Top 6 questions a customer should ask when purchasing awards
Don't mess up your order or pay too much -ask the right questions to ensure accurate awards within your budget every time!Whether you are ordering championship trophies for your kid’s sports team, elegant awards for a corporate gala, or an engraved gift for someone special, all customers buying awards should expect them to be high quality, accurately engraved, and delivered on-time. Below are questions to ask when purchasing trophies or awards.
Question #1: What awards are most popular and new?
For a first time buyer, ask the staff at the awards company what is the most popular award for your particular event. They will know through experience what sells well. If you are ordering online, read the customer reviews before deciding what to buy. Learn what has worked well for other shoppers and repeat the positive experience!
If you order awards on a regular basis, especially for kids who participate in sports or activities, take a new look at the new awards offered by your retailer. By choosing a new award, you can ensure that the kids won't already have the award on their trophy shelf!
Question #2: When will the awards be in my hands?
Most of our customers have an event, whether for a business or for a sports team, where they will be presenting their awards. If you are buying from a local trophy company, when placing your order, ask when the awards will be ready for pick up. Be sure to plan plenty of time before your event, in case there is a misspelling or you need to add an extra trophy – things come up!
If ordering online, make sure to ask about production time (how long it takes to make and engrave the award) plus shipping time. The company should be able to tell you the expected delivery date and then send you a tracking number after your order has shipped. That way you can track the package yourself to ensure on-time delivery.
Question #3: Can I engrave different names on each trophy?
The answer to this question should be “yes”; personalization is the reason you would buy an award in the first place! If the answer is “no”, I suggest finding a different company to work with.
Question #4: Is personalization included in the price?
Many awards companies include personalized etching in the price of their awards. Here at Trophies2Go, all engraving is included, and if we can fit the words onto the award, then we will engrave as much (or as little) text as you want - we don’t count characters. Some companies charge set up fees or price per letter/character – be sure to ask, as these costs can add up.
Question #5: How do I get my engraving information and artwork to you?
Personalization is what makes trophies and awards so special. When ordering an award, it’s important that the engraving is accurate and correct. Ask your trophy provider the best way to get engraving information to them. Many will ask you to email the engraving, as cutting and pasting your text electronically into their engraving equipment minimizes spelling errors.
Also, if you are adding a picture or a logo to your award, most engraving machines, such as laser engravers, require camera ready artwork. High quality and high resolution, this type of artwork includes eps, ai or jpg files. Lower resolution files, such as bitmap, png, and some jpg files, are highly pixilated and don’t engrave well – the logo turns out fuzzy and distorted. Scanned images cannot be engraved.
For sublimated products (that’s for full color stuff like photos), a high resolution jpg works well. Many phones now take high quality photos which work great for sublimated products.
Question #6: Can I see what the engraving will look like?
Here is an example of an engraving proof created for a customer by Lori, one of our laser engravers.Most trophy and awards companies should be able to create a proof of the engraving before they actually engrave the text or logo onto the award. Some companies charge for this service; others do not. We offer free proofs for any order over $50 and for AwardPerks loyalty members at any price. This gives customers the option to work directly with the engraver to ensure perfect engraving every time; it's piece of mind that everything is spelled correctly and looks fabulous.
Being in business since 1987, we know the questions customers need to ask to ensure their awards are on time, on budget, and perfect every time. Give us a call at 877-926-4700 anytime - we are here to answer your awards questions!
Cheers,
Jessica