COVID-19: Working with our customers during these unprecedented times

Written by Oliver Stockton, Managing Director, CILS

This blog looks at how we have supported the changing needs and increasing demands of our customers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst lockdown has impacted many businesses, it’s business as usual at Computer Imprintable Labels.

Our business agility and preparedness meant we were able to immediately respond to the UK government’s lockdown announcement by safeguarding our staff whilst ensuring our manufacturing process continued without disruption.

Our commitment to delivering excellent products and service continues to drive us forward.

We have supported our customers through this challenging period and we will continue to do so long after:

• By creating ‘priority customer groups’ to ensure ongoing supply to all our customers
• By facilitating same-day turnaround for urgent label orders
• By using video conferencing and other technology to communicate with and to support our customers.

Prioritising our customers and those working on the frontline

We created ‘priority customer groups’ to manage the extraordinary demand and prioritise our laboratory and industrial customers who are part of the COVID-19 critical supply chain.

The feedback we received was excellent, and together with our strong and long-standing supplier relationships, we secured an ongoing supply of raw materials to avoid disruption to our customers’ vital operations.

Our manufacturing team continues to work safely and efficiently to meet the delivery expectations of all our customers while accommodating same-day turnaround for very urgent label requirements whether relating to COVID-19 or not.

We are engaged in regular dialogue with our logistics partners to ensure there is a minimal impact on delivery times.

Going the extra mile for all our customers

As a label manufacturer supplying laboratories, hospitals and manufacturers around the world, we continue to deliver labels to all our customers, including the UK governments' Cabinet Office, The US Centers for Disease Control and the US Defense Priorities and Allocations System.

We are especially proud to be supporting the efforts of the UK's National Health Service by supplying durable Asset labels for ventilators as part of the Resource shortage, escalation and National Loan Programme for COVID-19 in England, and COVID-19 specimen labels to help the drive to increase patient testing. We manufactured and shipped durable specimen test labels on the same day the order was finalized, and a further order of 60,000 labels was delivered to 4 different locations within 24 hours.

We also continue to supply ‘rapid response’ labels to government agencies such as Public Health England and the US Department of Health & Human Services (HSS) for COVID-19 specimen tests to help with the escalation of this outbreak.

One of our long-standing customers, GS, a lab manager from Oxford University in the UK said:

  Thank you very much for the speed at which you operated! We are all set to start working on COVID-19 blood samples.”

The experience and expertise we have developed working with laboratories over the years has given us a unique insight into the needs of our laboratory customers for both specimen testing and vaccine trials, so we are uniquely positioned to support them during this outbreak and similar public health challenges in the future.

Current and future communication with our customers

Our video call service has never been more popular! Launched a few years ago to facilitate remote label demonstrations and technical support, it has helped us more than ever during lockdown to work efficiently with our customers. It is ideal if there are a number of people that need to be involved. Alternatively, we are also able to join our customer’s preferred ‘online’ meeting platform such as Zoom, Webex, etc.

Having a video or verbal conversation is the quickest way to communicate without misinterpreting facts or suggestions especially for new enquiries.

Customers can reach us by phone, ‘webchat’ on our website or email and all we will need to know is:

• What are you labeling?
• What will be printed on it?
• What will it come into contact with?
• How many do you need?
• What size and shape do you have in mind?
• How quickly do you need them?

We also have a series of convenient videos that demonstrate labels, label printing and durable label rub tests, etc. If there is anything our customers need guidance with, our video team can produce supporting material to help.

How can we help you?

We have used a consultative approach for over 30 years and our innovative use of technology helps you make smarter labeling decisions faster.

If you need labeling help or require rapid response labels, please contact us and speak to one of our labeling specialists.