Interview with an Associate Member - Rich from Plastic Resource

We are going to start periodically interviewing associate
members so that you can become more familiar with the

large retail service provider network we have established

over the past year.

Our first interview was conducted on Mr. Rich Junker of
Plastic Resource. Richard has worked in the gift card

printing industry for over 5 years, while Plastic Resources

has been in business for over 15 years and boasts over 100

years of combined experience in custom printing and design.

What is your favorite color:

Pantone 343 –hunter green

If you could offer any advice to retailers out there,

what would you say?

Make it easy on yourself, know your data from the

beginning, you’re the one that will ultimately have to run

the system or program.

What kind of cards and products are available

from Plastic Resources?

Loyalty cards, custom cards, business cards, gift cards,

phone cards, key tags, membership cards and card

carriers.

If you were a retailer, what do you think your

favorite part of your day would be?

Counting receipts from gift card sales.

What is your favorite meal?

Is there anything other than pizza?

Do you have any hobbies?

My kids, they’re doing everything I wish I could have

done more of.

Do you have a secret super powers or abilities?

I seem to have this incredible ability to repel fish away

from me wherever I am. The large ones anyway, I can

catch bait fish and salad (weeds) no problem.

What is your favorite climate?

Still investigating. I’ve not traveled to a tropical island

yet. I’m working on a way to disguise the sounds of the

beach to be able to work, “remotely”.

Name: Rich Junker
Position: Sales Representative
Company: Plastic Resource Inc.
What state are you in:

Minnesota (At this time there’s no comment about the Vikings).
Company link:
http://www.plasticresource.com/

For more information on our associate members, please

visit: http://onestepretail.com/retail/recommended/

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Retail Marketing Tips

Hi guys! I just attended a very well received social media
webinar hosted by Mari Smith and Guy Kawasaki. Both
are not only experts in social media but have a serious
knack for creating and building relationships. I found
some of their tips to be particularly useful to retailers so
am pleased to be able to share them with you. The full
webinar can be watched here:
http://marismith.com/7smtrends/video.html

Point #1: Listening to your customers.
Going out of your way once can result in a repeat
customer for years to come. Imagine a customer of
yours posts on Twitter “I am in serious need of a (insert
a product of yours here)” and you catch that post. You
then message them or, even better, reach out to them
by phone – VOILA very happy customer and you can
bet they will mention that to at least a few friends.

Morton’s Steakhouse took this concept to a new level
and became one of the top 5 Tweets of the year. For
the Morton’s Steakhouse story -
http://ramonwow.visibli.com/share/lYoR45

Point #2: Not allowing pictures in your store.
Many retailers do not allow photos in store or of the
merchandise. While this makes sense if that person was
going to go off to replicate the item or purchase a similar
style at another store, in the age of social media, the odds
of one posting this image up onto their own sites
(Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter) is quite high.
Girls are forever trying on hats, sunglasses and bling and
posting these pictures for their friends to see, many will
even ask opinions on if to buy or not from their friends.

Allowing photography can open you up to free promotion.

Point #3: Spam vs promotion
Many are concerned about “spamming” their followers. One
point is that that individual did elect to hear about you, your
offers and what you are up to. If you keep your content
relevant, helpful and fun, you are actively promoting, NOT
spamming.

Point #4: Pinterest
Further confirmation that this is a force to be reckoned with.
Please see One Step’s earlier blog for tips on its use.
http://retail-services.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-get-sales-through-pinterest_1530.html

Point #5: What to do if you get a complaint or goof up.
There is a new coined word going around, “flawsome” which
is flawed and awesome smooshed into one word Lewis
Carroll style.
The concept behind this is to not aim for perfection but
staying “real”. How you handle goofs and negative reviews
means more to a customer than being flawless. Per a study
noted in the webinar, many actually prefer to know that there
are some flaws or they feel that the company or service is not
real. Aim for your best but don’t automatically delete all
negativity on your sites. The webinar goes into some tips for
handling negative reviews or comments on social media sites.

Point #6: Pictures are like eye candy.
Keep the pictures coming. You can even have fun with the
different apps (Instagram is increasingly popular for retailers)
or just grab an image from istockphoto to go with your posts.
Pictures will increase interaction and familiarity.

I hope that this helps you!
Amy Hanson
www.onestepretail.com

Me trying on wraps at a vintage store for my best friend

(just a few weeks ago) to wear over her wedding dress.

I needed to get pictures to send up to her in Portland but

due to a no photo rule I was cut short. I explained the

situation to the sales clerk but she was adamant,

LOST sale.

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Plastic Card Printing in the USA vs. Outsourcing Abroad

Plastic Resource, a Minnesota company, recently

launched a new web site aimed towards worldwide

growth of plastic gift cards, loyalty cards and custom

plastic printing.

http://plasticresource.com/

Millions of Americans interact with plastic card

products on a daily basis. Your health club membership

card gets swiped, use plastic gift cards to pay for your

coffee, accumulate points at lunch with your loyalty cards,

and stand out from your competition with plastic business

cards. Most of us have come to assume these plastic card

products come from oversees. One Minnesota based

company plans to change the perception of plastic gift

cards, loyalty cards and custom plastic printing by

expanding their influence online with a redesigned and

multi-functional web site.

“It’s really our customer service, attention to detail and

reliability that separates us from our international

competition”, says Steve Chesley principal at Plastic

Resource. “It’s translating those competitive advantages

to the online marketplace that has been a challenge. In

this industry price is king. However, what price do

businesses place on getting things done right, reliable
relationships and time? The actual plastic gift cards or

loyalty cards are not the commodity. Plastic printing is

something easy for us; we’ve been doing it for years. It’s

understanding business owners and connecting with

them on a higher customer service level that

differentiates us from our international competition”,

says Chesley.

Plastic Resource recently launched their newly designed

web site to address the growing US and international

markets. The site focuses on their core offerings; Plastic Gift
Cards, Plastic Loyalty Cards and Custom Plastic Printing

(business cards, luggage tags, etc.). “Ease of use, instant

response and clear product offerings were our focus”, says

Chesley. “Considering the process involved with printing
on plastic, customers will still most likely pick up the phone

and call but, like with so many industries these days, the

amount of online research conducted before that call is ever

growing. Developing a comfort level and providing a price

point baseline before the customer calls is paramount to the
beginning of a positive relationship”.

About Plastic Resource Plastic Resource is a custom

plastic printing company based in Cottage Grove,

Minnesota. Plastic Resource serves the custom plastic

printing needs of businesses around the world and delivers

technical expertise in all aspects of UV printing including

graphic design, printing, laminating, die cutting, data
application and fulfillment.

Contact Steve Chesley at 651.702.9243 or

mailto:kdinsmore@plasticresource.com with inquires.

Media contact:

Brad McDowell
Plastic Resource
P: 651.702.9243
F: 651-702-9257
bmcdowell@plasticresource.com
http://www.plasticresource.com/

 

 

Plastic Resources is a member of the One Step Retail

Solutions, Retail Professional Association:

http://onestepretail.com/retail/recommended/ 

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How to Generate 2D Barcodes in Excel

by Nate Schubert

Generating 2D barcodes from fonts in Microsoft Excel is more complicated than generating standard linear barcodes from fonts because Excel does not recognize line breaks or carriage returns when the data is being encoded in Excel. This results in a barcode display that does not stack the individual lines of encoded text. Instead, these blocks are laid out horizontally to form a rectangle rather than a square. This is not a readable 2D barcode. While the IDAutomation Barcode Add-In may not be directly compatible with Excel, there are a few alternatives that we can explore.

ActiveX Barcode Controls

The easiest component to use for generating 2D barcodes in Excel is the Linear + 2D Barcode ActiveX Control. This component can be dropped into a particular cell on a template to generate dynamic barcodes, or used individually in spreadsheets to generate static barcodes. The IDAutomation ActiveX Linear + 2D component is capable of generating all of the linear barcodes from the standard package in addition to the following 2D barcode types:

• Data Matrix (ECC200, also conforms to UID label marking standards)
• PDF417
• MaxiCode
• Aztec

Installation and usage instructions are provided in the User Manual and are specific for Microsoft Excel, Word, Access, FrontPage, Visual Basic, Visual C++ and Visual FoxPro.

Word Mail-Merge with the 2D Font and Encoder for Windows

Where Microsoft Excel is unable to properly recognize line breaks and carriage returns in encoded data, Microsoft Word does not have this problem. As a result, many customers are able to use this workaround to perform a Word Mail-Merge to combine all of the data and resulting barcodes into Excel. This will work with any IDAutomation 2D Barcode Font and Encoder for Windows (with the exception of QR), the more affordable of the two font and encoder packages offered for each 2D barcode type. Each product User Manual will contain installation and usage details, and each product also has it's own demo available for testing. A Barcode Mail Merge Video Tutorial was created by our staff to provide a visual instruction for this use.

Due to complications in how the QR symbology is created, QR barcode generation is not possible using fonts or the ActiveX Control at this time. Users may prefer the Linear + 2D Barcode Image Generator or the Barcode Label Software Pro to generate QR in Excel. 

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RSPA Connect Features One Step Retail Article

Our CEO and Founder, Scott Kreisberg's recent article on Retail Loss Prevention was recently included in the Retail Solutions Provider Association's monthly publication Connect.

We are proud to be affiliated with this upstanding retail association.

http://www.gorspa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=5075

For more information on One Step Retail Solutions visit our website: www.onestepretail.com

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5 Customer Service No-Nos

Customer service is a function that every member of every group handles in one capacity or another. From reception to security and on over to your sales clerks, this is helpful information for all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2OfswoyQmU&feature=colike

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Success in 2012 LogiMAT

Thanks to all the prospects, partners, customers, press representatives who vistited the TSC team and its portfolio printers at LogiMAT in Stuttgart. TSC's 2012 first show was another big success and proof of the increasing brand recognition. This is smart. This is TSC. The Smarter Choice!

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Budgeting Tips for Point of Sale

Many retailers shake their heads in wonder over what to budget for retail technology. Imagine going to a car dealership and thinking that car payments would be comparable to your mortgage or rent, you would be pleasantly surprised. Now imagine you thought that your car payments should be the equivalent of a pint of ice cream - not such a pleasant surprise.

Surprisingly, there is a lack of data on what to budget for point of sale. The concept of a budget is frequently glossed over in manuals, books and ebooks - sometimes limited to only a token mention "create a business plan".

Ideally, an experienced retail consultant can be brought in as you are starting up your shop to really help you cover all bases, greatly increasing your chances of success in the long haul. If this isn't possible, we recommend speaking with successful shops who can help you determine what retail technology you may need to guaranty success in the long run, what features help them, what they wish they had, etc.

A solid rule of thumb is as follows: 2% of your yearly gross sales for the initial purchase of software, hardware, installation and training for a point of sale system. Retailers should ALSO be sure to budget 1% of their yearly sales towards maintenance, upgrades and the like.

Note that this is the GROSS profit, defined as - "total income from sales, salary, etc., BEFORE any deductions". Deductions would include inventory, payroll, rent and taxes.

For a free point of sale consultation
 

For a list of our recommended retail consultants, listed by state. 

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Powerful Labeling & Reporting Software with only 20MB

TEC-IT releases version 7 of the label printing and reporting suite TFORMer!

Performance and Usability

The new version of this label printing and reporting tool combines unmatched functionality with high performance and small resource requirements. The download size of the complete package is about 20 MB and contains all features, no additional 3rd party software is required.

Streaming

TFORMer SDK version 7 supports so-called streaming: the required output is generated completely in-memory, no file system access is required. This feature dramatically improves output speed and is especially of interest if TFORMer SDK is used as backend for PDF creation in web services. For an example check out the online QR-Code business card generator of TEC-IT.

New Features

Label Setup Wizard

In addition, TFORMer Designer V7 convinces through enhanced usability.
The software provides a new and easy-to-use page and layout setup wizard. Standard labels or simple reports are created with a few clicks, well-known brand label templates (e.g. Avery^®) are available.
Besides German and English, the new version also offers a Spanish user interface.

Rich Text with Super- and Subscript

To meet sophisticated output requirements, V7 also supports super- and sub-scripting as well as adjustable soft-hyphenation for rich text elements. Full-featured bar-code printing capabilities for linear and 2D bar-codes are integrated seamlessly in the product.

Product Download

TFORMer Designer V7 can be downloaded from the company’s website www.tec-it.com. A 10-day test drive is available for free. TEC-IT’s provides tutorial videos on YouTube and is also available for product support via email, phone or remote conferencing at no charge.

About TEC-IT

TEC-IT Datenverarbeitung GmbH provides high quality software in the areas of automated data acquisition and data collection, bar-coding, barcode extensions for ERP systems, label and form printing, report generators and output management. TEC-IT products are available for all major platforms, thus customers benefit from complete and versatile software solutions for all possible requirements. The company is located in Austria / Europe and can be reached via www.tec-it.com. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Teamwork Retail Website is Now Live! - The POS of Your Dreams

The One Step Team is very excited and proud to announce

the launch of our dedicated Teamwork Retail website.

Teamwork Retail is a Cloud-based Retail Management
System.

Teamwork is poised to become the top point of sale for
retailers across the US. Top of the line mobile POS, cloud

based, Software as a Service, iPad compatible, subscription

based, franchise management, customizable reporting and

much more, this product has it all.

This site is fully set up to answer your questions and give
you a firm feel for it’s capabilities and features.

http://teamworkretailusa.com/

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