Look for Opportunities as You Prepare for Reopening

Lily Hunter of Roland (left) spoke with Bob Parrish, president of Instant Imprints in Cumming, Ga., about the company's response to COVID-19 and how it has evolved to help customers.

Staying connected with your community is more important than ever as the economy begins to reopen, following the initial shutdown from the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the sentiment of Bob Parrish, president of Instant Imprints in Cumming, Ga., in a recent Roland DGA 10-minute shop talk, "Customer Spotlight: Instant Imprints."

Parrish, along with Lily Hunter, product manager at Roland, took some time to walk through how to prepare your business for reopening and what Instant Imprints has been doing to keep the business active during this unprecedented time.

He explained that as businesses move toward reopening, Instant Imprints is taking all of the precautions that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended, including taking the temperatures of employees and providing protective masks. Not only is the company taking precautions seriously for its employees, Parrish explained that it is also doing everything it can to protect and serve its customers, which includes proactively reaching out to customers to see what they need that Instant Imprints can provide — whether that means signs or information.

Finding New Opportunities

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Parrish said the company wasn't doing too many floor graphics for customers locally. Now, floor graphics have been used increasingly to guide people in restaurants and stores. Although he had taken a seminar on floor and wall graphics in the past, it wasn't until one customer requested the application, that Instant Imprints in Georgia started to offer more widely to its customers.

“Most people couldn’t see the benefits of it, until this happened," he said.

Floor graphics are useful for many things, including to denote where someone should stand to receive a takeout order from a restaurant or how far apart to stand from the customer in front of them when they're in line.

Another opportunity Parrish mentioned is the burgeoning need for signage and graphics in the restaurant space. He explained that some restaurants that are doing purely takeout and delivery have employed their servers to become delivery drivers. That has opened up the possibility of producing car magnets for the employees to advertise the restaurant as they deliver orders to customers.

As states begin loosening regulations, some restaurants have been using an empty table in between tables to enforce the 6-ft. rule between customers dining in. Instant Imprints can provide those restaurants with signage to put on every other table to indicate which are closed off to diners.

Parrish explained that there are plenty of opportunities to serve the community and provide them with the signs and graphics that they need.

He suggested meeting as many people as possible in the community to make sure people know your capabilities and what you can do for them. Consider joining the Chamber of Commerce, sitting on the board of a charity or nonprofit, or going to community events.

“The more people you know, the more chance somebody will say your name” when they need a sign or graphic, he advised. 

Hunter closed out the live event by touching on the importance of exploring new opportunities, especially in a time when everything is so rapidly evolving and changing.

“Never stop learning," she said. "Learn different medias. Learn different applications, and you can’t go wrong with that."