Custom Challenge Coins
What characteristic defines the best custom challenge coin maker?
I believe honesty first and foremost makes the best challenge coin maker. Even if that honesty costs you a customer. It sounds crazy right. This topic makes me think of a prospective customer who contacted me Friday, April 24, 2015.
The prospective customer asked if I could get her custom coin order to her by May 12, 2015. I told her what I tell everyone, I cannot guarantee it but I will do my very best. I emphasized to her that there are extenuating circumstances that could cause her desired need by date to be missed.
This is honesty in the most brutal form and sometimes it's hard to swallow. When you're an upstanding business and a custom coin authority you don't want to tell people NO or NOT be able to guarantee a delivery date. The bottom line is - NO custom challenge coin company can guarantee delivery time-frames, reasonable or NOT. Any custom coin company that has their coins manufactured overseas can fall victim to these same extenuating circumstances I was speaking of.
The biggest extenuating circumstance being United States Customs. If the required turnaround time is too tight and that shipment gets held up in Customs, that could be enough to miss your target need by date.
It's up to the coin company minting your custom coins to be completely honest with you. Will your company of choice be honest when profit is at stake?
I had a choice, I could have lied and possibly received the order but then what if I missed the need by date after I said I could do it. Perhaps it wouldn't be my fault but I would consider it my fault if I had NOT been one hundred percent forthcoming from the beginning. Lying to get business is just unethical.
It's true, I do see advertising that is misleading and very close to what I would consider unethical business practices. However you can’t fault any business for trying to get the most bang for their advertising buck. Every custom coin company is doing what a business is supposed to do; get every lead they can possibly receive from their advertising revenue. I can only hope that these companies are honest enough to tell their leads or prospects the truth when the phone rings or emails come in.
Tight order turnaround times bring to light other possible deficiencies. Quality assurance is the first one that comes to mind. I mean if a custom coin manufacturer ships directly to the customer from the factory then that suggests that the actual vendor never had a chance to examine the products themselves.
That’s the thing I dislike most about rush orders. I’m not saying custom coin orders can’t be rushed! What I am saying is that they should NOT be rushed unless they are photographic printing coins or coins with NO paint color and NO additional features.
Every feature adds production time.
Even photographic printed coins require epoxy whereas NO color coins only require casting or striking, plating, buffing and packaging.
I encourage you to plan ahead when possible. I know people are busy and things get put off to the side and forgotten but waiting until the last minute to make custom challenge coins leaves no one to blame but the person in the mirror.
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