If you approved all your personalization files, your order has been released into production. Your project is either in production or is in the shipping department. Once your orders ships, all recipients are provided with master tracking. Final invoices are shared once your shipment leaves our facilities.
Please keep in mind that different custom projects have different lead times. Please defer to the lead time provided within your quote and order acknowledgement before requesting a status update with customer service.
We are a process-driven company. All our files and document sharing is integrated throughout other departments. When we accept files that do not meet our parameters, it creates a lot of potential issues for us with information fields not matching up in our systems.
This elongates the entire process. Do not worry! We make this process very seamless, so please contact one of our friendly customer service representatives to learn more about our best practices when submitting your information!
Typically, our standard turnaround times are 48-72 hours (about 3 business days). However, larger orders (more than 100 pieces) can take a little bit longer because there is more data to cross-check.
An art proof is a digital, visual example of what your final recognition piece will look like. At Cristaux, we use software called PandaDoc to communicate this information to you. All art proofs will require you to open a document to review the proof. While in PandaDoc, you can communicate directly with our creative designers through a chat box on the right-hand side of the screen.
Stock recognition is readily available pieces that are flexible in personalization but not in design. While these recognition pieces do not require a big commitment, you can still incorporate company branding and unique elements that are personalized to your company’s needs.
Custom recognition requires more initial legwork in design creation and is usually highly specific to your branding. This type of recognition is customizable and unique to your brand persona. Typically, these designs are produced for long-term, yearly recognition programs and are a byproduct of company culture. Whether you need branded insertions or custom packaging/kitting, Cristaux has the solutions for you.
Typically, stock personalization is a singular method of decoration that displays traditional information. This tends to look like a company logo, text, recognition recipient name and the year in which the honor is taking place. Custom personalization explores the creative side in more depth, allowing the company’s branding to be displayed in a design-centric way.
While stock pieces usually gear towards a lower budget, both custom and stock projects allow for some sort of personalization details. Custom personalization capabilities encompass anything from unique shapes and designs to custom molds, while stock customization can include simple recipient engraving. If your budget qualifies, stock pieces can include additional personalization touches such as custom logo recreation onto your recognition pieces or PMS-color matching your branded colors. The larger the budget, the more options you will have when it comes to personalization.
The key to a fast and seamless quoting process is within the details you provide your account manager. Some of those crucial details include:
In-hand dates: When does your recognition order need to physically be in your hands?
Quantity: How many pieces will you be ordering?
Creation Type: What style of recognition will you be requesting? Is it a financial tombstone or deal toy? Will it be company branded lapel pins and swag, or will it be a product/building replica?
Personalization: What type of personalization features do you wish to include?
Material: Are there specific types of materials you seek to use?
Shipping: How frequently do you need your recognition to be shipped? Will this be domestic (USA) or international shipping?
Fulfillment: Are the items going to be shipping individually (drop shipping) or in group batches? Do you require special instructions? Will you need insertions or custom kitting?
Depending on the complexity of design and the required delivery date, quotes can be offered as quickly as 24 hours and could take as long as 5-7 days.
In-hand dates: when does your recognition order need to be in your hands? Oftentimes, this is before an actual event occurs.
The Cristaux team strives to schedule our production to accommodate safe and swift delivery prior to any events. We do this to avoid any unforeseen shipping or weather delays.
In-hand is the specific date your recognition will be delivered on. Turnaround time is the actual production of the product after the personalization has been approved. This includes decoration, inspection, packaging, and all boxing needs of the program (parcel, pallet, or split shipment).
There are many variables to take into consideration when it comes to custom work. Our friendly sales team is ready to work with you on the best method for your needs.
Custom projects typically start at $10,000. If you are looking for a custom product lower than that minimum, we will work with you to elevate the personalization of a stock product to show a more budget-friendly alternative.
For any custom order, projects tend to start at $10,000. Our custom creative design process is reserved only for our custom orders because with custom concepts comes custom work and timing. Our team takes a tremendous amount of pride in their work, and they put their hearts into creating custom designs to ensure that each one is crafted beyond the bar of perfection.
A sales order confirmation is a printed verification that your order has been entered into our system. We send this so that our art, production, and fulfillment teams are notified, and we can start to build out your order.
This is not an invoice, and no credit cards are charged at this time. We will ask for billing information later down the road and you will be charged after your order is shipped (unless other arrangements are made).
This is a single page document that confirms your order has been completed and is ready for carrier pickup. It will usually be physically picked up the same day, and on occasion, it can go out the following business day.
The tracking number is located inside of this document. If your order includes individual drop shipments, a PDF will be sent along with the sales shipping notification that contains all the individual tracking locations and cost.
Although we have a very rigorous customer service and communication process with our clients, we understand there are times you may seek more information. Connect with us! Your account manager, as well as any other member of our team, is happy to help.
If you have any questions along the way or are interested to learn the status of your recognition, you can always contact your account manager or project manager. This information will be listed in your order acknowledgment email.
You can connect with us directly through our contact page, and a member of our team will reach out within 24 hours. You may also visit our virtual showroom to view all that Cristaux has to offer.
You can learn more about our virtual showroom and schedule an appointment by clicking here.
Cristaux works with a variety of materials, including but not limited to: Crystal, glass, acrylic/Lucite, wood, aluminum, steel, copper, bronze, resin, marble, stone, alloy and much more.
The Cristaux team uses many different styles of 3D printing, but generally speaking, the 3D printing process creates 3-dimensional objects from a 2-dimensional rendering. Using thin layers of material, we can craft almost any image replica that you choose.
Rapid prototyping is a process that allows you to hold your recognition vision in your hands. With a prototype of your design based on initial conversations, we give you a glimpse of what your recognition could be. This may feature a material, color, weight or overall design aesthetic in a way that could not otherwise be seen with a basic rendering.
If you are looking for design inspiration, you can take a look at the hundreds of case studies we have listed in our portfolio. These custom recognition designs include pieces from all sorts of materials that fit into various industry categories (sports and online gaming, agency and creative, hospitality, etc.) and program specifics (president’s club, sales awards, years of service awards, etc.).
Yes, but we handle those on a case-by-case basis. Please connect with your customer service representative to discuss your project details.
Absolutely. Service charges will apply depending on the complexity. To learn more please ask about our A La Carte services.
Our stock collection is the only type of recognition that can be ordered in singular quantities.
Yes. Typically, we take studio shots of all our custom products, assuming we have enough time for photography. Any special requests need to be made with your account manager ahead of time, and additional charges may be incurred.
Check out our other white glove services here.
Another way of saying this is “split shipment,” meaning we split up your order and help you ship it to however many destinations you need. With the impact Covid-19 and much of the workforce working remote, roughly 80% of our orders are now being fully drop shipped.
For any order to be successfully drop shipped, we need complete and accurate information about all shipping destinations before processing. Please make sure to connect with customer service who have dedicated spreadsheets and guidelines to walk you through this entire process.
Learn more about our drop shipping solution here.
Drop shipping allows Cristaux to help you make sure that all of your recipients safely get their recognition products without having you do anything more than provide us with accurate information. This is a huge time-saver for most customers, being that many of our clients simply do not have the shipping experience we have. This allows you, as the customer, to concentrate on what you do best.
By sharing recipient email information, our systems can systematically notify all parties of tracking numbers when the shipments leave our facility. This is simply another complimentary value-added service. This also helps mitigate and minimize returned shipments.
All master orders are then consolidated, and our customers are provided with master shipping documents outlining all recipient tracking numbers, individual costs, etc. Another value-added service to help keep your day organized.
Unlike a traditional order, which most often ships to a single location, split shipment or better known as “drop shipments,” take time and resources to accommodate.
Example. You have a 100pc order that you traditionally would have shipped to your office. Now, you are splitting up that shipment and sending 100 different pieces to the employees’ homes. In order to drop ship, our shipping department now needs to create 100 individual boxes with 100 individual addresses, which takes much more time.
Our primary shipping partner is FedEx, but we also ship with UPS, DHL, and Post Office.
LTL and LCL shipments are used for larger bulk orders.
Yes absolutely. We charge a $10 fixed fee for this service, and this option only applies for domestic (excluding Alaska & Hawaii) shipments.
This varies depending on the size of your order, shipping destination, etc. We are more than happy to provide shipping dimensions, but unfortunately we do not provide shipping quotes for projects under 100 pieces because of the overall administrative time required.
Absolutely! We ship internationally daily and have vast experience with shipping to over 140 countries worldwide. This includes single and split shipments.
Our goal is to provide the most competitive unit cost to our clients possible. As a custom fabricator, we are simply not in the financing business.
Finance charges can be avoided by paying via check or ACH. We recommend ACH because it expedites the payment process much faster, especially on future orders.
Yes. Please keep in mind that we are not a printing company. We have great relationships with local printers who we can recommend for more complex projects, but we manage many programs which consist of internal printing and fulfillment solutions.
If you have a new account, then your terms are prepayment. All shipping charges will be invoiced and charged to your credit card upon release.
Established accounts often require a minimum of a 50% deposit on inventory. The remaining 50% balance is due either upon shipment or at the completion of production. Only prepaid inventory will be stored back into inventory. All invoices must be paid within 30 days.
Statement accounts are only sent from our systems when invoices are not paid on time. Oftentimes, invoices need to be resent to your accounting departments, or you will need to update our accounting team with updated points of contact from your accounts payable team.
Most design fees vary based on the project, but our agency rate is $125/hour for creative services. Our more integrated CAD fees start at $325/hour.
Any creative fees incurred are often credited toward your order.
Setup fees vary but are broken out in two ways: There are setup fees relating to starting your project where 3D printing, modeling and molds and required, while there are other setup fees relating to personalization services for substrates such as sand blasting, UV digital printing, laser, screen print, etc.
All mold fees vary based on the design complexity. There is no one size fits all.
Personalization fees typically range between $80 - $135 depending on the method.