Last Sunday for me was a normal Sunday, and yours might have been similar at some point in the week. I woke up, had
breakfast with my wife and four young children, and got ready for church.
When we got there, we found a long line where we normally go to pick up our children’s name tags. The paper printer had been acting up again. It was spitting out too many or too few name tags, they were misaligned, or missing information.
This isn’t the first time that this has happened but this time I got to thinking: how are these malfunctions affecting the overall experience of others? How does this affect safety and security in the children’s departments? How many other churches or religious organizations face these very issues each week?
I came to the conclusion that reliability and ease of use would have to be two of the biggest hurdles any religious or church organization would have to tackle to determine what set-up would best serve them and everyone that uses the hardware or software.
Most of the time, volunteers run the show at our church so there really isn’t any formal training on how to use the equipment. It’s mostly trial and error. The systems – whether for checking in or out, making a child’s ID, or printing a church/religious membership ID – must be easy to use and fairly simple to understand. If it isn’t, it can potentially cause all sorts of issues at check-in or when they need to create and print any IDs. When there is an issue, it needs to be quickly and easily resolved with minimal down time to provide the best user experience.
Reliability is a must as well. Most of the time, there will be heavy workloads during one or two
days of a given week. This is when it’s critical that the equipment works…and works well.
If a name tag printer jams or ID printer fails, it can cause backups and delays along with a poor experience for first-time church visitors. If it’s a continual problem, it can create frustration with regular attendees, and they could abandon checking in all together. This can cause risks in security and safety for children and members alike. One important step that needs to be addressed is what the back-up plan is if we have equipment failure.
Choosing the right products is crucial to the success of these programs. There are many options available on the internet but not all are created equal. These solutions vary greatly between suppliers and the different church organization (no single organization will use them in quite the same way).
Many people tasked with finding a solution have never even been exposed to all of the ins and outs of what they will need and what will work best for them. Your best plan of action is to contact an ID Professional who has the experience working with a wide variety of printer systems and has extensive experience with the different needs of churches and religious groups.
For more information on how ID Wholesaler can help your religious organization get the most out of your card printing budget, call a knowledgeable ID Professional today at (800) 321-4405.
