From referral pads to marketing collateral, every successful dental practice needs a strong print program. For Lone Peak Dental Group, though, it was a logistical nightmare.

As their practice grew from three offices to 75 across 14 states, their marketing team was getting stuck in a feedback loop of urgent requests and individual fulfillment. Managing orders and ensuring consistency across the network was turning into a full-time job.

They had a print system that worked fine for one-off orders. But it just couldn’t keep up with Lone Peak’s growing network, especially given its unique branding at almost every location.

“We had all these designs, but even if we updated them ourselves, they wouldn’t make it onto our online portal,” Marketing Director Rachelle Barteau said. “So every time an office needed something as simple as a new business card, our small team would have to recreate it and go send it to print.”

Recognizing the need for a centralized platform where location managers could easily order brand-approved print materials, Lone Peak turned to YellowDog and our robust web-to-print portal.

Print portal build

First things first: dig deep and sniff out what makes this client’s print program tick. 

YellowDog worked with Lone Peak to understand their business needs, brand guidelines, permission structure, and what they really needed out of a print portal. 

After 20 years in the print business, we know the ins and outs of print fulfillment like the back of our own paws. We also know one size does not fit all. A mix of expertise and curiosity helped Yellow co-create a unique portal that would work well for Lone Peak and leave room to grow.

Usability was a priority for Rachelle and her team–they didn’t need another tool that no one would use. They loved the clean, icon-driven structure of our custom portals, which made onboarding a breeze.

As a full-service creative studio, YellowDog was able to augment its over-stretched design team and create new products that otherwise would not have seen the light of day. The Lone Peak creatives held onto alpha status and creative control, with a little help from their newly expanded pack. (That’s us.)

Not wasting a moment, we built Lone Peak’s 800-product print portal in two months flat, complete with custom icons, designs, permissions, and brand controls.

Template design

Next came the challenge of scaling Lone Peak’s customizable collateral: pieces that vary by location and even by individual. With nearly 70 different brands, those small tweaks get even trickier. Enter, our secret weapon: variable templates. 

Our pre-press and design specialists build interactive templates based on corporate-approved designs for materials ranging from business cards and appointment reminders to large-scale endeavors like window vinyl. Then, individual users can simply enter their information–name, email, phone number, and even logo–and order without compromising the design. No redundant creation or review required.

The best part? All of this happens within the print portal. No more saving designs out of one program, worrying about margins, file-types or resolution. 

Rollout 

Nobody likes change. We all know how easy it is to ignore an invitation to create an account for something we’ve always done manually. Presenting yet another new tool to a busy team with lofty promises and little guidance is a recipe for failure. 

This is not that. For the dispersed Lone Peak team to order their own collateral, without asking Rachelle and her team every time a need arose, they would need to understand the benefits, see how easy it would be, and be gently reminded over time.

YellowDog rolled out the portal to 94 Lone Peak team members during a live call, complete with a virtual tour, demo, and Q&A session. We hyped the benefits and walked them through the nitty-gritty to show everyone just how much easier their lives were about to get. We got out ahead of the uncertainty to get everyone on board with a smoother, quicker, easier way to order print for themselves. 

We knew we were meeting a need when the orders started rolling in that very same day. 

Quality control and customer service

Lone Peak didn’t even have to sacrifice quality for all this convenience. While print orders now happen entirely online, there’s still a group of real, live humans giving every job the care and attention it deserves. We compare materials to approved brand samples, and nothing goes out the door unless it meets our highest quality standards. 

Rachelle and her team can rest easy knowing that print is handled, and all 75 locations can order what they need without worrying about how it’ll look when it arrives. They can also call, stop by, or check in with their dedicated account manager for quick questions, minor tweaks, and even major program growth.

Ongoing innovation

The Lone Peak print portal has unlocked the power of print for Rachelle and her team. Now that every location is set with the basics, the corporate team is free to innovate and advance brand initiatives. Lone Peak meets biweekly with YellowDog to build on its core stable of products, from advanced variable templates to brand-new print projects. 

“Handling print efficiently from an enterprise level means that we can focus on bigger and better things that move the needle in our organization,” Rachelle said.

Kidsperience brand development

While each Lone Peak location maintains its unique identity, they are all united under the new and evolving Kidsperience brand. Patients across the country are getting to know Kidsperience characters and taking home adorable paper Kidsperience crowns, all ordered straight through the YellowDog portal.

Lone Peak is adding even more pops of fun to the dental experience with sticker sheets and coloring pages, developed in collaboration with YellowDog’s print and design team, and will be rolled out to the entire network in the coming weeks. 

Meanwhile, Rachelle and her team are introducing the network to new practices through custom-designed, printed Kidseperience unboxing experiences. Brand-wide, campaign-specific ordering is also available to location managers on the portal, expanding the reach of marketing initiatives without straying from track. 

Event printing, brand marketing

Working with YellowDog enables Lone Peak to refocus on community events and trade shows, where they deepen relationships, recruit doctors, and reach new audiences. Luckily, branded event materials from tablecloths to swag are at their fingertips in the portal.

With the implementation of YellowDog’s web-to-print portal, Rachelle was finally able to step back from daily fire-fighting and delegate ordering while maintaining control over brand consistency and quality. Now, instead of playing whack-a-mole with one-off requests, she’s looking ahead, pushing the envelope, and putting print to work within a larger strategy.

Key benefits & results:

– Streamlined operations: The web-to-print portal drastically simplified the print procurement process. Individual location managers can handle most ordering, freeing up Rachelle and her team for strategic work.

– Improved brand consistency: The new system allowed for updates to designs and streamlined distribution across their various branded locations, crucial for ensuring brand integrity at scale. Variable templates maintain this consistency even in the most customizable collateral.

– Enhanced efficiency: The user-friendly interface and efficient design rollouts significantly improved departmental efficiency, while easy access to tracking numbers in one place takes yet another thing off Rachelle’s plate. 

When Lone Peak used different vendors for all these one-off projects, even the simplest tasks, like checking order status, were yet another lift. 

“Now, when it’s all in-house, those tracking numbers are there for the managers to check. Instead of asking us to go figure out which vendor we used for that one-off project, they’re all right there,” Rachelle said.

– Superior print quality: “When you’re using quick ship type things like VistaPrint, the quality is never assured. With YellowDog, even when we’re trying to get quick-turn projects out, I have peace of mind knowing that there are multiple hands on it before it ever gets sent out,” Rachelle said.

Plus, YellowDog is right in Lone Peak’s backyard. Being able to test quality, see proofs, and collaborate in person really helps.

– Exceptional customer service: In just a few short months, YellowDog has won over Rachelle and her team with our customer service, attention to detail, proactive communication, and quick turnaround times. 

We’re quick to address any challenges and, as a deeply cooperative team, we get all the right people on the job every time. Because nothing beats creative collaboration, and we’re not here to waste time.

“It’s been great so far, and we’re just continuing to roll out new things left and right. We’re so very excited to continue to make this an awesome portal,” Rachelle said.

YellowDog’s web-to-print portal has revolutionized Lone Peak Dental Group’s print management, providing efficiency, consistency, superior quality, and exceptional customer service. For marketing directors seeking a robust web-to-print solution, YellowDog’s proven platform is a sure bet for streamlining operations and enabling strategic growth.