Custom – “Turning Your Ideas into Reality”
I was talking to someone who has a company that advertises that they make “custom awards”.  I asked him what type of custom awards he does; he stated that he purchases plaque sets and he adds logo and text.

When we think of custom awards we think of making a custom sized wood board, adding a special plate, cutting out a raised logo and possibly adding a printed photograph on metal. Or maybe the customer wants the board in the shape of a dog bone and maybe they want a glass dog bone award to match the plaque and maybe even a small dog bone as a gift.

Many customers ask isn’t custom expensive? It is expensive if you are looking for say a single custom glass shaped award. I was working on a custom glass shaped badge the other day. For a single badge, the cost was over $500 but if we did ten badges, the cost came down to $150. However,  if we did it out of acrylic, we could get the cost down under a $100 each. Our expertise is in matching the materials and cost to meet your budget.

If I want “just” a stock  award or a plaque, are you more expensive than other suppliers?
Not really, our prices are competitive and sometimes a little bit higher but we are a lot pickier than other suppliers. By pickier, I mean that we are very selective in the raw materials that we purchase. We reject products that are inferior so that takes time and costs. We spend extra time to make your artwork better.  We send paper proofs for all orders and corrections. When it improves the quality, we would engrave a product twice rather than just once to get it done. We inspect, clean and polish the final product before carefully packaging for safe shipment. So maybe the price seems a little higher but we ensure that the quality exceeds the price.

How is your quality control different from other suppliers?
After 21 plus years in the business, I am still amazed at what other companies send out. A competitor told me that they don’t send out proofs or inspect the final quality of the product or engraving. If the name is wrong or the product quality bad, they will gladly fix it. Do you want your award, gift or plaque to show up with the wrong name? Do you want to have to return the product because it is defective? Do you want to be shocked by all the price add-ons to your order? If I was the customer, I certainly wouldn’t want any of that. We work by the theory of  “if I was the customer” or as my neighbor calls it “if you were doing this for your mother what would you do.”