why should you centralize print, mail & campus store under one roof?

The ebbs and flows of a college campus are just one highlight of living and working in higher education. The campus buzzes to life on move-in day but takes a slower pace in summer when the hallways and sidewalks are empty.

Behind the scenes, though, these seasons of a campus can lead to complicated inefficiencies in labor and services. When your campus is built to support thousands of students, how can you maximize your staff, spaces, and auxiliary services to build a more efficient operation in all seasons? 

In a College Services Magazine article, Victoria Lim reported that colleges and universities are also finding a new balance after experiencing significant staffing and budget impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. One administrator emphasized the need to evaluate auxiliary services in order to make them more efficient and fiscally responsible. Auxiliary services like housing, dining, conference services, campus bookstores, mail, and print shop operations are all major revenue generators for higher education institutions, but many took a big hit during the early months of the pandemic. Schools are reporting net losses for the previous and current year. 

While there are several strategies to creating efficient and profitable auxiliary services, institutions could target their print and mail services, specifically as they work in conjunction with the campus store. Here are a few benefits to merging your printing, mail, and campus store services at your institution. 

You may also consider adding a partner that can help you merge and streamline processes for your print shop, mail service, and campus store. At Slingshot, we aren’t like other players in the bookstore industry—we’re a partner that’s committed to innovation and exceptional service, putting your students first and partnering with you to help you meet your goals. Through creative processes, a nimble infrastructure, and a tenacious pursuit of better, we have steadily innovated in software, course materials delivery, responsibly sourced clothing, purchasing practices, and store structure. We also work in partnership with your campus store, helping it stay independent and deliver exceptional service with the backing of our expertise, technology, distribution capabilities and impeccable service. 

We’ve already mastered the challenges of merging and managing these auxiliary services, and we’ve discovered that adding print and mail services to your campus store can help your institution save up to 20% on mail operations and up to 25% on print. 

Developing better, more efficient solutions for institutions has always been a driving force for our company. To learn more about the benefits of print, mail, and campus store services under one roof, visit slingshotedu.com/printandmail.