{"id":135,"date":"2014-02-04T12:45:23","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T12:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weknowoffice.co\/?p=135"},"modified":"2014-02-04T12:47:20","modified_gmt":"2014-02-04T12:47:20","slug":"choosing-right-office-supplies-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weknowoffice.co\/?p=135","title":{"rendered":"Choosing the Right Office Supplies Partner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">There are so many suppliers to choose from it can be really tough to know which one to go with. \u00a0Having been in the industry my whole career I thought I&#8217;d give you an insider&#8217;s view, and how I&#8217;d go about doing the same thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So\u2026 Having flicked through a few of the <em>thousands<\/em> of websites selling promotional products, you&#8217;ve finally decided what product you like the look of. \u00a0You may have noticed by now that many suppliers sell exactly the same products. \u00a0Sure, they may change the names, and the pictures maybe ever so slightly different, but essentially they\u2019re the same items. \u00a0If you can&#8217;t make a decision based on product then\u00a0I suppose the question of who to go with actually comes down to value for money. \u00a0Sure, a nice conversation with a customer services team may help you decide, but if that friendly member of staff can\u2019t offer value for money or the services of the next supplier, no amount of humour, niceties or whatever drew you towards them will suffice.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few key points that you should judge your supplier on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Communication<\/strong><br \/>\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">What\u2019s their correspondence like? Are they prepared to have open honest dialogue with you? \u00a0Do they know what they\u2019re talking about? \u00a0Some products and processes like furniture and printing can be extremely complicated and you need to be in the hands of an expert to get the best end result.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><strong>Value<\/strong><br \/>\nWho\u2019s the cheapest? Be savvy\u2026 cheapest\u00a0<\/span>isn&#8217;t<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">\u00a0always best value. \u00a0Best practice is to ask for a quote, or contract pricing in writing. \u00a0Don&#8217;t simply compare prices online as many sites don\u2019t display additional costs like brand over alternatives\u00a0and delivery prices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><strong>Lead Time<\/strong><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Can the supplier meet your delivery needs? \u00a0Are they holding sufficient stock of your top items? \u00a0If your order is time sensitive make sure that your supplier can commit to your delivery date. Get it in writing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Service<\/strong><br \/>\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Last but not least &#8211; Service. \u00a0Service speaks volumes. \u00a0Have you bought from this supplier or person before? \u00a0If you have had a good experience it may be best to stay where you are even if you have to pay a few pennies more. \u00a0Does your supplier take ownership of problems or do they leave it up to you?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Range<br \/>\n<\/strong>There is a lot to be said for keeping things simple and having a single supplier. \u00a0It&#8217;s generally just hassle to have lots of different supplier accounts and you&#8217;ll have more buying power if you spend more in the same place. \u00a0There is also an administrative and accounting overhead too. \u00a0Keeping things simple should save you time and money.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">At <\/span>We Know<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"> Office we aim to excel in all of the areas above. \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Contact us today and we will demonstrate our worth.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are so many suppliers to choose from it can be really tough to know which one to go with. \u00a0Having been in the industry my whole career I thought I&#8217;d give you an insider&#8217;s view, and how I&#8217;d go about doing the same thing. So\u2026 Having flicked through a few of the thousands of websites selling promotional products, you&#8217;ve finally decided what product you like the look of. \u00a0You may have noticed by now that many suppliers sell exactly the same products. \u00a0Sure, they may change the names, and the pictures maybe ever so slightly different, but essentially they\u2019re the same items. \u00a0If you can&#8217;t make a decision based on product then\u00a0I suppose the question of who to go with actually comes down to value for money. \u00a0Sure, a nice conversation with a customer services team may help you decide, but if that friendly member of staff can\u2019t offer value for money or the services of the next supplier, no amount of humour, niceties or whatever drew you towards them will suffice. Here are a few key points that you should judge your supplier on: Communication What\u2019s their correspondence like? Are they prepared to have open honest dialogue with you? \u00a0Do they know what they\u2019re talking about? \u00a0Some products and processes like furniture and printing can be extremely complicated and you need to be in the hands of an expert to get the best end result. Value Who\u2019s the cheapest? Be savvy\u2026 cheapest\u00a0isn&#8217;t\u00a0always best value. \u00a0Best practice is to ask for a quote, or contract pricing in writing. \u00a0Don&#8217;t simply compare prices online as many sites don\u2019t display additional costs like brand over alternatives\u00a0and delivery prices. Lead Time Can the supplier meet your delivery needs? \u00a0Are they holding sufficient stock of your top items? \u00a0If your order is time sensitive make sure that your supplier can commit to your delivery date. Get it in writing. Service Last but not least &#8211; Service. \u00a0Service speaks volumes. \u00a0Have you bought from this supplier or person before? \u00a0If you have had a good experience it may be best to stay where you are even if you have to pay a few pennies more. \u00a0Does your supplier take ownership of problems or do they leave it up to you? Range There is a lot to be said for keeping things simple and having a single supplier. \u00a0It&#8217;s generally just hassle to have lots of different supplier accounts and you&#8217;ll have more buying power if you spend more in the same place. \u00a0There is also an administrative and accounting overhead too. \u00a0Keeping things simple should save you time and money. &nbsp; At We Know Office we aim to excel in all of the areas above. \u00a0Contact us today and we will demonstrate our worth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,11,8,13,12,9],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-communication","tag-lead-time","tag-procurement","tag-range","tag-service","tag-value","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weknowoffice.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weknowoffice.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weknowoffice.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weknowoffice.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weknowoffice.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/weknowoffice.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"https:\/\/weknowoffice.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weknowoffice.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weknowoffice.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weknowoffice.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}