MTM Recognition wants to embrace the community

PRINCETON — Many people may not realize all of the work performed inside the four walls of the MTM Recognition facility in Princeton.

“It is pretty phenomenal,” said Tim Bissonette, recognition consultant for MTM Recognition. “We do all our design and tooling in house; we cast our metals in house as well as laying our stones here.

“We also house our retail operations like golf clubs and other lifestyle products for our clients, and combine that with our manufacturing, whether it be rings, watches or jewelry. We make custom, one-of-a-kind recognition programs for any budget or any size client. It is unique in that aspect,” he added.

The Princeton facility employs 150 people with about 40 people working in its customer care unit.

“We are not a call center. You dial our phone number here, and you get a live person inside business hours,” Bissonette said. “We dedicate one of those people to each client. If the client has a question about invoicing, warranty or wrong shipment, they are not shipped from department to department. They get one person, and that person does the legwork to figure out how best to fix it for that client.”

MTM Recognition bought the facility in Princeton in 2001 from Jostens, which built the current facility at 615 S. Sixth St. in 1964, after coming to town five years earlier.

“A lot of the same people still work here; same products, same processes, same warranties,” he added. “We are really visible to our clients. We have tried to step up the initiative to get ourselves out more locally in the community, educate people on who we are and what we do, and the different platforms we offer to lead recognition.”

When Jostens was in operation, the Princeton facility was mainly a manufacturing facility.

“They took care of their marketing and sales out of another facility. MTM is taking a new look at that,” Bissonette said. “We should have sales and representation here and open our doors and let the community know what we do. We need to be more involved in the community and be a better steward of the community.”

Currently a remodel of the building’s lobby plays a part into that philosophy.

“We obviously want to build jobs here and be the employer of choice for Bureau County and the entire Illinois Valley area. We have a lot of talent here,” he said.

The average age of MTM Recognition’s employees is about 46 years old.

“We have many people who have been here 30-35 years. We have very long-term employment and very little turnover,” Bissonette said. “We have brought in some people due to growth by bringing in some art design capabilities here. We have some designers in Minnesota that still do stuff for us. We are trying to bring that in-house and take some pressure off them. As we grow, it takes a long time because it is a skill. We try to bring some of that here to streamline the process.”

The Oklahoma City facility is now MTM’s corporate headquarters where products like plaques, desk-top type awards, bronze sculptures, coins and law enforcement badges are produced.

“We brought some merchandising duties in-house from the Oklahoma City facility. We have added to our sales team, so we are seeing some positive growth,” he reported.

Jostens had some people who were independent representatives selling their products.

“We are now doing that in-house to cover an area where there may not be an independent rep for that territory.”

Many rings for Super Bowls, World Series, Stanley Cups and NBA finals were produced in the Jostens facility.

“We did all the Bulls rings here, and Olympic medals were made there in 1984,” he said. “A lot of prestigious things came out of this building. We now do all the NCAA trophies and watches. A lot of the trophies are built in Oklahoma City with the watches and rings built here.”

Princeton employees produce 385 rings, 2,300 pieces of jewelry and 700 watches as well as ship 6,300 retail units out of the Princeton facility each week.

“We are a performance-based facility, but the measurement we are most proud of are the relationships we build with our customers through demonstrating delivery, quality and service excellence,” he said.

“In the corporate world, our bread and butter is the recognition awards. We understand all clients have different nuances. We are very flexible because we control everything,” he said. “Our lead time is probably the best in the industry. We have a better chance to react, especially if there are errors to turn it back around quickly.”

MTM has been in business for 45 years and has annual sales of $45 million.

MTM received a 97 percent ranking in 2013 when the company took its first nationally aligned customer satisfaction survey. In that same survey, MTM’s score for customer loyalty was 70 percent, with the average score of companies being in the 5 to 10 percent range.

The company’s focus as it relates to Princeton today is try to get its name out there and educate the public in what work is done inside the 55,000-square-foot facility in Princeton.

“We are a huge supporter of Special Olympics,” Bissonette said. “We try to get our employees more involved in the community through volunteering. An in-house recognition program helps reward service badges to those employees who volunteer their time.”

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