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Things to Consider

Being able to buy awards on the Internet has been around for 15+ years. We have been serving our online customers since 2000. In that time, I have learned a thing or two about Internet awards businesses. I've found that there are 3 key things to look for when ordering online from an awards company. They are timing, quality/price, and relationship, and I will discuss each below.

Timing & Order Turn Around

It's universal: The most important thing to our customers is WHEN will they receive their order. After all, what is the use of getting a good deal on high quality awards if they arrive after the awards presentation? Make sure to choose a company who can get you your awards in time for your event. At Trophies2Go, we guarantee a delivery date based on the shipping method chosen during checkout. The customer knows exactly when their awards will arrive. Below are more tips for timing your awards order.

Order Early! The sooner the order is placed, the better, and the less expensive the shipping will be.  For example, we even have a promotion that allows for free shipping if your order is over $100 and you give us an extra week for production. Many of our repeat customers are aware of this promotion and order well in advance – it is a win-win for all involved when ample time is given.

Choose a product that we can get quickly. We don’t carry every product in our warehouse, and many times have to order specific awards from our suppliers.  However, a couple of our suppliers are local, such as JDS industries and Plastic Dress Up, and we can get awards from them within 24 hours.  This makes the production time much faster than for products from our suppliers at the other end of the county.

If you need your awards within 2 or 3 days, be prepared for expensive shipping. Most shops are happy to accommodate rush orders, but overnight or 2^nd day air shipping can be expensive.  At Trophies2Go, we can adjust our production schedule in order to meet tight deadlines, but our shipper is going to be the beneficiary of the extra shipping cost.

If you need your awards right away (24 hours) and cost is a factor, try a local trophy company first.  This may seem contrary to an Internet company making money, but we are in the business of pleasing our customers. Sometimes it’s not worth it to pay $15 for an award and $50 for overnight shipping. Instead look to a local business to accommodate your needs quickly. Even if they charge a small rush fee, you are still ahead of the game.

Quality & Price

For many people, price is the main reason to buy online.  However, it’s important to consider quality as well.  If you buy a cheap trophy and it breaks right away, it’s not worth the money.

At Trophies2Go, we believe offering quality products at an affordable price is important,  But, there’s another component to a finished award that is equally, or perhaps even more important – engraving. I think engraving is the most important part of the finished award, but it often gets overlooked by the customer.

Choose high quality engraving.  Some Internet retailers use plastic labels for the engraving of medals and trophies. They may also use other methods for engraving acrylic and may surface laser etch their crystal awards. All of these styles provide a faster and cheaper method for marking the awards, but detract from the quality.

At Trophies2Go, we use premium quality brass and aluminum for our trophy plates and engrave them using a process called “diamond drag”. We laser engrave our acrylic awards. We also laser engrave and sandblast our crystal awards for clean lines and flawless etching. This attention to detail and quality engraving materials makes all the difference in the finish of our award.

Use a company that has a good engraver.  There is an artistic component to the layout of the engraving. Not all companies have ultra-experienced engravers and this can be reflected in the quality of the finished product. If you are concerned about how the messaging looks on your award, ask for a proof before the engraving is started. This can save an unpleasant surprise when you open your shipment.

Relationship

Jeff with the ARA trophy.

Sometimes the Internet feels very impersonal.  It’s hard to have a relationship with a business where you don’t talk with or see the person helping you.  You have to make a leap of faith that if you order a product, it will actually come to you!  Here are some things to consider when choosing to do business with an Internet awards company.

How long have they been in business?  If the company has been around for awhile, it’s probably safe to order from them.  Check around their site for customer testimonials or product ratings for even more proof that they’re legit.

Use Customer Service.  Give the business a call and see how you’re treated.  They should have excellent customer service and a friendly voice on the end of the line.  That’s what we strive for at Trophies2Go.

Are they flexible?  If you’re looking for something special and can’t find it on the website, call or email.  The company should be able to offer suggestions of products to fit your needs or give you another resource if not.

Ask around to see who friends and family recommend. Family and friends are usually willing to share their experiences with you, good and bad.  Use Facebook or Twitter to do this as well.  It’s a safe bet you’ll have a good experience if someone you trust did too.

To summarize, there are a lot of factors that go into choosing an awards company to order from.  If you are looking for a new awards company, give us a try.  We will do our best to provide great products at an excellent value in time for your event. That’s why we are the National Leader of Meaningful Recognition!

Jeff Anderson, President

At Trophies2Go and Issaquah Trophy, we love hearing the stories behind the beautiful recognition awards we make for you. Will you tell us your recognition story that we can post here in our blog?

What should you write about?  Here are a few ideas:

How do you use recognition in your company or organization?  What results do you see from it?

Do you have Service Awards?  Sales Awards?  President Award? How often are they awarded?

Besides awards, what other ways do you recognize your employees, customers, partners or volunteers?

What’s the best recognition you have ever received and how did it make you feel?

What’s the funniest recognition you’ve given or received?  We know it’s important to have fun in the work place.  We see some pretty funny award come through our production facility.

 Who will be reading what you write?

Other people, just like you, looking for ideas on what’s new in recognition. Or looking for ideas on how to reward their employees, customers, partners or volunteers. It might be someone who has a lot of experience with recognition, or it may be someone brand new and needing to start from the beginning.

How long should it be?

However long you want it to be, but probably no longer than what can be read in a few minutes. If you’d like to include a photo of your award or even someone receiving their award, we would love that! Make sure you have permission to use the photo, please. And if the pictures are not yours, please let us know who to give credit to.

When you’re ready, go ahead and write your blog post in a Word document. Then email it along with any pictures to [email protected] We’ll let you know when it will be posted.

Thanks for considering being a Guest Blogger!  It’ll be fun.  You never know, you may discover something inside yourself that loves to write!

Blessings!   Anne

Today we have a guest Blogger, our President and CEO, Jeff Anderson. He discusses why he attends the ARA trade show each year and the benefits. Enjoy! Here's Jeff:

At the beginning of each year, the Awards and Recognition Association (ARA) holds its trade show in Las Vegas. While the focus of the show is on new products and innovations in the awards industry, I get more out of it than most. Don’t get me wrong, I do want to know what new products are out there, as most of our new awards selection does come from the show. I also use it as an opportunity to select new suppliers. When meeting a new vendor, I like to know their terms of service, order processing times, shipping times, guarantees, and if they offer volume pricing. I typically select 2-3 to test-drive. I feel fortunate if one of these turns out to be a long-term supplier for us.

Jeff with the giant JDS Oscar-replica trophy at the 2013 ARA Trade Show.

The purpose of this post, however, is to dive deeper into what I get out of the show. I feel like there are 4 additional reasons that make this trade show worthwhile, including industry trends, education, giving back, and camaraderie.

Industry Trends

What is happening now that is new? What are the latest and greatest products and tools? What pains suppliers and other retailers? This helps me know what others are doing successfully and what pitfalls to avoid. This affects our business by enabling us to provide leading products and services to our customers. If I didn’t attend (and a lot of people don’t), I would be doing a disservice to my customers by putting my business on cruise control and not trying to improve.

Education

Continuing education is also an important benefit to attending the show. Although I have attended dozens of seminars in the past, I can never get enough. There are always small nuggets of information that I get from each presenter. They also serve as a way to get to know other retailers and see how they approach business. This can be eye opening at times, since there is a wide-range of business people at the education seminars. Nevertheless, there is always something to be learned – either from the seminar or the attendees. This year, I was a panel guest at a seminar, and it was an eye opening experience being the teacher instead of the attendee.

Giving Back

Since the Awards and Recognition Association has provided so much for me in the past, the least I can do is give back. This year, I have been elected to serve on the ARA board and will be guiding the direction of the organization and the industry into the future. It is an honor and a humbling experience to be given this opportunity, and I look forward to giving back even more to an organization that has helped me and my business so much in the past. The ARA has also generously awarded two of my staff college scholarships for their children through the ARIEF Scholarship Program. This organization does a great job of giving back to our community, so I want to do my part to support them. I don’t know everything by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have 20+ of years in the industry. I have a lot of experience when it comes to growing an awards business, issues with employees, customer satisfaction issues, and more. To share some of these experiences with the end result helping someone else is a great honor.

Camaraderie

Fun, Fellowship, Friendship. Being in the company of individuals in the same industry is heart-warming. Whether on the show floor, in a seminar, or (my favorite) after-hours socialization, it is nice to spend a couple of days with people who understand what you do, how you do it, and what you go through.

Whether you are a fellow ARA member or one of our customers, I hope you have enjoyed reading what I get out of attending the ARA trade show.  It's a great organization and I'm glad to be a part of it.

Best,
Jeff

Today's blog post is about the ARA. What is it and why are we members?  What are the benefits?  And why should it matter to our customers?  I hope to answer these questions and more!  The Awards and Recognition Association (ARA) is the trade group for the trophy and awards industry, with 4000 members worldwide.  The ARA is:

Awards professionals who can offer expert advice in designing recognition programs and provide quality awards and recognition products to consumers (That’s us!)

Manufacturers and suppliers that provide products, technology and equipment to awards retailers.

Many companies with a common purpose: to promote the public awareness of the use and benefits of quality recognition products and to educate its members in the areas of business skills and ethics, technical competence, product knowledge and marketing.

Membership Benefits

The ARA publishes a monthly newsletter, called the 'Recognition Review', has an informative and helpful website, provides technical training, and has a ‘Member to Member’ forum where awards business owners across the country can connect and share information.

The ARA also advocates for the awards industry as a whole.  But the biggest advantage to membership is free attendance to the annual ARA International Awards Market in Las Vegas. Jeff, Tom, Anne and I are headed to this event at the end of the month.

The Main Event - ARA Trade Show

What is so great about the ARA Show?  Our team visits the trade show exhibits to find new products for our website and showroom.  We make a list of product lines that need refreshing, along with engraving equipment or parts that need replacing.  Then we scout the show floor looking for new items that fill these needs.  For example, this year we will be looking for teacher awards, mid-price fantasy football trophies, and clocks made in the USA.

We also enjoy networking with our suppliers.  Most are at the show, and it’s great to visit with them face-to-face.  We also like meeting other trophy & award shop owners across the country.  We belong to an industry group called ‘Recognition Roundtable’ where awards retailers share ideas and help each other in their businesses.  Even though they are our competition, our philosophy is working together and sharing ideas to boost the industry as a whole helps us all.

The last reason we like the Vegas ARA event is because of the recognition the ARA gives to its members.  Many awards are distributed at the Gala at the end of the trade show, and it’s an honor to receive recognition from our peers.  In 2010, Trophies2Go received the ARA ‘Website of the Year’, and in 2012 Issaquah Trophy received the ‘Large Retailer of the Year’ award.  The ARA also gives scholarships to students across the country and recognizes a premiere college athlete with their Sportsmanship Award.

We value our membership in the Awards and Recognition Association and are grateful for the good work this group does to help promote and grow the Awards and Recognition Industry.  We look forward to seeing all of our friends in Vegas!

Cheers! Jessica

The Year in Review

2012 has been an extremely busy year for Trophies2Go!  We recap each quarter of 2012 below…

Our highest achievement - the ARA Large Retailer of the Year.

Quarter 1:  At the first of the year, we launched our Issaquah Trophy and Trophies2Go videos.  If you haven’t done so already, check them out on Youtube/AwardsGuru’s channel .  They were a blast to make, are fun to watch, and are great snapshots of our companies! In late January, Jeff, Tom and I attended the Awards and Recognition Association (ARA) Trade Show in Las Vegas.  The highlight of the show was when Issaquah Trophy & Awards, our local brand, won the Awards Industry’s highest honor, the' ARA Large Retailer of the Year'.  What a thrill it was for our company to win this prestigious award!  To end out the quarter, our Q1 ‘Awards for a Cause’ was Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society.  Thank you customers for supporting such a worthwhile charity!

Star101.5 Weiner Dog Races - check out the awesome trophy!

Quarter 2:  In April, our CEO Jeff Anderson won the Issaquah Chamber of Commerce’s Business Person of the Year.  Again, Jeff was humbled and excited to be honored with this award by our community!  The Social Media Madness competition was our focus in May.  While we didn’t make it to the second round of the contest, we ended in 6^th place in our division, and more importantly, launched our Trophies2Go Facebook Page, Issaquah Trophy Facebook page, and our weekly blog posts. In June, we achieved a huge milestone; our  100,00^th order!  The winner of this distinction went to Dickenson Elementary, in Redmond, WA.   Our 2^nd Quarter ‘Awards for a Cause’ was SAMBICA, a local Christian Summer Camp.  July brought the STAR 101.5 Weiner Dog Races at Emerald Downs, where we sponsor the giant weiner dog trophies.  We love this event, as the dogs are hilarious!

Check out our awesome t-shirts designed by Laurie for our staff party!

Quarter 3:  The beginning of September brought our glass blowing Staff Party, complete with Trophies2Go t-shirt contest.  We had a great time playing games, creating glass art, eating BBQ, and having fun with each other!  Our 3^rd quarter ‘Awards for a Cause’ charity was the Susan G Komen 3-Day Walk.  Not only did we raise money for the organization, but Janice and I also volunteered at the Seattle closing of this emotional and inspirational event.  September also brought Issaquah Trophy’s participation in ‘Splash Mob – The Ultimate Salmon Quest’, a Salmon Days event. Brent Naylor won a $100 gift certificate to Issaquah Trophy for visiting our showroom during Splash Mob.   Sammy the Salmon visited our showroom one afternoon, playing games and taking pictures with kids from the community.

Quarter 4:  This fall we unveiled our newest exclusive product…The Honey Badger Trophy!   This little trophy doesn’t give a darn, he’s nasty and crazy!  December brought our Holiday Staff party, complete with chili cookoff and gift exchange.  Anne was the big winner of the cook off, with an engraved ladle as her prize.  At the party, Laurie was awarded Jeff’s “President’s Award” for being an unsung hero in the company.  We also awarded our 2012 Vendor of the Year (JDS Industries), Customer of the Year (Yvette Smith with T-Mobile) and Product of the Year (Monster trophies from Continental Awards).

To recap the year, it’s been a busy one for all of us here at Trophies2Go.  Thank you doesn’t seem like enough to acknowledge all of the effort, teamwork, and hard work our staff goes through every day for our customers and our company.  Here’s to our Trophies2Go Team: Anne, Chris, Edzel, Janice, Jeremy, Julie, Laurie, Margene, Mika, Mike, Paul, and Tom.  You guys are the best, and we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for your dedication, commitment and willingness to give your all every day!  Let’s put 2012 to bed and bring on a happy, healthy and prosperous 2013!

Cheers, Jessica