A couple of months ago, we shared the three most important things your pipette supplier must offer or it’s time to switch. We had an opportunity to talk with a few of our customers lately and found that there are two additional services they highly value, whether, whether you are buying pipettes, bottles, caps or other packaging supplies.
These two important, valuable services are:
- Customization
- Industry knowledge
Let’s break each of these services down further and give examples, from our customers, of why they are so important and make your life easier.
Customization
Carow Packaging doesn’t offer everything to everyone. We do, however, supply a selection of core dispensing products with a proven track record of success in the markets we serve. We know our customers and their needs incredibly well and we supply high performing packaging options at multiple price points to meet those needs.
That said, there are always cases where a customer needs something specific to their business. We excel at being able to create or source primary packaging that is tailored to solve specific business challenges.
For example, with our launch of our multi-color EuroDrop® caps earlier this year, we were able to create a custom color cap for Newton Labs to match their logo and labeling. We spoke with Maurine McCleskey, Quality Assurance/Inventory Control Specialist of Newton Labs about this customization project.
“When we went to place an order for new caps, Carow suggested that we could get caps that match the actual PMS color that our label is and that just made sense, even though it costs more. It makes our product look a thousand percent better. Sitting on the shelf, the yellow color cap just distinguishes it.”
One of the things McCleskey said she appreciated was how easy the customization process was.
“We just specified the PMS color to them. Carow then sent out a little sample, a square of the plastic resin in the color we wanted, that we approved. It was very simple and easy. The sample approval was just kind of a formality, really. After, they went ahead and did the production and, you know, we haven’t had any issues.”
We try to make the customization process as easy as possible. Achieving custom color is a simple 3-step process, as you can see in the graphic.
We have also helped our clients source customized products specific to their needs, like the tamper evident dropper assembly that J. Crow needed for their product, the Original Lugol’s Iodine, which is a water-based solution of iodine and potassium iodide. When we spoke with Jeff Krouk, the owner and President of J. Crow, he said that since his product contains iodine, a reliable dropper assembly is extremely important. He had some issues with other tamper evident dropper assemblies leaking and breaking in the assembly process. He doesn’t want a customer to think the product has been tampered with or experience any staining from leakage.
Krouk explained:
“You wouldn’t want the tamper evident ring to arrive at the customer open or broken because of the capping process. Most of these designs that are out there hold the ring on with a series of tabs that are very small that go around the cap. You twist the top to open the bottle and the tabs break apart from the ring. But in order to put those caps on the bottles in the assembly process, they need to be twisted on – but only far enough that the tabs don’t break.”
“So, if that ring is not fixed sufficiently to the top of the cap, then in the capping assembly process, you may take apart a couple of the tabs that are holding the piece together. Then by the time it gets to the customer, it may look as though something’s been tampered with, even though it hasn’t been opened and the seal hasn’t dropped to the shoulder of the bottle. With this style cap that I’m working with now, that’s a non-issue because of the way it’s built on the on the top of the cap. It’s unique to my product.”
“I didn’t want to ignore any of the customer complaints we had received before we switched. I was wanting to take every message I was getting from my customer base seriously. And considering if there’s one customer who’s telling me something is wrong, there are two or three customers who didn’t.”
So he asked Carow for help.
“Just by virtue of doing this for the number of years that we’ve been doing it, we’ve had the opportunity to go through a number of different suppliers of tamper evident dropper assemblies. Carow was able to find a tamper evident dropper assembly that had the plastic tamper evident piece that was a unique style and suitable to my product. We needed a dropper assembly that wouldn’t degrade or cause the bands to get twisted off during the capping process. Carow finding this piece resolved 100% of the problems I was having related to the tamper evident side of it.”
Industry Knowledge
Another important service offering from a great supplier is industry knowledge. Someone who understands their customer needs, their industry regulations, and what products and solutions are available. Someone who has solved problems for other companies like yours and has the experience to know what works and what won’t. Someone who can find the exact product you need, at the right price point, to protect your profit margins.
And, suppliers with extensive industry knowledge are just easier to work with, at least according to our customers.
McCleskey of Newton Labs said:
“Carow has been really super helpful through the years of just letting me know what’s available. They just stay in the loop, which is what you want in a supplier. You want someone who’s coming and telling you about all the latest and greatest products. I don’t have time to go through all that.”
She also explained how Carow’s industry knowledge helped Newton Labs save money by sourcing a bottle with a different shape and reduce lead times for critical packaging components.
“We’ve always needed to be able to maximize our label space because we don’t want to have to go to a box, and have double packaging on our product, because it’s such a cost savings to not do that. But since we’re FDA regulated, there’s a certain amount of stuff we have to put on our label. We have all these regulations we have to follow because we’re regulated as an over-the-counter drug. Rather than going with the double packaging, we’ve been able to maximize our space because Carow was able to get us these specific bottles that are straighter and higher shouldered, which gave us another eighth of an inch for label space, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you have wall-to-wall information on your label, it was really beneficial.”
McCleskey added:
“The bottles that we have were actually produced by a German company and Carow was able to source that for me. Since then, there’s been another company that has decided to produce that exact mold because the German company’s lead times got to be crazy. So, Carow was able to switch us to this other manufacturer with the exact same molds. That was really helpful for us when the supply lines got crazy. The German company was having lead time issues even before the pandemic. We were able to get off of those bottles from that supplier and still get the same bottle from someone else. And then, Carow was also able to switch us to a different cap because the supply line had gotten really crazy on the caps.”
Switching to a domestic supplier for their unique caps helped Newton Labs save money on international freight as well.
With J. Crow, when we helped Krouk source his unique tamper evident dropper assembly, he felt that Carow’s industry knowledge was instrumental in solving his unique problem.
“There are many different tamper evident plastic assemblies made in different places, with different resins, and Carow made a point of explaining that to me, which I wasn’t really familiar with. But the fact is that the component that makes the tamper evident piece work can vary so much in terms of whatever specifications are needed. There’s a wide specification range, and I think that if the resins are not right, then with certain styles of tamper evident caps, the ring separates from the upper portion of the cap. So, Carow found me one that works perfectly out of Germany. It has a padded top and they’re assembling it for me now at their facility with their automated assembly machine.”
Want to learn more about the Carow Packaging difference and how easy it is to switch? Give our Solution Specialists a call at 815-455-4600. We are happy to explain how we can customize and source unique product solutions to meet your packaging needs.
