Raising the Bar on Service Award Programs

When Eagle Recognition consultant Mia Cooney contacted the corporate office of a well-known chain of auto parts stores, they were running into challenges with their current service gift award vendor. She asked the auto parts company what she asks of all her prospects, “What do you like about your current program? What do you not like? What’s your dream program? If you didn’t have to do any of the administrative tasks, how would you want your awards program to work?”

Once Mia asks these questions, her prospects typically open up to her about issues with their current programs. The number one complaint from the auto parts company was, “We have to give our database to our vendor 180 days out—and we often have employees who have left or changed locations during that time. So when we get the catalogs, we have to look up each person to make sure the catalog is going to the right location. Since people move around so much in retail, this is a hassle every time award season rolls around.”

Other complaints Mia has heard from prospects include:

“We need to have the presentations sorted by years of service and then alphabetized and our current company can’t do that for us—they ship them all together. We have to take time out and sort them before our awards banquet.”

“We need our gift recognition supplies organized then shipped to different stores. Our current vendor will only ship supplies to our headquarters and then we have to sort through them, box them up for each location, and load them up on our trucks to be delivered.”

Imagine this: You, the administrator, don’t have to do any extra work once your awards program is set up. Your custom requests are honored–whether it’s in regards to fulfillment or mailing, catalog printing, or gifts. You can send data four weeks prior to your program, or you could send data once a year and then make any changes prior to your mailing. Imagine having a client manager who knows your company, your awards program and your mailing schedule—and who remains consistent. Imagine looking like a “star” but not doing any extra work for your service awards program.

These main points are why Mia’s prospects eventually sign up with Eagle. Mia believes that Eagle doesn’t even know how special they are—this is just “what they do”—but in all her years in marketing and being in the awards program industry specifically, she has never experienced a company quite like Eagle. It’s all in the little details—the pleasant way they answer the phone, the way clients are invited to tour their facility and see how personally their awards program is being handled, the way they listen to what a client’s “dream” program is and the ways they can make that vision become a reality.

Mia believes there are several unique ways that Eagle’s services are unmatched in the industry:

Improved Employee Data Integrity

Eagle requires data only 3-4 weeks ahead of time. Most competitors require data 180 days out. Data integrity is lower at 180 days out and can contain costly errors. If you can give data only 3 weeks out, the chances that someone has moved stores, or has been promoted or left are minimal. Because of Eagle’s improved data integrity, clients also save money because they are not paying for shipping and returns of presentation pieces for employees who have termed. Also, most competitors require data to be formatted into their template. At Eagle, there is no special formatting required.

Some clients who do monthly mailings do not want to pull data before each mailing. At Eagle, clients can send their data at the end of each year and then a few weeks prior to each mailing, the Client Satisfaction Manager (CSM) will send the administrator the data for that mailing. The administrator can review the data and make any necessary corrections.

Single Pricing per Level

Eagle’s single price for each gift level makes exact budgeting easy. Most service gift award providers have +/- 10% per gift level. Eagle recognizes that budget integrity is important—you need to know exactly how much your program is going to cost (with the exception of termed employees which will just make the budget go down).

No Extra Printing Costs or Set-Up Fees for Corporate ID

At Eagle there are no printing charges and no set-up costs for corporate identification. Other service gift award companies charge for printing custom designed presentation packets (some as much as $15 per piece) and corporate identification on gifts. Other competitors charge $300-400 in set-up costs for corporate identification and then a fee for each item you want engraved or personalized ($10/each item on average).

Eagle is also flexible about corporate identification. Some clients want ID on all lifestyle items; others allow the employee to choose whether or not they want the company logo on their gift, which adds to the personalization of the gift-giving process. Eagle offers choices on how clients would like their corporate ID on gifts—as a small charm tag on jewelry, watch engraving, key chain with a lifestyle gift, or a luggage tag. Other competitors may only offer one of these choices, at the additional costs described above.

Gift Selection Updates for Every Mailing

Eagle prints the gift selection catalogs for each client mailing, on demand, ensuring that every client employee has the most up-to-date selections available. Most competitors print their gift catalogs bi-annually.

Printing catalogs on demand is an advantage to Eagle clients because administrators do not want to take calls from unhappy employees who received the wrong gift because the one they chose was discontinued. The employee’s gift selection should be a fabulous and seamless experience.

So what happens at Eagle in the rare instance that there is a change in the product line or an out of stock item? An Eagle Client Satisfaction Manager (CSM) will pick up the phone and call the recipient to ask if they would like something else. Eagle wants to take care of the recipient’s needs right away in a personal manner and also make the client administrator look good. It also saves the client money—they are not paying for an incorrect gift to go out and again to return it.

Custom Gift Options

Eagle is happy to print custom pages for catalogs and offer custom gifts, such as anniversary rings. The auto parts company decided they wanted to offer four additional gifts to each award level—a custom watch, a money clip, a charm necklace with their logo, and a pocket knife with their logo. At the 35 year or greater mark their employees could also choose a gold ring engraved with the company logo and their years of service. Eagle printed these custom pages for the client’s catalog, kept the inventory in stock and fulfilled these special requests—without hesitation.

Short Turn-Around Time to Program Implementation

Got a month’s notice that you have to put together a service awards program? Eagle has you covered—the program implementation can take as little as three weeks. Other service award competitors take at least three months to set up a program.

Annual Quality Reports Delivered to Each Client

Mia Cooney says, “Eagle Recognition is the only company during my nine years in the industry that has ever been able to or has offered to supply a customer with the ‘hard facts.’” Eagle’s quality report breaks down every single communication and issue that happens with the client’s program, whether a product is defective, or a recipient wanted an exchange, or UPS delivered to the wrong address. However, Mia says, “In all my years at Eagle I have never had a client call me up and complain that somebody’s name was spelled wrong, or that they had the address wrong or they had the employee’s years of service wrong.” With a smaller company like Eagle, each mailing is given personalized interest and questions are brought to the client’s attention before mistakes are made.

The auto parts company’s first annual quality report showed only five errors in mailings by UPS and three gifts that had to be returned for an exchange, out of 5000 employees, for a quality control score of 99.84%. These reports illustrate Eagle’s transparency to their clients and show, in writing, what was done to remedy any problems (albeit rare). Eagle also asks for client feedback on better ways to do things during these reviews, and implements these changes right away.

A Client Satisfaction Manager (CSM) Assigned to Each Account

Mia Cooney praises her Client Satisfaction Manager (CSM) Elizabeth. “Being able to get the same person after three years [in customer service] is amazing—I’ve never heard of it. Most customer service departments are constantly changing and you never know if they’ve taken care of your customers. With Elizabeth, I call her about something, and it just gets done in two minutes. I never hear from my customers once their program is implemented. It used to freak me out. Why haven’t I heard from them? What was going on? Well, what is going on is that they had no reason to call me. They are being taken care of and there is nothing wrong. If their programs have any changes, they call Elizabeth and she takes care of it. Eagle’s service to clients is mind-blowing.”

Customizable Websites and Presentation Pieces

The City of Oakland Park wanted their gift website to be a representation of their neighborhood. Eagle customized it for them with photography that the City of Oakland Park provided.

Eagle can also design and print custom presentation pieces—different colored folders or gift boxes. Special requests and custom orders are available to any size company. Mia’s newest client, a hospital, requested maroon colored boxes as their gift presentation because that was their company color. “No problem,” Cooney replied, “Would you like those organized by years of service or by name?” The client was not only surprised that she could easily customize her presentation packet, but that she had fulfillment options.

In conclusion, Mia says, “I don’t even know if Eagle realizes how special they are. I’ve been doing this a long time and the customer service of Eagle, externally to my clients and internally anytime I need something, is phenomenal. Eagle is so used to doing everything perfect, that they don’t even know how perfect they are.”