As I was reading through a pile of magazines and articles looking for interesting angles on direct mail printing, I received a call from my car mechanic that my car was ready.

I should mention that whenever I buy or lease a new car, I tend to have it serviced by the dealership to keep the warranty intact, and to make sure that there is never a reason for them to renege on any major repair costs.  I love my Odyssey van and have opted to keep and maintain it instead of trading it in for something else.

However, repairs tend to get more major and expensive with age and, at that point, I try to find an independent mechanic who I can trust will do the repairs in my best interest, i.e. won’t do unnecessary repairs.

In the past, I have had a mechanic charge me a paltry $100 for a transmission repair on my BMW (before kids, when I still had money) that every other dealership wanted to charge me $4,000!

Fortunately for me, a neighbour of mine led me to a similar mechanic for my Odyssey.

On a recent trip a couple of months, a front spring broke on my van and while I was able to make it home and then to the repair shop, it was basically undrivable.  Although my new mechanic was completely booked up, I explained my predicament about needing my van (what family can survive with only one vehicle these days?) and he said he would nevertheless fix it for me — that day.

As the day wore on and then the evening, I was resigned to the fact that it was not going to get fixed that day.

But as I was preparing to go to bed, I received a call that he was bringing the repaired van to my house… at midnight!

I was shocked, and even more shocked, when I asked about paying the bill. He said, “Just drop by in the next couple days and we’ll straighten it out.”

Try driving your car away from a dealership repair shop without paying!

Then just over this past weekend, as luck would have it, the battery indicator light on my dashboard came on indicating a battery or alternator problem.  So of course, I brought it over to my mechanic for repair.

That was when I received his call.

He told me, “Your van is ready. I’ll come to pick you up.”

Hesitatingly, I asked, “How much?”

Expecting a bill of $500 or so for a new alternator, I was again pleasantly surprised when he told me that it only needed a new belt, not the alternator. Cost = $96.

So, why am I talking about car repairs and mechanics on a direct mail blog?

Wouldn’t you feel more relaxed and at ease knowing that your direct mail printer is looking after YOUR best interests, not the company’s?  It’s the service that will differentiate your ideal printer from the rest.  It’s the service on the exceptional jobs that will build trust and confidence.

With quality and delivery schedules being a constant, isn’t it better to be working with someone you can TRUST will not charge you for unnecessary services or products?  In my experience, the printing “big boys” or MegaPrinters usually cannot be as service-oriented as the smaller, mid-sized printers.

But whoever you choose as your trustworthy dm ‘mechanic’ is ultimately up to you.

Build a strong relationship with your ‘mechanic’ and you will produce your mail campaigns with ease and confidence.

Rainer

P.S. For your own personal direct mail mechanic, head on over to DM Graphics.