5 Print Horror Stories Mimeo Helped Solve

Printing and shipping marketing materials doesn’t need to be scary. 

Working with outdated materials and processes can be downright frightening for companies trying to scale their business. 

But for companies that partner with Mimeo, printing and distributing their content is anything but gruesome — it saves their employees time, reduces costs, and impresses their clients. 

In the spirit of this spooky season, we’ve compiled some of the most terrifying print horror stories we’ve seen, and how Mimeo can be the hero.

Read on at your own discretion. 

1. A Retailer Sent Order Forms… on a FAX MACHINE!

Ahh! One major realtor manually wrote order forms and faxed them to a warehouse — in 2016. With no visibility into inventory levels, they were essentially blind into what was available to ship to their store locations. 

This antiquated process is straight out of a scary movie from the 1980’s. It took nearly 2 weeks and included unnecessary phone calls and emails, manual order tracking, and terrifyingly low levels of support. By switching to Mimeo, they got 24/7 support and next day turnaround for their training materials.

2. Manuals Bleeding From All Sides With Errors

Blackbaud had a print vendor that couldn’t do anything right. It was a nightmare. 

“They would give us blank pages in our documents, do the tabs incorrectly, or even send materials to the wrong customer. We always felt like they just weren’t listening and they were making us look unprofessional,” said MaKeva M, Operations Manager at Blackbaud. 

This made such bad impressions and could scare customers away. Mimeo made sure that didn’t happen anymore, consistently printing high-quality manuals after confirming digital proofs were correct.

3. Full Workdays Disappeared into Black Pits of Despair 

One RFP manager at Siemens recalls spending an entire work day building only 10 binders, filled with 70 different documents. The manual assembly was labor intensive and the quality was inconsistent based on where the print proposals were being put together and by whom. 

When Siemens partnered with Mimeo to outsource printing and mailing their RFPs, the change was immediate. Their RFPs were consistently high-quality and they actually saved 40-50% of total costs. 

And that RFP manager? His full work day of printing and shipping proposals was slimmed down to a single hour. That’s 90% less time spent hunched over the printer and more time to generate additional revenue.  

4. Employees Standing Like Zombies in Front of Printers 

The North American Proposal Team at Motorola was spending a ghoulish amount of time — up to 30% of their working hours — standing in front of a printer.

“Just because you can, doesn’t necessarily mean you should,” said Dawn Apple, senior manager. Which is why she decided to outsource her printing and find a way to improve the RFP process for her global sales team. 

Because her team bids on government contracts, they often need to print binders and presentations that are spiral bound and have them delivered straight to the desk of their prospects. 

By using online printing shop Mimeo, they were able to complete overnight printing and meet proposal deadlines without sacrificing the time they needed to finalize the documents and bring in the pink group to thoroughly review before submitting. 

When Apple found the best online print partner for Motorola, she gave her team back 30% of their time. Last minute presentations were no longer a stressful challenge and Motorola Solutions was able to deliver even more winning bids. 

5. Haunted Warehouses Filled with Outdated Materials

Parker Drilling’s Safety Training Team had a time and cost intensive document process, involving lots of pre-printing and warehousing. Turnaround time for the delivery of documents could be as long as 10 days, creating significant business challenges. 

Their team was left with a haunted warehouse filled with out-of-date classroom materials as a result of their existing mode. By switching to Mimeo as their on demand print partner, they no longer needed a warehouse and could order just as many items as they needed — no more, no less.

Be the hero your team needs and end your printing nightmares with a free Mimeo account.