Is a dual sided ID badge printer right for your organization? Would a single sided printer suffice? When searching for an ID badge printer, it’s vital to take these questions into consideration in order to find the best solution and maximize your efficiency. Since our founding in 1985, the ID Edge team has helped many organizations find the best ID security solutions for almost any budget. In some cases, a dual sided ID badge printer can be a huge time saver. Let’s take a look at some of the settings where having a dual sided device can help. For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll assume that you need to print on both sides of the ID card.
Printing Volume
One of the biggest benefits of a dual sided ID badge printer is the time it can save you when printing on both sides of the card. However, this is most useful when you need to print many cards quickly.
- Commercial Venues: If you need to issue cards to patrons at a venue, an ID badge printer that can print on both sides of the card can make for a better customer experience. Certainly, saving just a minute or two per customer may not sound like a huge deal at first, but it is a pretty big deal to the 10th person waiting in line for whom all those minutes in front of them will add up. By getting people out of the line quickly, you can significantly improve their overall experience.
- Large Organizations: Companies with many employees or high numbers of new hires can also benefit from a dual sided ID badge printer. Even if the person responsible for issuing the cards only processes a handful per day, saving extra time (and frustration) can be a very positive experience, especially if that person has lots of different responsibilities.
Uniformity of Information
In some organizations, the information on the back of the card is the same for all holders. For example, this could information like disclaimers, contact information for customer service, or even instructions on how to use the card. In such cases a single sided printer can actually get the job done without impacting wait times or the customer experience.
One way to achieve this is to pre-print the standardized information ahead of time on one side of the card. This can be done during off-peak hours, in large batches. When a card needs to be issued, only one side will need to be custom-printed, thus eliminating the need for a dual sided ID badge printer.
If both sides of the card need to be customized, a dual sided device will do much better. Certainly, you can take the card out and flip it around to cover both sides with a single sided printer, but in addition to increasing production time the manual flipping of the card also increases chances of errors.
Security Budget
Of course, no discussion of single sided versus dual sided ID badge printers would be complete without considering your budget. Single sided devices are typically less expensive than their dual sided counterparts, and may be a good choice for a company with a lower security budget. At the end of the day, your organization will need to consider the cost of the printer and the time/supplies savings that can be reaped with a dual sided ID badge printer.
If you’re trying to decide on an ID badge printer, we’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Just give us a call at (800) 798-3343, or use the Contact Form to send us an email!