Trophies2Go Blog

As part of our year end recognition, we award a “Product of the Year” to one of our best-selling, most outstanding awards we offer.  The 2012 winner is our “Monster” line of trophies by Continental Awards & Trophies.

Our 2012 Product of the Year - Monster Trophies by Continental. This is one of our most popular trophies, with a 5-Star rating and tons of Facebook likes!

What makes these trophies exceptional?  First, they're different - very different. They’re also well made, durable, and versatile.  They are really fun and are a hit with most people with a Y-chromosome;  guys love them, both young and old.

So what kind of monsters do we have?  We carry Hunky Soccer Monsters , Fierce Lacrosse Monsters , Buff Basketball Monsters , Ripped Baseball Monsters , Victorious Hulk Monsters , and Macho Martial Arts Monsters .

Which one is my favorite?  It’s our Football Monsters , especially our Monster Fantasy Football Perpetual Trophy .  This trophy is not only one of our best sellers, but it has the most Facebook likes (60!) of any product we offer.  It also has a 5 Star rating from our customers, with raving comments.  As one of our customers puts it, “This is a quality trophy that combines the fun of FF (Fantasy Football) with a certain fictional quality to it. Ideal if you really want a long term reward in addition to a financial award.”

Thank you Continental Awards & Trophies for offering this fantastic line of trophies to us!  We are grateful to all of our suppliers for their terrific products – if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be in business!

Cheers, Jessica

We've been helping Yvette with recogntion since 2008.

Congratulations to Yvette Smith with T-Mobile, our Customer-of-the-Year for 2012!

At Issaquah Trophy & Awards / Trophies2Go we value our customers.

We especially value customers who are positive, friendly, and fun to work with.  Each of us at Issaquah Trophy & Awards and Trophies2Go believes in the Power of Recognition and we love customers who understand the importance of recognition.

We have been helping Yvette with her recognition needs at T-Mobile since early 2008.  As a company, T-Mobile believes strongly in recognition.  Here is an excerpt from their website:

T-Mobile’s Award-Winning Culture

“We're proud to be a company where shared values, teamwork, and dedication give every individual the opportunity to make a difference. We're also proud of our many “Best Place To Work” and “Top Employer” awards. These awards are made possible by the individual commitments of countless team members, working together to create a great work environment. Our employees deserve the recognition that comes with these awards, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to thank them and share these successes.”

With this culture, it’s no wonder that they consistently earn Best Places to Work awards and World’s Most Ethical Companies awards.

A big criterion for us in choosing our Customer-of-the-year is the fact that we look forward to working with them again.  We definitely look forward to working with Yvette, and chocolate helps!

Congrats again to Yvette!

Blessings, Anne

As part of our Recognition Program, each December we recognize a Supplier, Product, and Customer of the Year.  This post will discuss the winner of our 2012 Supplier of the Year – JDS Industries.

We are lucky to have many fantastic suppliers that create all of our high quality trophies and awards. Without their excellent products and great customer service, we would not be in business! So you can imagine what a hard decision choosing this award was for us.

We used guidelines to decide the award. The criteria for choosing the winner included…

Do they have high quality and/or good value products?

Are they consistent and reliable, with a good return policy?

Is the delivery time acceptable?

Do they provide us with competitive pricing? Do they offer good payment terms?

Is the company easy to deal with? Will they stand behind their products and word of their people?

Using this criteria, our staff nominated their favorite supplier, and the winner was chosen by Jeff, our President.

The winner of our 2012 Supplier of the Year is JDS industries, located in Sioux Falls, SD. We offer many of their awards to our customers. My personal favorite of their awards is the Circle Crystal Award. We also contracted JDS to create our newest exclusive award, The Honey Badger. They helped us come up with the critter’s design and produced them for us in their factory.

We also enjoy working with the friendly, efficient and knowledgeable JDS staff. Joe, our JDS sales representative, visits us at least twice a year to make sure we have everything we need to be successful in the Awards and Recognition Industry. He gives us tips and ideas to be more successful and always recommends products without being pushy. He’s a great guy to work with!

Even though JDS has great products and nice people, many of our other suppliers have the same thing. It’s their local Distribution Center that sets them apart. About a year ago, JDS opened a new Distribution Center about 5 miles from our Production Facility, where all of our trophies and awards are made. It’s extremely convenient to drive to the nearby JDS warehouse to pick up any product that we need for customer orders. This helps us keep our production time to 3 days, and ensures our Production Time Guarantee. By getting needed products and parts so quickly, we make sure that our orders are engraved, assembled, and shipped in time for customers’ events.

JDS really has their act together and this makes our lives much easier! Thank you, JDS, and all of our suppliers for your service to Trophies2Go!

Cheers,

Jessica

'AWESOME' Ribbons

At Trophies2Go, each and every day we help companies recognize their employees.  We create meaningful awards for top performers, sales stars, employees of the month, retirees, years of service, managers – you name it, we make it.  But what do we do for our own employees?

Our newest informal recognition program - Awesome Ribbons.

This fall, we created a new informal recognition program called “Awesome Ribbons”.  The original goal of the program was to increase internal team-building.   If a person noticed a co-worker doing something they deemed ‘awesome’, they awarded them a ribbon.  These blue ribbons had the word 'AWESOME' on it in rainbow colors.  Each person had 10 ‘Awesome’ ribbons to give away in a month and a half.

Instructions:

DO: Give them to your co-worker when you notice him/her do something exceptional, either for you, another co-worker, a customer, or the overall company.  Write the date, your name, the recipient’s name, and the task that earned the ribbon on the back (stickers were provided to write this info).  Give them out before November 15, 2012.  Display the ribbons you earn at your desk or work space.  Keep the ribbons you earn – you will need them in the future.  Have fun awarding your co-workers & receiving recognition!

DON’T:  Give them away for no reason.  These are for awesome and exceptional things only!  Give them for a petty reason, like looking nice or having a good day.  “Re-gift” a ribbon.  They only get awarded once.  Bribe others to get them.  They must be earned.

Ribbons started circulating throughout the company within the office, at our production facility, and between the two sites.  Ribbons also started showing up at work stations – pinned to bulletin boards, taped to computers, shelves and printers.  It was fun to see everyone getting recognized for going above and beyond for the company, our customers and each other.  After some time, the Nov 15^th deadline arrived and the program was ended.  Now came the important part of any recognition program - evaluating how effective the program was and if the goal of the program was attained.

After surveying our staff about the 'Awesome Ribbons', here’s what we discovered:

When we started the program, we weren’t exactly sure how the Awesome Ribbons would be used.  Overall feedback about the program was positive.  Our staff enjoyed giving and receiving recognition with each other.  However, this seemed most worthwhile if it wasn’t tied to a competition.  There was some confusion about what tasks were worthy of a ribbon.  This wasn’t well defined.  The majority of our staff wanted to continue the program.

When it was all said and done, here's what we learned from our experience:

When creating a recognition program, things may not always go as planned; what you intend to happen doesn't always occur.  This was the case for our program.   We were glad that people liked giving and receiving recognition, but didn't expect that people wouldn't want to be competitive with their ribbons.

When evaluating a recognition program, it's important to figure out what you did well and where you can improve for the future.  That 's the best way to improve your program and reach your goal.  When evaluating our 'Awesome Ribbons' program, what we did well was communicate the program, have a defined test period, and evaluate our staffs' experiences when it was completed.  What we didn't do well was set criteria for giving a ribbon and set the expectation that this program was a competition.

Our President, Jeff, has decided to keep the program going for now.  The original goal of team building was met, along with more recognition within our company, which is always a good thing!

Our Other Recognition Programs for 2013

1. Years of Service Awards

2. 'Honey Badger of the Quarter' Award

3. President’s Award (Unsung Hero)

For more information about creating a Recognition Program for your organization, please contact us – we’d be happy to help you.

Cheers,

Jessica

We see that many companies and community organizations are beginning to use beautiful clocks as a way to recognize their employees and volunteers.  And we have responded by adding a variety of options to our websites.  We offer brass, glass, crystal and rosewood clocks, in desk, mantle and wall styles. We have weather station clocks and book clocks. Clocks are not just for retirement gifts.

One of the best appreciation gifts you can offer an employee is a beautiful clock. They can be so much more than a time piece.  They are elegant tokens of enduring appreciation. Personally, I love the clocks that have visible gears and cogs so you can actually see them working, like skeleton clocks.

I love being able to see the inner-workings of these clocks!

Clocks offer a great way to display your corporate logo along with a sentiment of thanks to an important client or recognition of an employee’s dedication and service. A clock award will remain on their desk, shelf or mantle and will be looked at, perhaps more than any other award.

Volunteers give the gift of time to their communities because they care and they want to make a difference.  Jessica’s blog last week discussed the importance of recognizing volunteers, thanking them for what they do and the time they give.

We have some great local examples of how volunteers are recognized.  I know because sometimes I’m lucky enough to help with the awards used in their celebrations.  The SAMMI Awards celebrate and promote community involvement in the City of Sammamish. The Issaquah Community Awards is hosted by the Greater Issaquah Chamber of Commerce and recognizes community volunteers in Issaquah. Why not thank the volunteers in your world for their gift of time with a ‘gift of time’.

A clock with a photo frame can be a unique wedding gift. Have the wedding date and the couple’s names engraved, then add a treasured photograph from their engagement or wedding day.

Whoever you’re recognizing and whatever the occasion, consider giving a beautiful clock to make a lasting impression.

Blessings, Anne