What Makes a 25 Year Legacy in Custom Shirts?

Feb. 2, 2012 - PRLog -- What helps a local t shirt printing in Sunnyvale, CA company survive in these hard times of economic turbulence, outsourcing, and increased competition?

Well one thing that never changes, a core belief in the customer and a commitment to cultivating long relationships. Sitting down with the owners, we discovered that it's been a dialog of one on one conversations, help, and oversight from idea to the final stages of the finished product that have created loyal customers, some for as long as fifteen years or more.

As a quick test; a phone call to the toll free line: 1-800-747-7447 and you'll most likely end up talking to one of the owners. Customers love to drop in and share a chat, show a new project get samples and see the products in the showroom. A quick tour and guests can see the printing through a special window into the production facilities. The shirts seem to fly off the automatic press, while other presses are set up for manual printing.

Most of the printing staff has been with Century Graphics for more than five years and a few for over ten. It takes special skill to get the right feel, and handling of a perfect printed shirt. While watching, the shirts are inspected as a job is in production on the press, then while  processed for curing and before being packaged. The production area always hums with activity and when all is done; paperwork is processed for immediate invoicing and customer notification.

A jovial staff handles all customer requests, special instructions, artwork mockup and approvals. While we were at  Century Graphics for our interview - we saw a customer come in for a press check. With everything looking perfect, the customer gave the thumbs up and was told the shirts would be ready by the end of the day. Perfect timing, as the event would be the next day in the afternoon. After asking, we found out that particular customer had put the order in on Monday, just 3 days before and already everything was lined up, shirts ordered, artwork on the screens and ready to be completed.

We talked to one of the full time graphic designers on staff and she shared with us that most customers enjoy the convenience of being able to email their art in and send in all their orders by email. With a customized order database, all special requests and shirt varieties can be handled in a single order - no problem. Customers are happy not to have to work with a temperamental online system - they just shoot an email into sales@cgshirts.com and hours later, confirmation paperwork is emailed back for approval.  Any questions, and the staff jumps on it immediately. Anticipation is a customer service trait  - not an exception.

We also saw that promotional orders for mugs, pens, journals, water bottles, backpacks, flash drives, cameras, and cases were being handled. Many of them were rushes for trade show events that were happening that weekend. These customers also needed company apparel for the marketing staff personnel that were going, so embroidered polos, button downs, jackets and hats were also being produced.

We flipped through one of the catalogs and saw many fashionable products, American Apparel, Bella, Devon & Jones, Port Authority, Cutter & Buck just to name a few.

We were told it was easy to see what was available by going to the Century Graphics website:

Visit http://www.cgshirts.com

To see about Corporate Apparel - follow this easy link to get things going asap:

Visit http://www.cgshirts.com/?pageid=250

We asked about promotional items and many are easy to find on the left hand side navigation by category like Games, or Key Tags and Mints.  

There were so many choices it was almost too overwhelming. We were assured that the customer service reps, were eager to guide the customer to the best choices fast.

With the phones ringing and life jumping at Century Graphics  - we let them get back to what they do best - helping customers.

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