Custom Grip Tape manufacturer

Let me tell you about this custom grip tape job.  This is a super important thread to read.  I am gong to let you in on a little secret about great customer service and how we are willing to go above and beyond when we come across a customer that is willing to understand that good things are worth waiting for.   

The feeling of helping a person get the right information to help them move forward in the skateboard industry.   More then 20 years of helping peole find the right solution for their needs is what drives us to continue making skateboards.  As a manufacturer of custom skateboard printing we take pride that the wood we sell you is not some imported deck we can get for cheap and make a buck on it is the wood we glue up in a factory we built from the ground up.  Nothing is more exciting then when a customer has a shipment arrive and call or email us about how well the product is made.  Just today I had a email from a customer that told us as long as we are a in business he will no longer buy from any other deck supplier.   We don't do it for the money we do it for the love of the sport.  From 8am to 9pm we are working hard to ship orders and satify our customers needs.   This custom grip tape job we did was a clear example of that.   How we communicate with our customer when things are not working out well is an important part of the manufacturing process.   This graphic was ordered as a 10 pack.  The graphic was simple enough but the colors were not looking as good as we wanted them to.  I decided to test out some other colors and send some photos of the other colors to the customer.  We printed more then 10 sheets of grip only because we were not happy with how it was looking.   Once I sent the customer photos of how the colors were looking and how much better it looked with these other colors the customer was quick to give us the green light on making the grip tape in multiple color ways.   This is something that cost more but we were willing to put in the extra time, labor, material cost, and effort to ensure a good looking product that will sell.  When a customer wants to order one or hundreds of either printed skateboards, grip tape, or wheels we are there to give an extra layer of comfort.   On a weekly basis we come across prints we made that just don't stand up to our standards.  It can be the art supplied or it could be the shade or quality of the print that can rub us the wrong way and so we reprint.   Sometimes we get a order where we have reprinted the order several times because there might be some small error that we notice in the graphic.  There is a fine line on what is acceptable and what is not.  We are also extreamply responsive to customers feeback.  As a skateboard manufactuer we are dealt with some really tough cards.   We rely on our suppliers of raw materials.  Without our suppliers we would not exist.  I always treat our suppliers with tons of respect and thank them for each and every shipment we get.  Sometimes there are issues that come up with our raw materials and we do our best not to make a big issue out of it.  Why do you ask?  Well let me tell you about a competitor of ours that called us up and want to get some venner from us.  I was confused that he would even call us up and want to buy some raw materials from us so I questioned him about the reason why he was asking us.  He let me know that he was buying veneer from a really reliable source but he kept on complainging about one thing or another.   When he tried to place another order the supplier told him that the price went up and the delivery time was double of what it normally was.   This was a senario I imagened in my head over and over for years as a skateboard manufacturer.   Example this just happened last week.  I have been using a plastic supplier for years for our printing process.  I have been having issues with a part of the material that was slowing us down and loosing us money.  I could still make it work in the procss it did not effect the quality of the skateboards we manufacturer.  When I brought up the situation with the sales rep he could not give me an answer on why it was happening.  He was willing to replace the material.  In my mind I feel like if I were to take him up on it that the price would either go up or I would be considered a pain.  This supplier is way larger then my company selling material to hundreds of thousands of companies for all kinds of products.  I am a small fry and it would not hurt them if I was not buying from them.  I told the guy I can work through this material but was hoping we could find a solution that will elimate the small issue I was having with it. When he offered to replace the material I told the sales rep that I would not do that to any of my suppliers.  Without my raw material suppliers I am nothing.  There are other suppliers out there but the quality is what will make or break a company.  I have tested materials from many suppliers and always go for the best.   Even with the best quality suppler there are situations that arrise that can change the speed of the manufacturing process.