How Yellow Springer Custom Tees & Promotions Streamlined Their Art Department
07 April, 2022
Bottom Line Up Front: Learn how Yellow Springer Custom Tees & Promotions combined the power of GraphicsFlow’s Art Approvals with the efficiency of InkSoft Stores to grow a successful business.
Most business owners will tell you any tools that make life easier for their team and customers are a welcome addition. For Yellow Springer Tees & Promotions, that resource has been GraphicsFlow and its handy features like Art Portal. The business covers a wide range of custom-printed apparel, promotional products, and corporate gifts. Based in Yellow Springs, Ohio, owner Mark Heise and his team serve the greater Dayton area and beyond.
If the town name sounds familiar, Yellow Springs is also a home base for comedian Dave Chappelle. Coincidentally when we last caught up with Mark, he was prepping an order for a different comedian who tapped the business for their tour merchandise. Mark says the company has seen some substantial growth in recent months, partially attributed to GraphicsFlow.
Better approvals, better customer experience
Yellow Springer added GraphicsFlow Art Portal to their website about eight months ago. Mark says it’s helped him immensely with customer communications. “Once they’ve found something they like, I tell them to send it back to me, tell me the colors, wording, and if they want any clipart swapped out,” Mark says.
The business has also found success using the Art Portal with in-person customers. Mark says if a customer comes into the shop and needs a T-shirt order but doesn’t have a design yet, they’ve got a solution. There’s an iPad kiosk set up that they can use to browse through Yellow Springs’ Art Portal while they’re in-house.
“It’s a nice setup because my daughter can stand there and work with the customer to find exactly what they need for their design,” he says.
Customers can submit multiple design requests while they’re on site. If they’ve gotten a grasp of browsing the portal, they can continue browsing from home.
Since design requests directly interface with GraphicsFlow Art Approvals, Mark says the mockup process has become simpler for him and his team. Before using GraphicsFlow, the business used email. Sometimes, there would be confusion over who had replied to a customer and which jobs were still pending.
“Now, all my customer’s information stays with their profile. Nothing gets lost,” says Mark. “That’s the best part about it.”
Noticeable improvements
One of Mark’s most significant improvements since adopting GraphicsFlow is a quicker move to the ordering phase from the art mockup. He says the old “drawing on the napkin” from a customer is a thing of the past, and his new workflow makes it easier to get customers to commit to orders.
“We see more orders closed faster because we don’t have to guess what the customer wants,” Mark explains. “They’re giving us a visualization and coming back with specifics.”
Art Portal’s functionality has also helped reduce customers going to competitor websites to build design ideas. In the past, he says, customers would occasionally come to him with a screenshot of a design idea they’d created with a third-party website. Now that’s happening less since customers can build designs directly from Yellow Springer’s site.
Mark says that collaboration has also become a lot easier for him and his additional company branch in the Akron area. Mark and his team no longer have to send large email attachments. And it’s been easier for him and the Akron team to sync on customer projects since all customer information is stored online.
School days
One of Yellow Springer’s biggest recent scores has been the addition of Wright State University, a public research university in Dayton as a customer. Mark originally started working with the school’s Veteran and Military Center. But, because the shop didn’t have the licensure for the university, he wasn’t able to print the school name on any merchandise.
“The organization championed us and were able to move things forward so I could explain to their marketing and communications departments the importance of being able to do small runs for groups at the college,” Mark explains.
Since that initial meeting, Mark says the shop is licensed for all the college’s print-on-demand gear. They’re now flush with jobs from several college organizations. Greek organizations, LGBTQ groups, student clubs, and more use Yellow Springer as their leading printer.
And that influx of orders will boost the shop’s bottom line in the coming months. Mark says he estimates Yellow Spring’s online ordering will triple. He sees it continuing to grow from there. Even with the heavy growth, the shop still runs a small team with Mark, his daughter, and a few part-time helpers.
“Because of the efficiencies that GraphicsFlow has provided and the simplification of our workflow, it’s allowed us to have more time to develop the business,” he says.
Combining two platforms
In addition to using GraphicsFlow for better artwork approvals and order commitment, Mark says the shop’s also used InkSoft’s tools to streamline other business areas.
The shop uses InkSoft Stores for the main Yellow Springer storefront, where it showcases a wide variety of printed goods and gives customers the chance to request a quote. Combined with the shop’s Art Portal, it’s been a boon for both in-house and online customers.
Mark says customer stores like the one the business started for Wright State University’s Veteran and Military Center are also a significant profit center.
The college store will eventually expand to have separate tabs for other organization stores. Mark says those requiring much larger order volume will ultimately get their own storefronts.
By combining the tools of both GraphicsFlow and InkSoft, Mark says he and his team have optimized their workflow and continue to save time.
“If you can give me time back, that’s better than gold,” he says. “Money can flow up and down, but time is constant.”
Learn more about Yellow Springer Tees and Promotions here.
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