers C&S more of a corporate printer, enabling clients to realize their marketing and branding efforts. Finance and insurance companies are among the vertical markets it serves.

Rise and Shine

Consistency has been another hallmark for C&S, which has enjoyed steady growth—to the tune of 5 percent to 10 percent per year. A single- and two-color printer when it debuted in 1985, the company has billowed to more than $9 million in annual sales.

• MORE ON
• SHEETFED OFFSET PRINTING