Corporate Awards

Every month I email our top customers, just to check in, confirming that the ordering process when smoothly and that their awards arrived on-time, in perfect condition.  Even though we are an online company, I like to make the experience with Trophies2Go more personal and try to build that one-on-one relationship with our customers.

This week I contacted customer Andre at Mountain King Potatoes.  Based in Houston, Texas, they provide the world's best tasting potatoes to retail and food service businesses.

Andre purchases black trophy bases and does the COOLEST thing with them.  For his top 1% customers, he creates "Academy Golden Spud Awards".  He spray paints Mr. Potato Heads gold and then glues them to the base.  Take a look!

His VP liked them so much, that they plan to continue this program every June/July.  I love how Andre creatively uses our awards and customizes them specifically to his particular business.  It's very cool to see our awards with our customers and their recipients, it makes our work worthwhile.

Thank you Andre for sharing your story!

Cheers,

Jessica

Has your team been hustling during this COVID-19 outbreak to make your business successful during an extremely stressful time?  Are your employees adapting to working from home, being more productive, and saving your company money while your business scrambles?  Do you have an ongoing recognition program that you want to continue even though nobody is in the office?  Do you have Service Awards for your employees, and you want to honor multiple years of dedication to your organization? If you answer 'YES' to any of these questions, then this blog post is for you.  Today I will discuss how to recognize individuals in the midst of a global pandemic.

At Trophies2Go, we are continuing to fulfill corporate customer's orders even though many offices are closed.  How are organizations able to do this?  It's a two step process.

STEP ONE:  The meeting.

Many companies continue to meet with their teams via Zoom and give recognition virtually instead of in-person.  As long as the recognition is appropriate for the achievement and is timely, a virtual presentation can have a large and meaningful impact to the employee.  It just takes a little planning and forethought by the presenter.  Be sure to have the award match the achievement, and prepare for what will be said, just like any other recognition event.  For tips on how to present corporate awards, read my past blog post here.

Continue to recognize Years of Service awards during the COVID pandemic. Send the award individually to your employee's home.

STEP TWO:  The award.

Since you can't directly hand your employee their award in person, what my customers have been doing is mailing individual awards directly to employee's homes.  They time it to coincide with the Zoom presentation so the award arrives a day or so after the online meeting.  From the feedback I have received, this seems to work really well.  Just be sure to note that there should be NO INVOICE in the box, since the award is a gift.

At Trophies2Go, each individual address must be it's own order, we cannot ship one order to multiple addresses.  If you have any questions about that process, you can always contact me or our customer service team at [email protected].  Our staff continues to operate both from home and also at the warehouse while maintaining safe social distancing.

I hope this gives you an idea of how you can recognize outstanding service from your key employees during this strange and stressful time.  Hang in there!

Cheers,

Jessica

Holiday party! Bring on the laughs!

With the holidays approaching, it’s time to plan the office party.  You can do a stuffy button-ed up event, or you can lighten up, add some laughs and have some fun!

That’s where we come in, as we have hilarious business awards and joke trophies for your office party.  Host a contest or competition and give funny awards for the best (or...worse)!  Call out the clowns of your group, poke fun at the your colleagues and make a memory that will be discussed around the water cooler for years to come!

Tips for Funny Trophies

For the office go-getter, the Honeybadger trophy makes a perfect award!

Match your party theme.  For example, If you are having a bowling event, make the awards bowling trophies.  For an Ugly Sweater office party, choose Ugly Sweater Trophies.  For Karaoke, it's microphone trophies for the team.  You get the idea.

OR do individual awards to match the person.  For example, the person who runs late gets a clock, the deal maker gets a sales shark, biggest baller gets a bomb trophy, greatest of all time gets a GOAT trophy.  Get creative and have fun with it!

Engraving matters.  Be clever and specific when etching a message on your trophy.  Any trophy can be transformed into something funny with a brilliant message.  Be sure to spell the name correctly!

Order early.  Make sure to get your awards before your party in case there's any breakage, etc.  It puts your mind at ease knowing this task is completed.

Funny Trophy Ideas

Here are some of the funniest trophies we’ve seen come through the door over the years:

For your beast of a seller, this trophy is a winner!

Sales Shark:  This best selling bobblehead shark trophy is perfect for your favorite sales rep.

Horse's Butt:  For the biggest jackass in the office, we have two popular options, the Horse Bobble Butt trophy and the Horse's Rear Trophy.

Cry Baby:  Got a whiner in the office?  This cry baby trophy is THE trophy for them, everyone will love it.

Honeybadger:  A nasty go-getter that won’t take no for an answer, Honeybadgers show no fear and eat that cobra!  For the tenacious person that just goes for it, then the Honey Badger Trophy is for them! Add names to the sides to make it an annual award.

Monster Sales:  For the guy or gal who crushes your sales numbers, this hunky hulk monster trophy smashes and slays the competition!

We don't judge.

Funny Name Plates:  Come up with any saying, we can engrave it on a plastic name plate.  See ideas in the picture (we don't judge)

The Dundee Trophy:  An Office classic!  A businessman or business woman trophy.

The “No Award” - Just engrave a base with no topper.

Other Awards include Light bulb trophy for innovative ideas, gears trophy for teamwork, and puzzle piece trophy for problem solving.

The key is to put some thought into the person and choose something that fits the event or their personality.  Check out our funny office awards to bring laughs and smiles to your event!

Cheers!

Jessica

Editor's Note:  This post was originally published November 2017.

Tropar Manufacturing located in Ennis, Tx.

This past weekend I was visiting family outside of Dallas and made a stop at Tropar Manufacturing, located in Ennis, Texas.  This company is one of our top 3 suppliers and was our 2016 Vendor of the Year.  Tropar makes many of our art glass awards, quickship acrylic awards, glass awards and all of our high quality plaques, including all of the plaques we offer that are "Made in the USA".

Kathy Woods, our Customer Service Rep Extraordinaire (and one of Tom's favorite people), gave me a tour of the facility.  Kathy oozes southern hospitality and generously took time out of her day to show me around Tropar's three warehouses.  She introduced me to the people who create beautiful awards for our customers.

The shipping warehouse for Tropar, with Kathy my tour guide!

At Tropar, I saw their shipping facility where they send awards across the country, their manufacturing facility where they cut out the medal plates for the plaques they sell, and their assembly warehouse where all of their plaques are put together.  This is all done here in the USA, with real people and real jobs!  It was impressive to see.

My take away from this visit is that Tropar employees truly care about the products they sell.  Made with care and craftsmanship, LOVE goes into each and every plaque they make, which in turn goes to you, our Trophies2Go Customers!  Their products are top notch.

These plates are made and assembled in Texas.

If made in the USA matters to you, your purchase of Tropar plaques keeps jobs in our country.  Also the love and care that goes into each award is apparent, their quality is second-to-none.  The visit to our supplier Tropar makes me proud to sell their products and I will be adding even more to our website soon!

Cheers,

Jessica

One question we often get about our products is how to change a clock battery in our clocks, especially our popular Personalized Rosewood Book Clock. Looking at our book clocks, it seems impossible to change!  But it’s actually quite easy.  However you need to save the parts that come with your clock when you receive it.

How do you change the battery on this pretty clock?

Step One:

The first step is to pull the clock face out of the wooden book.  This is the trickiest part.  When you received your award, it included a small suction cup.  You attach the suction cup to the front glass portion of the clock, and then carefully wiggle it out of the wooden book.

Using the gray suction cup provided with the clock, attach it to the font face and pull it from the casing.

Step Two:

After the clock is released, you turn over the clock and exchange the battery.

Replace the battery at the back of the clock face.

Step Three:

Then push back into the book clock and viola! You’re done! If you have any questions about any of our products, feel free to call us at 877-936-4700,  We are here to help!

Cheers!

Jessica