Andy Wilson Director

In 2000 Westlife featured on 4 No 1 hit songs, some things are best left in the past. For 2 people however it was the first time they would meet. Since then their paths have crossed many times, even working alongside each other for 10 years.

In 2013 Simon Lundy set up Spot On Solutions with the aim of producing high quality artwork and print for brand owners, designers and digital agencies who did not have the correct print skillset. The company has grown over the last 4 years and diversified into other areas such as design, signage and more recently CGI.

In 2016, 3 years to the day after Simon left employment (coincidentally) Andy Wilson made the break to become a freelance artworker. Andy worked for several agencies and by chance the two paths crossed again (Sainsbury’s of all places). Spot On used Andy’s services on a few major projects and the working relationship once again grew.

Andy Wilson has today bought 50% of Spot On Solutions and sits on the board as an equal partner. The investment he has made is going to be used to further expand the company with the acquisition of new software and equipment.

Spot On solutions continues to deliver the highest quality design, artwork and printed collateral, from stationery to 70 square meter graphic installations.

Customer Satisfaction

We take customer satisfaction seriously and after our measure what you manage & manage what you measure blog we thought we had better practice what we preach. So as it’s the end of another busy year we decided to ask our partner clients just how well we’ve done. We used survey monkey and an accredited set of questions to make our customer satisfaction survey official. The survey was sent to every client we have worked with to date and we received a credible 60% response rate (well it was Christmas after all).

The results blew us away, so we’ll summarise below:-

Overall, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with our company?

Satisfied = 100%

Which of the following words would you use to describe our products?

Reliable = 83.33%

High quality = 91.67%

Useful = 25.00%

Unique = 8.33%

Good value for money = 75.00%

How well do our products meet your needs?

Extremely well = 75.00%

Very well = 25.00%

How would you rate the quality of our products?

Very high quality = 66.67%

High quality = 33.33%

How would you rate the value for money of our products?

Excellent = 58.33%

Above average = 33.33%

Average = 8.33%

How responsive have we been to your questions or concerns about our products?

Extremely responsive = 50.00%

Very responsive = 41.67%

Not applicable = 8.33%

How long have you been a customer of our company?

This is my first purchase = 16.67%

Less than six months = 16.67%

Six months to a year = 8.33%

1 - 2 years = 41.67%

3 or more years = 16.67%

How likely are you to purchase any of our products again?

Extremely likely = 58.33%

Very likely = 41.67%

How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?

Promoters = 100%

We take this data very seriously and will be using it to improve in identified areas, the 40% of clients who did not respond is our first priority, what are their feelings? Were they just too busy to respond? In truth, we’ve already started this process, demonstrating we do practice what we preach.

To us the fact that 100% of our clients are satisfied and would recommend us to others makes the job worthwhile and encouragement that we are delivering what we promise “For great value & good honest values, we’re Spot On”. Customer satisfaction for 2015 was good, 2016 will be better!

Manage what you measure & measure what you manage

In this world of KPI and endless spreadsheets it’s sometimes difficult to produce meaningful data, or in reality act upon the data you are producing.

There is no point in producing beautiful spreadsheets if you don’t understand the data, or simply ignore the information being recorded.

Likewise the reverse is also true, there is no point being busy in business if you cannot quantify the results you are achieving, objectively not subjectively.

You have to be careful not to micro manage and measure everything, a top line overview could be far more beneficial than drilling down to the very last point. Balance time to record and manage, verse effort and cost.

Make sure you always ask the most important question:-

‘How will we know we have achieved the desired result?’

Agree a measurement so you know if / when the goal is reached. Once you hit a predefined level you have achieved the goal and have success, this should be based around ROI Return On Investment).

All this sounds simple and forgive me if I’m teaching granny to suck eggs but I have worked with a blue chip retailer who did not have the facility to record DM (Direct Mail) voucher codes and therefore could not measure success or failure.

I also worked with a different blue chip retailer who only noticed, when they had a postal strike, how effective his DM was at driving traffic to the web. The DM was not delivered and the web figures did not have the usual spike. This shows online was recording data and not managing it, while offline was not measuring success.

To recap

Measure what you need (not what you don’t)
Use the data to manage the business
Record what you are managing and use the data
Make sure management and measurement has a benefit and ROI
Make the data available throughout the business, it may be more powerful than you think

Print, it’s not all #000000 and #FFFFFF

Now if you’re a web developer you probably get the joke. If you’re a printer of handle print form digital developers you either don’t get it or the hairs on the back of your neck just stood up.

For everyone still scratching their heads let me explain. Web designers code with colour in Hex, Photographers use RGB and printers us CMYK. It’s the conversion from one to another that’s sometimes overlooked and either not performed or performed on the fly by the program. Even some printers are not au fait with how to produce the best results. Some buyers cannot understand why the results they get are not at all what they were expecting, or why different suppliers produced completely different results (colour and quality etc).

So let me take you a little deeper. I was doing a full media pack for a client who has a very talented web developed in-house, he has produced some great design and executed it beautifully “digitally”. After he supplied a full set of artwork I asked him for the house colours and got the following list:-

Black #000000

White #FFFFFF

Light Green #3EC1C7

Dark Green #24A3A9

Light Grey #F7F8F8

Darker Grey #D2D2D3

I looked at the list it was not what I expected but as we knew the final working colour space was going to be FOGRA39L, we indexed the colours to RGB and then profiled to 39L :-

Colour name HEX RGB 39L (C,M,Y,K)

Black #000000 0,0,0 91,79,66,97 or 100%K

White #FFFFFF 255,255,255 0,0,0,0

Light Green #3EC1C7 62, 193, 199 83,0,38,0

Dark Green #24A3A9 36, 163, 169 93,0,38,0

Light Grey #F7F8F8 247, 248, 248 4,2,3,0 or 5%K

Darker Grey #D2D2D3 210, 210, 211 20,15,15,1 or 25%K

The design also has lots of imagery and this was supplied in RGB colour space, this is not normally an issue but some images included corporate branding with small text in black. If we were to leave these as is and convert on the fly then we would have got 4 colour black text, very small fine 4 colour black text. This is due to black not being a true colour and RGB when converted making blacks and greys into all 4 colours not just black or shades of black. We therefore converted individual files to 39L colour space and amended the files to have single colour black text where necessary, even overprinting or trapped. As you can imagine this is a quite time consuming and laborious but the end result is far superior to just ripping the digital files and getting what your given.

There were lots of other things we put right with the files, these two colour issues being the most important.

So to sum up, if you are building or receiving files build by or re-purposed from the children of the digital age, it’s going to be as well to have the files looked at by someone who knows the source and destination and can give you a file that’s going to print it absolute best, converting to CMYK on the fly isn’t the right way to go in my opinion, it’s just quick and dirty.

"GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out)."

If ivver tha does owt fer nowt

"If ivver tha does owt fer nowt"

(should we undertake ‘FREE’ work)

As a relatively young company Spot On is often asked to demonstrate its capabilities with a ‘FREE’ piece of work. We are not opposed to doing this but we feel it can sometimes ‘Cheapen’ the brand somewhat, or “and if ivver tha does owt fer nowt”, as they say here in Yorkshire.

We have (in a previous lives) worked in the industry for many years (30+ years) servicing blue chip multinational companies with great success but currently we have a small but constantly growing, portfolio of work we can hold up as our own, hence understandably the requirement to sometimes prove our quality of services.

This ‘FREE’ work is a necessary hook to get new business but we have seen this can be the thin end of the wedge, where some would-be clients are concerned and “you did it for free last time so you must be cheap” mentality.

Our approach has been to build relationships and true partnerships, so if we do the ‘FREE’ piece of work we always make the client aware of how much the work would have cost, this manages expectations for the next project and hopefully returns some control back to us. We have found the true partner appreciates the openness and accept the ‘FREE’ work for what it is, a try before you buy sample, not a route into cheap work.

If we do get a client who is constantly trying to undervalue our proposition we have to ask, is this client a true partner and are they traveling in the same direction as us? Martyn Duffield MBE once gave a memorable lecture about staff and clients swimming in the same direction and building the business, rather than swimming against and destroying it, we now see the relevance.

Charity Work

Should we undertake ‘Charity Work’?

They say to ‘walk a mile in my shoes’ gives insight into a person or companies life, so after we drove 2,600 miles with our client we believe we qualify to know much more about them and their operation.

The concept of the Motoscape Rally is to buy a car for £333 or less, turn it into a wacky, eye-catching masterpiece and drive it through some of the greatest roads in Europe. Alternatively use a classic car that’s 20 years or older. It's not just a driving holiday though, it's a great chance to meet lots of new people, raise some money for charity or just have the experience of a lifetime!

Spot On helped Motoscape with design and supply of collateral such as banners, garments and stickers, so when we were asked to join the team for the trip we jumped at the opportunity, even though it was a charity gig, with no payment.

In reflection this company is no different from any other SME, they have the same issues with internal and external communication, supply chain, customer support, banding etc. that we all do, in fact it was really informative to witness them in action, as the whole thing happens so fast, you get to see a complete production cycle in no time at all.

Comms

The internal and external communication need to be produced so that everyone knows what to do, where to be and at what time. These are created ahead of the event and circulated day by day on a need to know basis, to avoid information overload. As with all communication it needs to be clear, on brand and easy to navigate. We have recommended slight amendments and considerations (summary overview and indexed colour for better navigation) but on the whole these were fantastic documents.

Supply Chain

A logistical nightmare trying to get circa 200 people and 70+ vehicles around 12 countries in 7 days with routes, hotels, restaurants and taxis to organise. Most of this is undertaken ahead of the event but as with all business things do change and some adjustments are needed on the ground as the event unfolds. Good communication as above is the key to success and the old adage “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail” is very relevant. We have recommended improvement for ‘Brand’ messaging to support the supplier’s i.e. POP templates for posters where hotel navigation and offers can be added. Offers are a key driver as hotels supplement the reduction in room rate with bar and restaurant offers to increase footfall and revenue. So making the ‘Motoscape’ competitor aware of these offers is paramount.

Branding

The ‘Banger Rally’ is a rapidly growing market so branding is very important, you obviously want people to know which rally the customer has been on. Branding of everything is so important. Every interaction with client, social media etc. needs to be branded, Motoscape have done this perfectly, in the usual way with stickers on the cars and pop up banners with the logo on etc. but they have also introduced a very clever mechanism, a soft toy ‘Monty’ the mini. By getting the competitors to take pictures including ‘Monty’, the Motoscape brand is reinforced continually. Customer interaction was far better than envisaged, next year ‘Monty’ is to be replaced with ‘Minty’ his sister.

Conclusion

Charity work should not be something to be afraid of, it should be embraced, as we had a fantastic week with some outstanding individuals, raising thousands for charities. We have assisted with branding and collateral and the most important outcome is “We know and understand our client’s needs and their clients’ needs”. Now that’s got to be worth putting some time into.

Thanks to Motoscape and all the competitors

http://www.motoscape-rally.co.uk/

Spot On is ONE

A year in numbers

We have had a great first year and managed to exceed our business plan, so we thought we would share some stats and thoughts with you, the ones we can talk about anyway. We do lots of white label consulting and production for brand owners and agencies who would rather us work anonymously (we’re cool with this) allowing them to have expert advice and production on tap without appearing to outsource.

Zero

This is what we started with zero, nothing, nowt. It’s a million miles from where we are today but it’s a great reference point, we started with no money and no clients.

Fourteen

We had not one client when we started trading on second September Twenty Thirteen, we now have fourteen loyal clients we call partners.

Forty Four

We have worked with our partners on many different projects (see below) but we have produced a very diverse range of collateral for forty four different brands, from many different sectors.

One Hundred and Fifty Two

The number of pieces of collateral we have produced for our partners, most of these are offline but we also produce online collateral.

Two Hundred and Thirty Two

We still use Direct Marketing (Snail Mail) and have had great success with it, so much so we have sent out two hundred and thirty two bespoke pieces of DM to targeted recipients.

Three Hundred and Eighty

The number of companies (partners) in our Customer Relationship Management system (CRM system) these are all possible clients, suppliers or both. We have spoken to all of them in one way or another.

Six Hundred and Forty Six

The number of contacts working for the partners in our CRM, they all know our name and #SpotOn catchphrase.

Nine Hundred and Ninety Two

The approximate number of teas consumed in the first year, working on days in the office leaving half cups, late nights and the rest.

One Thousand Four Hundred and Seventy Two

In this day of digital revolution we use the internet to contact partners, either email or Skype etc. However we do believe in getting out there and seeing clients face to face, we prefer it, so as well as the numerous rail journeys we have clocked up one thousand four hundred and seventy two mile in the car going to meetings, not including the local short trips. We even hit the shoe leather if it’s really local.

Five Thousand One Hundred and Ninety Seven

The distance in miles to our furthest partner, they are in the Seychelles, obviously we would love to go and see them but have to work online to communicate, for now anyway.

So as you can see we have had a great first year, thanks to all our clients and suppliers who have made this a FANTASTIC journey so far. We hope you will join us in celebrating this achievement and join us in looking forward to many more BIG numbers in our future.

The Spot On team.