Ramon Fernandez attributes much of Pro Label Inc.’s success to what he calls “extreme, maniacal” customer service. “This is what puts us on the map,” he says, while also crediting his South Florida label company’s strong growth trajectory to a bold move into becoming a digital-only label manufacturer.
ProLabel has been around since 1995, and after achieving more than two decades of success, Ramon felt the way to take his business to the next level was by forgoing flexo and embracing solely digital as a print technology. In 2014, the company made the jump to digital-only, and today is soaring to new heights with its Domino and HP Indigo digital presses.
Digital printing has allowed ProLabel to meet evolving customer demands for just-in-time delivery, while also proving to be a cost-effective alternative to flexo. Both print speeds and quality have improved with digital, as have the development of compatible label materials. While these are all good things for ProLabel, Ramon emphasizes that what really allows for his team to deliver that “extreme” level of customer service he refers to, is a tried and true technology that he’s used for a long while—Label Traxx.
“We use Label Traxx to its full effect,” Ramon says, “Which allows us to have all kinds of vital information at our fingertips that we can deliver to our customers—in real time. We never tell a customer we’ll call them back. Whatever the question or issue is, we resolve it at that moment—that’s customer service.”
Everyone on the ProLabel team is trained to use Label Traxx. “It’s so user-friendly,” Ramon says of the MIS software dedicated to the label industry. “Everyone here has access to job information. We put a lot of data into Label Traxx, so we can track inventory and track which roll went on what job. With Label Traxx, we have cradle-to-cradle accountability on anything we run. Whether it’s the person who answers the phone at reception, people in the warehouse, or our shipping coordinator, everyone can tell a customer the status of their order. Plus, we capture all kinds of data—both at press side and finishing—and we use it for accounting, estimating and so much more.
“When you call your mechanic and ask when your car is going to be ready, you want to hear ‘3 o’clock,’ not ‘I’ll call you back’. People just want to know the situation and get accurate information. Label Traxx gives us this ability—to give our customers answers to their questions in real time. We take customer service to the next level, and Label Traxx lets us do this.”
Label Traxx continues to be been an invaluable asset to ProLabel. “It’s absolutely vital,” Ramon says. “I cannot imagine running this business without Label Traxx. In fact, I can’t imagine anybody running any label business without it. All of our efficiencies are because of Label Traxx – we get every single penny out of our presses. It lets us track and schedule our jobs; my production team can see what’s running on what presses and which specific tools we need. We can really get organized to run as efficiently as possible.”
Ramon points out that in addition to it being an excellent customer service tool and the key to maximizing efficiencies, Label Traxx also helps the company resolve issues before they even happen. He says, “We don’t have problems, because thanks to Label Traxx we can foresee them. We use it to forecast our material usage, our ink, press time—everything. We can place out orders for materials through Label Traxx, receive it and populate our inventory. There are so many tools within the software that make life easy for the modern day label manufacturer.”
