Century Color Laboratories Inc

Technology is forever changing! We have all seen the Best Buy Commercial that says it all….”you bought the wrong TV silly head!”

 !” But, unlike Best Buy, most of the world doesn’t have a “buy it back” program. What you buy is what you’re stuck with for a while. What the latest and greatest is today is old news tomorrow.  Five years ago when my family wanted to have a movie night, we would go out, and dare I say…rent…a movie (I know, scary thought isn’t it).Then came the age where we could get movies delivered to our house. That was nice but instant gratification was gone. And, now we can stream a movie whenever we want. A lot has changed! Technology never stands still!

Several years ago we wrote a data entry program called DataMatch. Every year we would add new features making the program better and better. And just when we thought it was perfect and we could sit back and relax out comes Windows 7 and 64 bit computers. And, you guessed it; DataMatch was not compatible with either. So it was back to the drawing board.

As a company we won’t let technology leave us in the dust! After over a year of rewriting we are getting ready to release DataMatch 6. This program is a huge upgrade on the original DataMatch program with a more robust database structure and more enhanced features. In a nutshell, we have done a lot of work “under the hood” to bring DataMatch up to date with all the latest software, operating systems, browsers etc. on the market today. The new version has new green screen services, improved online forms as well as faster data entry processing!   Sorry Mac users, not for you guys yet, but we haven’t forgotten you. We’re working on something for you too!

And unlike the “silly head” in the commercial, our latest version of DataMatch will keep you going for the next few years. Yeah new technology!

Good communication is an essential component of any relationship. Listening to the wants and needs of our customers is a vital element of a good business relationship. It's why we say, "we're more than just a professional lab, we're your personal lab."

In talking with several of our customers about the greeting card business, we heard over and over again the need to purchase smaller quantities than the minimum order of 25. Certain events like 1 Communions or holidays such as Easter don't lend themselves to the higher quantity and thus have prevented photographers from competing for this type of card business. 

We've listened…and are happy to announce a new pricing structure that allows you to order any quantity of greeting cards. While the price per card does increase with lower quantities, it allows you to open up new markets for cards sales. In fact you can order just 1 card if that's all you need! Now holidays like Mother's Day and Valentine's Day (hopefully they only need one!) are new sales opportunities for you.

Century Color will continue to listen to your concerns and requests and do our best to accommodate your needs.

Check us out on Facebook, if you "Like" us you will be able to catch all our latest specials, read our blog posts and communicate with us through the comments section. Soon we'll be offering specials exclusively for those who "Like" us on Facebook, so you definitely want to be a part of that.

We love to hear from our customers and hope that our page on Facebook will provide a more convenient means for you to keep in touch with us as well as staying informed of all our latest news and promotions.

Learn a lot over lunch with these new one-hour seminars, held the first Friday of each month. Not only are they interactive, they are also educational and affordable, just $10 to participate in the live event. If you miss the live presentation you can download the seminar for a nominal fee ($15) to view at your leisure.

Visit the new www.fridayphotoschool.com learning channel to learn more and to sign up for the April 2nd seminar, Top Ten Photoshop Tips. It's a terrific new and high quality way to stay up to date with the craft of professional photography.

If you could create your own album designing software what features would you want to include? Would you want to create your own templates and store them for future use? How about the ability to share the finished design with your bride&groom; online? Would you want to import your own backgrounds or masks? What about the ability to edit the images within the program without changing the original image?

Well, we have just the right tool for you. Album Spinner™ is an album designing software that was created by a professional photography team, Joey and Dawn Fox. Ok, so Joey happens to also be a programmer, but what better combination for creating an album-building software program that meets the needs of busy professional photographers?

We have been working with Joey for the past few months to make Album Spinner™ available to our customers as the ultimate instrument for designing, sharing and ordering albums. It is so easy to use that even those of you who outsource your album designing may reconsider, which could save you thousands of dollars a year.

Album Spinner™ also features the simplest ordering system available. Once you have built and shared your album with your customer, simply click the "send to lab" button and your album order will come directly to Century Color for printing and ordering. Century Color has partnered with three album companies, Capri, Renaissance and Azura Albums, to meet your unique needs. Album Spinner™ also has a "just print" option for having the pages printed and returned to you or drop shipped to another album company of your choosing.

To learn more about Album Spinner™ click here or call customer service, 800-242-9501.

This year we introduced online posting of underclass jobs. Quite a few of our school photographers have signed up to be a part of this new venture and are starting to see the benefits already. The very first job that was posted received four online re-orders within the first week! We are sure the other participating photographers will see the same rewards as their school images are posted.

We've also been receiving rave reviews about our ID cards this year. Earlier in the year we purchased two new ID card printers and the quality is fantastic. Photographers and schools have commented that the bar codes are easier to read and the image quality surpasses previous ID cards.

ThePressRoom staff has noticed an increase in orders for marketing materials from photographers. We would like to applaud all of you who have taken the initiative to create new marketing campaigns and get the word out about your business. As we noted in our September Newsletter, "better marketing" is the number one need of photographers for increasing their revenue.

ThePressRoom at Century Color was designed with your marketing needs in mind.

And last, but not least, more rave reviews about our new design feature in ROES for ordering books, greeting cards and bookmarks. The new feature allows you to "flip" to the next page or side, making designing much easier. If you haven't tried it, what are you waiting for?

Please keep the feedback coming! While we all appreciate recognition for a job well done, we also want your feedback if there are products or services you would like to see added or improved. Our goal is to help you meet the needs of your customers.

The crisp mornings we have been experiencing here in New England make me realize that the leaves are about to change color, pint-sized ghosts and goblins will soon be ringing my doorbell, and before long we'll be celebrating my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving!

But, I am getting a little ahead of myself, although speaking of giving thanks reminds me that Century Color has a special promotion this month for studio thank you cards. Personal studio thank you cards are the ideal way to show your customers how much you appreciate their business.

Mother Theresa once said, "There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread."

At Century Color we make every effort to send personal cards to our customers whenever the opportunity arises. Whether it is a thank you for a referral or recognition for an award or milestone, we feel great letting our customers know we are thinking about them. And from the feedback we have received, we know our customers appreciate being thought of.

To learn more about studio thank you cards click here.