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where can i find some instructions for vehicle wrapping?
Does anyone have a clue where I can find some instructions concerning vehicle wrapping. I need it to my customer. Thank you
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13 Replies
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You may be able to find examples by searching the forums. However, there does not appear to be a "standard" set of customer instructions. You’ll need to write your own instructions for customer to follow.
From the examples I’ve seen, writing your own instructions is an excellent opportunity to create a professional document with your shop info and logo.
Cheers,
Rod
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sorry to be blunt signflex, but if your customer needs instructions on how to wrap via a bit of paper, he really shouldn’t be wrapping at all. it is not text book stuff. it is a skill that can only be mastered by experience.
everyone has their own methods of application. finding as many tips and tricks on wrapping by experienced wrappers coupled with your own ability and constant practice is the way forward in becoming confident enough to begin offering wrapping to your customer.
those who offer it premature simply because they see ££££ signs, deserve to fall flat on their face when the job fails days/weeks down the line. -
For complex jobs, of course you need to perform installation. However, small jobs (i.e., low dollar value) can be supported by a thoughtful document that reduces customer complaints and maintain positive experience (i.e., repeat business for the $$ items).
Based on SIGNFLEX’s original post, I was reminded of good example from another sign forum site. Unfortunately, the uksignboards.com forum are preventing me from posting reference, so to respect this I will just leave general comment to do a little searching around for examples.
Cheers,
Rod
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Remember at the same time your talking your self out of a job, the only next thing for your customer to get there signs cheaper is to have them printed from a trade supplier.
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customers have problems putting a telephone number on there vehicles, i dont really mind as they come back and we redo and recharge, giving some1 a wrap to put on on there own wooo no way. i would say thats a total no no, if you are going to go down this route tho you could always put the oracal wrap demo on a cd for them and wait for the fone call to reprint when it goes down the pan! good luck 😕
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quote Rod Young:For complex jobs, of course you need to perform installation. However, small jobs (i.e., low dollar value) can be supported by a thoughtful document that reduces customer complaints and maintain positive experience (i.e., repeat business for the $$ items).
Cheers,
Rod
i do agree with you on this rod, however, as signflex stated it was for "wrapping" i honestly would never consider giving any customer a wrap material to have a go at. i know fine well that even if they got it on 100% they would be back when it pulled because it wasnt took to the correct temperature or something… 😕 adding a disclaimer helps, but they still come back asking for some sort of favour. i much prefer just saying… "you will not be able to wrap this" fitting costs etc etc
i have my gripes even with trade suppliers offering inexperienced sign makers their wrap material simply to offload it… when the material fails they simply spin the blame on the sign makers inexperiencee. and why not?
well… in my view the cowboy will burst the vehicle wrap bubble well before its time through hugely undercutting or badly pricing jobs, bad workmanship and so on… it happens daily with cut vinyl, the same with printing or wrapping etc has already begun. -
I have spent the entire evening putting together a series of instructions for customers to enable them to get their vehicles wrapped properly.
My detailed guidance notes are as follows:-
Instructions for applying vinyl wrap material
1/ Stick hand in pocket
2/ Pull out wedge of cash
3/ Hand cash to experienced professional vehicle wrapper
4/ If required – use inhaler to help recover from the shock of actually paying to get something done properly
5/Collect wrapped vehicle next day(I have also prepared similar fact sheets covering the full range of sign making activities to hand over to customers who prefer the DIY method.)
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Phil, you left out 1a, 2a & 3a which of course are optional.
1a. Put other hand in other pocket.
2a. pull out hankie.
3a Sob gently while handing over large wedge of cash. -
What next – full written instructions on how to purchase a pirated version of Signlab…get a £200 plotter, a list of vinyl suppliers & a free DVD tutorial… :lol1:
You’re not going to get your £50 an hour mechanic or electrician to give you written instructions for fixing cars or wiring houses!
C’mon – showing a customer how to peel the liner off vinyl is about as far as I go with a "just rub it down & peel the tape off" as instructions. It’s not losing business that i ‘fear’ from giving limited instructions – it’s devaluing MY skills. Them ‘managing’ to stick it on squint with two ton of crap under it makes ME look bad ‘cos " it wasn’t hard" in their eyes. Like ‘anybody’ can be an interior designer or a joiner because the saw something on cable TV, or be an I.T. repair man and go around buggering up PC’s ‘cos he’s got a disk off ebay…
I have customers who sometimes buy liveries to apply themselves…under the strict understanding that they don’t advertise where they got it from – I don’t want their possibly dodgy application sullying my name! Other times I’ll ‘let’ them watch – more often than not you’ll get stupid (to us) comments – "Oh, that’s how you do it", or "my mate said you had to…."
As yet, customers understand that quality digital print IS expensive and attracts a premium, some are yet to understand how much… 🙄
Simply educating them the fact that there are various qualities is usually the beginning & end of the sale…nobody wants to buy rubbish that falls off / pops out – and sharing just that simple fact gets you the order. Why? Because the guy down the road didn’t tell them that…Dave
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David, you don’t need to supply full written instructions on how to get a pirate copy of signlab or flexi for that matter, they are sold on ebay quite openly, I can never understand how the manufacturers let them get away with it. Then they just go to a site like this one and ask how to use it !!
I don’t think you are devaluing your skills at all by supplying the customer with instructions on how to apply, its easy enough to pull stuff off the net anyway. There are always going to be customers that don’t want to pay you to install the graphics and if they do put then on squint or with half a ton of dirt underneath it is fairly obvious even to them that its not as easy as they thought it would be, I have even had customers tell me that it was a lot more difficult than they thought it would be and how did I make it look so easy. Don’t forget that your skills are a lot more varied than just applying vinyl to the side of a vehicle, there is the design side of things to start with and then all the preparation before you ever get to the application stage.
I see it as part of the service that I provide and I have actually made more money on a couple of jobs than I would have if I had done the whole job to start with by the time the customer has been back for more graphics because they made a mess of applying. I do however agree with you about customers who apply the graphics themselves not telling anyone where they got them. If someone asked who did your graphics I can see the customer just saying " it was xy signs" not " xy signs supplied them and I fitted them". That could possibly lead to you getting a bad name if they then thought you had fitted them. -
quote martin:David, you don’t need to supply full written instructions on how to get a pirate copy of signlab or flexi for that matter, they are sold on XXXX quite openly, I can never understand how the manufacturers let them get away with it. Then they just go to a site like this one and ask how to use it !!
em, I was trying NOT to advertise that source!! There’s enough people that have just installed their hacked/cracked copy trying to turn themselves into ‘signmakers’ as it is!!.
quote :I don’t think you are devaluing your skills at all by supplying the customer with instructions on how to apply, its easy enough to pull stuff off the net anyway.No, I don’t mean I want it to be a ‘black art’ and not share – customers frequently see me doing it, and depending on whether they are regulars or not, they might get a quick lesson. But a full step by step, with detailed notes on precautions, tensions, temperatures, rubbing forces & alignment techniques is a step too far. They PAY me to do it!
Jokingly, it’s the old parable – "Give a man a fish, he eats for today: Teach a man to fish and you’ve just screwed your fishmonger business…." :lol1: Depending on what it is – application can be as much if not more profitable than supply only…well, it’s what I find. -
Somewhere in the region of half of the vehicle kits we make are not fitted by us.
We may be a little different in that the supply only stuff we do is not retail, it is supplied to dealers, leasing companies, fellow signmakers and the like, for fitting before delivery to the end user. The logistics make it too expensive and time consuming for the vehicles to be delivered and collected from here, or for us to go and do the work on site, so if we don’t do supply only then we just wouldn’t get the work. For this reason we have been known to give leasing company personnel a quick half a days course of instruction free of charge because they are the customer we need to keep happy, not the end user. The easier it is for them to use our product the more likely they are to sell it for us. It is actually quite nice in the winter months just to sit in a nice warm workshop knocking out graphics and let someone else worry about fitting them.
By the same token, we don’t make half the kits we fit. This has its advantages too.
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Ok, thank you everyone for sharing their opinions
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