Quality, Customer Service Help Oregon Shop Flourish

WHEN MARK Dixon inherited the lead role at the University of Oregon's Printing and Mailing Services in December from long-time Director J.R. Gaddis, he started by taking a back-to-basics approach and stamping it with his own progressive twist.

Dixon, interim director at the 25,000-square-foot shop in Eugene, Ore., first absorbed his old position overseeing the well-respected offset printing operation as a cost-cutting measure. Next, he rededicated resources to focus on customer service, an especially important move in a state that recently experienced some serious economic problems.

"Since the economy went down, we've had a 15 percent revenue drop," confides Dixon, who has been a University of Oregon employee since 1992. "Oregon's economy was really hit hard, and a lot of printers closed down here in Oregon. It became a dog-eat-dog world."

Customer service has always been a priority for the in-plant, Dixon points out, but during busy periods it is easily put on the back burner. Now that he has reassessed the in-plant's customer service initiative, employees are having more face-to-face meetings with customers, providing the students and staff with information about the shop's offerings, and becoming more ingrained with the campus community.

"J.R. always stressed getting out to see people, but we never seemed to have the time to do it," Dixon admits. "Well, when you have down revenue, you find the time. And we are seeing results from it."

Hooking New Employees Early

At a large school like the University of Oregon, new faculty and employees are constantly coming on board. Dixon saw this as an opportunity to grab the newcomers' attention and educate them on the variety of services the in-plant provides. At an orientation this year, the in-plant addressed new faculty members with a presentation on copyright clearance procedures.

Also, Dixon notes, because of new state administrative rules for higher education, the university requires employees with authorization to make purchases to take classes that cover the new rules, along with annual refresher courses. There, they are reminded of the policy that all printing must go through Printing and Mailing Services.

"Now we are addressed to every single person that can spend a dime at this university," Dixon says.

Printing and Mailing Services gives the University of Oregon community plenty of opportunities to spend those dimes, offering services like copyright clearance, offset and digital printing, centralized mail metering, inter-campus mail and bulk mail distribution—not to mention a campus copy center.

The in-plant's award-winning offset department features a six-color 20x28˝ Heidelberg Speedmaster perfector; a two-color, 19x25˝ Heidelberg MOZP perfector; a one-color 20x28˝ Miehle; a one-color Ryobi 500N; and a one-color Multilith 1650.

The shop took home a pair of Silver awards in the In-Print 2010 contest for two offset jobs; one for a catalog and one for a brochure. The award winners were produced on the six-color Heidelberg.

"Quality is what we sell here," Dixon boasts, noting that about 50 percent of the shop's offset output is four-color work. "I want every person in this place to take every job personally. It doesn't matter if it is a $1 job or $100,000 job, we feel like it is our own project."

Environmentally Friendly CTP

Dixon notes that the shop holds the distinction of being one of the first printers on the West Coast to use processesless plates. Plates are produced in-house on a Fuji Dart Luxel T600 computer-to-plate system using Kodak processless plates.

"Ours go through no bath; they come right out of the machine and hang on the press," Dixon explains. "It is very environmentally friendly, and the press operators love them now."

According to Dixon, the six-color press is a key component of the university's recruitment and marketing efforts. The school finds that a mix of e-marketing combined with high-quality printed products gets a positive response.

"We are trying to sell the level of education and experience at the University of Oregon, so we want to send out recruitment pieces that are of impeccable quality," Dixon stresses. "If it is going to a parent or potential student, we don't want to give them a black-and-white piece."

Also, pieces printed for potential donors must be of the highest quality, which usually means four-color process work as well as variable data printing to personalize the message from the university, Dixon adds.

"If you are sending something to a donor, who may donate millions of dollars or a thousand dollars, you want to put your best foot forward," he remarks.

The shop is currently mulling the addition of a used Heidelberg SBG diecutter, Dixon says, to handle perforating, scoring and die–cutting. The shop outsources a large volume of work every year that requires specialty finishing techniques not currently available in-house.

"When you don't have control over something and promised a due date, you [can run into] some serious problems sometimes," Dixon contends.

The university recently upgraded its digital printing capabilities, and is now home to three Canon imageRUNNER 3225s; a Canon imageRUNNER 7095; two Canon imageRUNNER 5055s; three Konica Minolta bizhub PRO 1050s; and a Xerox 700 Digital Color Press with a FreeFlow controller.

New Work for the In-plant

Thanks to a new budget model at the campus, university-wide funding changes have occurred that have created opportunities for more revenue for the in-plant, which has the first right of refusal.

"What I am doing is touching base with all of those people and focusing a large customer service program towards [them]," Dixon says.

Dixon adds that the in-plant provides stability in pricing to the university, offering a fair market price that changes very little from year to year. The shop also facilitates work that needs to be sent to an outside vendor, always following state contracting regulations.

"If I outsource anything, it is only to reputable vendors within the state of Oregon," Dixon says. "Any jobs that leave the state of Oregon I really frown upon. We need to keep work in Oregon and support Oregon jobs."

For the past 15 years, the in-plant had to subsidize campus mail, which was a $250,000 operation. However, the university administration has decided to provide funding to the campus mail program.

"Boom—that is a huge expense that just has been dropped off of us," Dixon exclaims. "I used to be able to tout that we are self-supportive, we have all these assessments and we support campus mail—well we don't have to support campus mail anymore, it's a budgeted entity. That really has helped out dramatically."

Long-time Sustainability Push

Environmental issues at the in-plant are also high on Dixon's list to continue to improve upon. Dixon, who holds a degree in Forest Management from Oregon State University, is currently assisting in renewing a recycled paper policy for the university. And even though the in-plant is not FSC certified, it has partnered with sustainability groups and environmental issue committees on campus.

"I have been researching sustainability and recycling issues since 1977," Dixon maintains. This is all part of his plan to show that the in-plant does much more for the university than just print; the in-plant is aligned with the academic mission of the university.

"If you just say you are the printer, that does not fly; it's more 'what can you do for the university?' " he declares. "We help promote education. We help recruit students. We help in research. You need to market yourself along those lines, and that is what we do." IPG