Trophies2Go Blog

Looking for something to spice up your fall?  Consider hosting a chili cook-off!  It’s a great event for the office, neighborhood, or family.  The change in the weather makes everyone crave warm and spicy dishes; chili hits the spot!

For the Trophies2Go holiday party, one year we held a chili cookoff competition.

So how do you start?  First, put together your guest list and send your invites.  I like Evite – it’s fast and easy.  Unfortunately, they don’t have a chili cookoff themed background, but they do have a cute “potluck” design that features a stock pot.  It works for me.

Rules

Then find out how many entrees you have in your cook-off and give those folks the rules.  I keep my rules very simple – the chili has to be homemade, and that’s it.  But some purists don’t allow any “foreign matter” into their chili, including beans, onion, pepper, etc.  It’s only beef, tomato and spices for the really hard core competitors.  See the International Chili Society for the “official” rules for professional chili cookoff competitions.  But like I said, we’re pretty relaxed in the Northwest, so anything goes as long as it doesn’t come out of a can!

Next I have all of the participants bring their chili in a crock pot with their own ladle.  That way I know the chili will stay warm and I won’t have to supply all of the spoons.  With all of those appliances in the same spot, I keep extra extension cords handy in case I blow an outlet.  This system seems to work pretty well.

Judging

Our Trophies2Go chili trophy. It can be passed on each year.

How do you want to judge your cookoff?  You can either have 3-5 official judges, or have all of the attendees taste and judge (that’s what I do).

For judging, I take a paper plate and glue small paper tasting cups to it.  I use a sharpie to label each chili entry so they are all anonymous.  I dish up the chili entries to keep it secret.  Then I let the judges have at it!

Prizes

Participants: I recommend participation ribbons, pins, or medals for each person who enters the competition.  We have lots of cute and affordable options.

Winners: For my cookoff, I have an adult’s choice and a kid’s choice winner.  In the past, I engraved cutting boards for the winners.  This year I think I’ll do ribbons (Blue – first, Red – second, White – third) and maybe an engraved ladle for the winners.  Trophies are always a great option, especially perpetual chili pots that can pass from champ to champ each year.  The awards are the fun part and the hit of the party!

Wishing you fun and laughter at your event!

Cheers, Jessica

We all want happy customers.  Happy, satisfied customers are returning customers, and we know it costs much less to keep a customer than it does to find a new one.  Retention is the new Acquisition.

According to Wikipedia, Customer Satisfaction is a term frequently used as a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectations.  It can and should be measured with surveys and numbers. But my favorite way to know if our customers are happy is to check out the comments they enter on our website.  These three just came in this week:

"Awesome Trophy. I highly recommend this company and we’ll be using them again. The proof feature was above and beyond and helped make this the best Fantasy Football Trophy ever."

"Excellent service!"

"The plaque is beautiful. What is more impressive is the response time. A proof was sent to me within hours… Then it arrived in three days! I have ordered many recognition items from Trophies2go. They are the best!"

Happy Employees lead to Happy Customers

One of the best ways to make customers happy is to have happy employees.  And not just the people who answer the phone. Every employee has some way they are interacting with the customer or the customer’s order.  If those employees are happy, they will be more likely to provide great customer service.

What are ways to make your employees happy?

Employee Engagement.

You’ve heard this term a lot.  I think the most important thing about employee engagement is that it needs to be more than something discussed in the human resources department.  It needs to be a large part of how a business is structured and how it runs on a daily basis.

Engaged employees are more productive, more creative, more customer-focused and more loyal.  They actually show up to work and give best effort.

Clear Communication.

Identify meaningful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or performance metrics for each employee that relate to providing excellent customer service.  They should be involved in the development of these KPIs.

Hold regular meetings to review how they are performing to these metrics.  These don’t have to be formal sit-down meetings.  Make them more relaxed at the local coffee shop, or if you’re strapped for time, do them on the phone or Skype.

A manager should always ask the employee how they can help them in the attainment of these metrics. Do they have the needed tools and education to do their job and meet their goals?

And feel free to adjust the KPIs if you find they are not reflecting how to make customers happy.

Recognition.

Recognize, informally or formally, when an employee does a great job.  Reward what you want repeated.

Reward the attainment of KPIs, as long as they are properly aligned to the service delivered to your customers.

Recognition leads to increased productivity, higher loyalty, enhanced teamwork and lower employee turnover.  All good things to have in place when you want to have Happy Customers.

Show Your Employees That They are Important to You.

Investment in your employees: their education, development and growth.

Discuss potential career paths, what they should be doing to move along those paths, and how you will help them.

ABOVE ALL:  Value your employees even more than your customers.

Without one, you won’t have the other!

Blessings, Anne

This past Sunday, Janice, our customer service manager, and I volunteered at the Seattle Susan G Komen 3-Day Walk for breast cancer.

Janice & I at the Seattle Komen 3-Day Walk.

It was a beautiful, sunny  Seattle day with perfect weather for the event. Janice and I were stationed just past the finish line at the Victory T-shirts station. Our job was to hand out t-shirts to the finishers; pink t-shirts to breast cancer survivors, white t-shirts to walkers and gray t-shirts to crew members.

What touched me the most about this event was how moving it was to all who participated. Many of the finishers were in tears, either from the physical feat of walking 60 miles, or from the emotion of dedicating their walk to a loved one. I found myself tearing up often, seeing all of these women and men overcome with emotion. Janice's job was to hand out pink t-shirts to breast cancer survivors who finished the 60 miles. She congratulated each one and gave out many hugs during her shift. One women, probably in her early 20’s, surprised Janice because she was a breast cancer survivor. It's tragic for anyone to have breast cancer, but especially someone so young. Yet these survivors served as an inspiration to us, beating the disease and walking 60 miles to prove the point. What an accomplishment!

Seattle 3-Day finishers - love the outfits!

The Susan G. Komen's 3 Day Walk is our 3rd quarter 'Awards for a Cause' charity. If you would like to support our 'Awards for a Cause' program, consider purchasing one of our designated products or donate directly to their organization.

This event reminds me to be grateful for my health, my family, and my life. Thank you customers for buying our 'Awards For A Cause' products so we have the opportunity to help those in need in our community. I’m so happy that I spent my Sunday at this worthwhile event.

Cheers,
Jessica

THE SALMON ARE COMING!

Every October, the city of Issaquah celebrates the return of the Salmon to our hatchery by hosting the Issaquah Salmon Days Festival.  It’s a weekend full of fun, food, games, music, art and community pride.  This year, during the month leading up to the festival, we have a new activity called Splash!MOB: The Ultimate Salmon Quest!  Issaquah Trophy & Awards (and our parent company, Trophies2Go) is excited to be a part of this unique community game.

For Splash!MOB: The Ultimate Salmon Quest! participants fish around the Issaquah area looking for outrageously decorated Salmon in businesses and community institutions participating in Splash!MOB. The fun starts Sept. 7th and continues through Oct. 7th. The Splash!MOB Game is a great family activity to play together whether it takes you one day or one week. You will explore the city, collect the different stamps, have fun and earn the chance to win great prizes!

When you stop by our showroom to get your game card stamped, you can play a small scavenger hunt game to earn a prize, including an Issaquah Trophy coffee mug, candy and trophy coupons. You can also enter our contest to win $100 off a future trophy or corporate award order.  Our showroom is located at 1320 NW Mall Street, suite A-2.

We’ll have an extra fishy fun time at Issaquah Trophy & Awards on Thursday, September 20^th, 4-5pm.  Join us for a game of Bean Bag Toss, Build a Trophy, share a snack and visit with Sammy the Salmon.

Visit with Sammy the Salmon on Sept 20, 4-5pm at Issaquah Trophy & Awards!

Where do you get a Splash! Mob: Ultimate Salmon Quest game card? You can download the card here, or from the Splash!MOB website, cut it out of the Issaquah Press newspaper, pick one up at any of the 24 participating businesses or swing by the Issaquah Visitor Information Center. It's that easy!

1st Place: $1,000 in valuable gift cards from local merchants.
2nd Place: $200 in valuable gift cards from local merchants.

Please drop off your game cards to the Visitor Information Center (155 NW Gilman Blvd, Issaquah) by Oct. 5th or turn them in to one of the Salmon Days Information Booths on Oct. 6th & 7th before 4:00pm.   Grand Prize drawing will be held Sunday, Oct 7th at 5:00pm at the Rainier Blvd. Stage!

FUN FISHING!

Blessings, Anne

Looking for ideas of what to do at your next staff party?  Below I'm going to share what activities we did at ours, hopefully inspiring you to host an event for your organization.

Monday night was Trophies2Go's  party celebrating our 100, 000th order and it was a blast.  Here’s a recap of our night....

Trophies2Go staff shows off the new t-shirts!

Our new Trophies2Go t-shirts were unveiled.  Back in June, we had a staff t-shirt contest, with Laurie's design being chosen as the overall winner.  Check out how great we look in our new shirts!  The back says "We Deliver Smiles" which is what we strive to do each day!

The venue for our party was Uptown Glassworks in Renton, WA, near our Awards Factory.  Each of us  got to make something special out of glass – a pumpkin, ball, small plate, etc.  Glass blowers Tom & Kyle created our pieces with a little 'blowing' help from us.  What a fun experience with a beautiful memento to bring home afterwards!

Mika watches her glass creation being made.

For food, we got takeout Stan’s BBQ in Issaquah and it was a hit with our group.  Food is always a good thing.

For a mixer, we divided our group into two teams – 'Team Trophy' vs.' Team Ribbon'.  Then each team picked a player to compete in a round of ‘Minute to Win It’.  After 6 rounds, Team Trophy Cup was the ultimate winner!  It was hilarious – lots of laughs.

We also celebrated one of our own during the evening.  Margene has worked for Trophies2Go for the past 10 years, and Jeff honored her with a 10-year Service Award.  It was nice to see our company practice what we preach – recognizing our own staff for hard work and years of dedication.

Team Trophy shows off their prizes for winning 'Minute to Win It".

Overall, the evening was a successful event and I’m looking forward to the next one.  I love my co-workers and the fun they bring to our work!

Cheers, Jessica