Slashing Prep Time and Keeping More Work In-House with Ricoh

PC Creative Services, formerly PC Mailing Services, has been connecting clients to customers through design, print, mail, and digital marketing since 1973. PC is primarily a family-owned and operated business, and is recognized as a top-100 woman-owned business in San Antonio.

Challenge
A few years ago, PC decision makers began to see the needs of its customers changing, and knew it needed to expand its digital offerings and increase focus on print. The company’s first attempt was stymied by a bad experience with its chosen manufacturing partner, including empty promises, inconsistent color accuracy, registration issues, and consistent and costly downtime.

“We have real estate customers that sell million-dollar homes, and when we produce a brochure for them, they want the images to be crisp and accurately represent the features of the home,” says Ronnie Cain, General Manager for PC Creative Services. “That wasn’t happening, and we constantly had to color correct to get the results our customers expected.”

A Ricoh (Booth 2022) Sales Consultant invited Cain and one of his managers, a 30- year veteran in the print industry, to Ricoh’s showroom in Dallas to look at the RICOH Pro C9110 and the RICOH Pro C7110X, suggesting they bring files they wanted to test on those machines.

“One of the files that we brought was a real estate brochure we were having trouble printing with good color quality,” Cain says.

“It was just so awesome to see that brochure come off the RICOH Pro C9110 without having to do any color or image adjustments, and with an outcome that was just perfect.”

Solution
As more of the company’s files printed, Cain and his colleague were impressed with the print quality and the ability of the press to maintain registration. Next, they looked at the five-color RICOH Pro C7110X. The device’s ability to use white or clear toner to create unique applications impressed them.

“It gives us that ‘wow’ factor we were looking for to help us sell more print, and it wasn’t something anyone was doing yet in our area,” Cain says.

PC Creative Services also prints a high volume of black-and-white applications, including booklets, and were in need of a high quality yet affordable black-and-white digital press.

“We were looking for something that was reliable, with in-line bookmaking capabilities,” Cain says. “Our sales rep suggested we look at the RICOH Pro 8120, and add the in-line Plockmatic Book Making System. The Pro 8120 prints 4,800x1,200 dpi, ensuring all images are crisp and clear, and it just runs constantly. We could see it was the workhorse we were looking for.”

The company decided to purchase a Pro C9110, a Pro 7110X, and a Pro 8120 with the Plockmatic Book Making System.

Results
With the new capabilities, PC Creative Services no longer needs to outsource jobs, resulting in more than a 20% increase to its bottom line. The company is also offering variable data. One customer, a large credit bureau in San Antonio, prints personalized birthday cards for its members every month. Many of PC Creative Services’ non-profit clients are also now using personalization beyond the donor’s name, such as, “Last year, your donation was X amount. We would certainly appreciate it if you can do this or more,” and find they get better results from donors.