I have a huge confession to make. I’ve not had business cards since 2006. Any self-respecting networker or business owner would think i’m mad by not having had any, but i’ve held off for one very good reason (actually two). I paid through the nose for a few hundred cards in 2003 when I first set up one of my businesses… which I then promptly rebranded four months later, with a new logo and the lot. My business cards were bin-bound. I then ordered some more when we moved into our first offices, complete with our new office phone number, address, the lot. 8 months later we ran out of space and had to move offices – and we couldn’t keep our old office phone number as we were on an internal exchange. Business cards once again rendered useless. I stopped bothering after that.
Until now.
Over the last year, i’ve been busy getting Compare.ie off the ground, and the site is now well into ‘Version 2′ of its development. Now that basic traffic levels are good, and based on user feedback, i’m building out new channels and working on various tools to allow Compare.ie users to compare almost anything. To facilitate this myriad of comparison tools I need partners. To meet these partners I need to network. To network – i’ve realised yet again – I need business cards. Problem is, I also need more time.
So, without time to get in touch with a designer to make my cards look good, without the time to waddle down to a printers to approve drafts and pick the cards up when they get printed, and without the urge to pay through the nose for business cards yet again, I decided to give MOO a shot.
MOO is a great little business i’ve heard a lot of over the years. They’re a 100% internet based business focussed on one thing – printing cards, and more specifically, business cards. And based on most of the reviews i’ve heard they do it particularly well.
You don’t need to hire an expensive designer if you’d like to get your business cards printed by MOO (although you can if you like). They have literally hundreds of business card templates you can choose from to create your cards quickly and easily, or you can use their ‘Text-o-matic‘ tool to easily create business cards with tons of different slogans of your choosing on one side of them. You can even upload photographs from your desktop or flickr to print on the flip side of your cards – a different photo for every single card should you so wish. A great idea for photographers and other creative types.
With ten minutes free time available to me one Thursday morning to get the things designed and ordered, I went for the ‘Text-o-matic’ option. I simply bashed out some slogans off the top of my head, uploaded my logo, filled in my contact details using one of the pre-defined layout templates for the contact side, et voila. The system was super easy to use, and brought me through the process step by step. It’s idiot proof, and believe me, I can be a total idiot the majority of the time.
MOO had a special offer on – 200 business cards for £39.99 + £5 postage which wasn’t so bad for such a hassle free process, and certainly far less than i’ve paid in the past.
Just a few days later my cards arrived in a lovely, shiny, happy, well presented box. Not only did I receive my business cards, I also received a handy card holder, complete with Filofax ‘Mine’ and ‘Theirs’ separators I you can keep my cards and those of my new found contacts separate. Here’s a photo.
The card quality was excellent, as was the colour quality. Bold colours, with a great matte finish to really set them off. However, there was one teeny-tiny problem. Look closely at the contact details side of the card – doesn’t it look a little bit off centre?
I have to say, I was slightly disappointed by this – one tiny little problem like this unfortunately took the shine off my experience with MOO. After half a days deliberation about whether it was something to highlight for them or not, I sent MOO a quick email:
Hey,
I just have to say I love the service. The website is friendly, easy to use, and the delivery was prompt!
However – and it’s a big however because I used your ‘Text – o – Matic’ business card creation tool - each and every one of my cards was off centre on the contact details side.
Do you think you could run off a few copies at your end and see what I mean? I’d hate to go to the hassle of sending them back, but it did slightly ruin a really good experience with your company up until the cards arrived.
I’m just letting you know because if it was generated from one of your templates, heaps more of your customers might have had the same results?
Anyway, i’m looking forward to hearing from you!
Kind regards and thanks,
Hugh
I wasn’t expecting anything really. I didn’t ask for anything in particular, simply I asked if they could run off a few copies at their end to see if they could replicate the problem I had. Perhaps other people were getting the same results as me? I did, after all, use their ‘self service’ online card designer software – maybe there was an issue with it I should highlight for them. In my head, the very most I was expecting was a discount off my next order with them – should I even bother to order from them again – and nothing more.
Shortly afterwards my response from MOO arrived, and I have to say I was more than pleasantly surprised! Here goes:
Dear Hugh,
Thank you for getting in touch with the MOO Team.
That’s great - thank you very much for your lovely feedback – it is much appreciated.
However, we are sorry to hear that your order did not come out as expected and that your information on the back of the cards was off centred. We have a 2mm leaway in the cutting process, so we cannot gurantee that your cards will print out as accurately as a result.
We would be happy to reprint your cards again for you free of charge. Its ok, there is no need to return the old cards back to us. Thank you.
Please feel free to contact us again if you have further questions.
Best Regards,
Mrs [Name deleted to keep the lovely woman's privacy intact!]
Service Agent – MOO
Wow! How about that for a ‘no quibble’ guarantee? ”We’re sorry. Don’t send the cards back, they’re yours to keep – and we’ll reprint and send you out some more free of charge”. Pretty much immediately, I even got a message from the MOO website saying my cards were being reprinted and would be with me very shortly.
MOO just showed how much respect they have for their customers and how they would do anything to keep them happy. Whilst other, more ‘old fashioned’ printing businesses would whinge and moan about proofs and sign offs and printing costs and the sort – for the sake of some card and ink – MOO were more than happy to say “hey, we made a mistake, but it’s our job to rectify it and let’s show you why you should stay a customer of ours.”
And I will stay a customer of theirs. I’ll be ordering from MOO again. Now – instead of spreading the word about where not to get business cards from – i’m now telling my friends, colleagues, family, and you via this blog post, just how great my experience with MOO was.
A fantastic example of how great customer service won’t just keep existing customers happy, but can also help generate even more business via a priceless marketing channel – word of mouth. Well done MOO!