During the various phases of Covid restrictions we took the opportunity, like a lot of businesses, to re-evaluate what we do and how we do it.

Over the last two years we’ve made some significant changes to our operation, all with a view to making the customer journey one we can be proud of from start to finish.

Hopefully sharing this with you will show you what you can expect when working with us in the future.

Closure of reception

One big change has been the closure of our customer reception at our Coleridge Road address.

Analysing the clients we deal with day to day and what they expect from us made us take the decision to close the ‘walk in’ customer entrance in order for us to spend more valuable time with clients.

Moving to appointment only makes us less stretched and able to focus solely on each individual client’s project without distraction during the initial project evaluation process.

New enquiry handling

We’ve also changed the way in which we handle every new enquiry.

Initially whoever took the call was the person who usually took on the new project – efficient and quick from a client’s perspective but not very efficient for the business to handle.

We now collate all enquires as a team and distribute them accordingly to make sure the right people are involved in each project. From that point forward this new approach also allows us to manage every project and our overall workload more effectively.

Improved space

The closure of reception has allowed us to completely change the structure of our building for the better.

We have demolished the structure that was the reception/customer service entrance and the adjoining meeting room which has allowed us to rearrange all the racking in the building. This has resulted in more space so we can operate more effectively and we’ve created a much improved environment for the team to work in.

This is our new dedicated client meeting area where we can sit down, discuss your project and review the artworks on screen.

Growing the team

We have employed a third graphic designer.

Over the years we have always coped with the workload by having one designer in-house full time who had the support of another member of staff, who is also a fully trained graphic designer, when required.

Our designers are responsible for both new artwork set ups and the file processing when customers supply their own designs. Basically, our designers need to do whatever our customers need design-wise to get everything ready for print and production.

File processing takes up a good portion of each day and as our workload grew the concern was we may get to a point where we didn’t have enough time to work on new artworks, which would be an issue for some customers, both new and returning.

To make sure we continually evolve and improve as we grow we knew the time was right to get more hands on deck, so in December we employed Nick Steele as our third designer. Nick has many years’ knowledge and experience in the industry and we have already seen great results in the short time he was been with us. The teams’ efficiency, creativity and productivity have all improved since his arrival.

Nick Steele

Training and consultancy

To help us make some of these decisions we enlisted the help of the team at Viisi Creative, a full service sales and marketing agency. Viisi work with us every month to provide consultancy, sales training and support, and content marketing services.

We’ve found Viisi different to other agencies in that they only focus on the results that a client wants to achieve and then they create a bespoke action plan to make that happen, rather than simply providing services.

The benefit of having an outsiders perspective on our entire business operation has been invaluable to us. Viisi provide services and consult us, but also keep us accountable. This ensures that we are continually improving the high standards we set ourselves and the overall customer journey we want you to experience when dealing with Links.

Contact us

At Links Signs and Graphics we pride ourselves on strong communication and efficient craftsmanship so you can always rely on us to produce top-quality signage, on time and to specification. We can help all the way through from conception and design to installation.

Contact the Links team today and see how we can help you. Call us on 01253 396 444 or email sales@linkssignsandgraphics.co.uk to make an enquiry.