Boys Town In-plant Honored for Promotional Excellence
By saying “Happy Birthday” to its coworkers, the Boys Town Print Shop more than tripled the user base of its online ordering system. This victory earned the in-plant the 2019 In-House Promotional Excellence award from the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association.
Located near Omaha, Neb., the Boys Town Print Shop, overseen by Manager Doug Larsen, provides printing and copying services for approximately 2,300 employees of the non-profit Boys Town. An online ordering system was installed in 2016 in improve customer connectivity and end the practice of email attachment ordering. However, by the end of the first year after installation, only a small fraction of the employees were using the Print Shop’s online ordering system.
After surveying its 390 customers in February 2018, the in-plant learned that less than half of its customer base knew about its online ordering system — and that was two years after it was installed. Correspondingly, only half of its current customers had setup a profile on the online ordering system.
Starting in April 2018, the Boys Town Print Shop sent a personalized birthday greeting postcard to employees during their birthday month, inviting them to create an online profile and get a free personalized birthday pad. The in-plant avoided using email for this promotion as it is, after all, a print shop, and proving printing as an effective communication tool is a constant goal.
Doug Larson accepts the In-House Promotional Excellence award on behalf of his in-plant from IPMA awards chair Christopher Donlon.
The response rate for the birthday card mailings was better than expected — 44%, compared to the usual personalized direct mail response rate of 6%. As a result, overall user profiles increased by 370%. By the end of 2018, the system had 1,045 users. To date, there are 1,238 active user profiles, about half of the Boys Town employees
Spreading the personal invitations over the course of the year, enabled a very quick turnaround next day delivery of the free birthday pads, showing the customer how quickly the in-plant can respond.
“The In-House Promotional Excellence award is not only prestigious but a great way to share what works with other IPMA members. Boys Town Print Shop is honored to have been recognized for the award and delighted to share our idea,” says Larson, who accepted the In-House Promotional Excellence award the during the IPMA conference in Louisville, Ky.
“Wishing our employees a Happy Birthday is also a great morale booster," he adds. "It lets each employee know that he or she plays an important role in Boys Town’s mission to save children, heal families and strengthen communities, and that by helping to change lives for the better at Boys Town, we are all helping to change the world.”
