PPB March 2016

MARCH 2016 •

PPB

• 9

FEED

BACK

The PPAI Expo

Experience

WE HAD A GREAT SHOW.

The

PPAI team is terrific. Our rep

[Account Manager] Jeff Rogers

is responsive and focused on

solutions that will help us grow

our business. [Operations

Coordinator] Sandi Linz has an

amazing eye for detail and with

all she needs to keep track of, it

is impressive that she knows who

has sent what and where every

product is! Ellen [Tucker, busi-

ness development manager]

checked in with us and I was

thrilled to know we were taken

care of at so many levels. We

were very fired up after Seth

Godin’s opening talk, which really

set the stage for three great days

of selling our products.

PPAI has been a leap of faith

for us, but is proving to be a

great investment for our company.

For years we sold jewelry, ties

and scarves at retail, and it has

taken time and money to educate

distributors that although we are

custom and “out of the box,” we

fit in well with their solutions for

clients and brands. We love

PPAI!

Diane Katzman

Owner

Diane Katzman Design

St. Louis, Missouri

UPIC: dkatzman

THE EDUCATION SESSIONS

were

great, but most of all, Seth

Godin rocked it. What an amaz-

ing mind!

This was my first PPAI

Expo and it was awesome. If I

were to make one change, it

would be the New Products area.

It didn’t seem like some of the

products in the new product area

were new. I’m guessing they

might have been new to a sup-

plier, but they weren’t new to the

industry. Maybe just have new

products to the industry high-

lighted?

I learned, I had a great time,

made new friends and strength-

ened the friendships that I

already had.

Jeff Wickerham

Sales

Hasseman Marketing &

Communications

Nashport, Ohio

UPIC: H314957

I HAD A GREAT TIME

at my first

Expo. I expected a lot and it

delivered.

The quality of the education

was outstanding. In fact, it was

difficult to decide what I wanted

to pick from at times. And the

new product showcase was per-

fect. I added a few vendors to my

walk list because of the items I

wanted to make certain to check

out.

Dawn Shaver

Promotional Products Specialist

Geiger

Lewiston, Maine

UPIC: geiger

A Question

Of Ratings

FOR THE SECOND TIME

in the

past three years our company has

found itself snared by what I

consider a defect of the SAGE

rating system. The problem is

that SAGE accepts anonymous

ratings no matter how good or

bad. This is so wrong that I can't

even begin to describe how un-

democratic and damaging this

can be to a company.

Only a couple of weeks ago, a

glitch somewhere in the electronic

world sent our company an

anonymous, super-negative rating

with a date of about 10 months

ago. Alpi was allowed to reply,

but not to know who presented

this negative rating and why. Our

reply comment had to be deemed

“appropriate” before it could be

published, but it does not appear

that the rating from the distribu-

tor was scrutinized at all.

We initiated an inquiry

through SAGE that ended up

with the company removing the

bad rating (no reason given or

explanation) but in the mean-

time, we have to wonder how

many potential customers saw

that rating and thought: Why

should I give them my business?

In a democratic world every-

body has the right to defend

themselves from slander and

accusations, and is considered

innocent until proven guilty. I

guess that is not true at SAGE

and by default at PPAI. This is

totally unacceptable and border-

line worthy of legal action.

My question to SAGE is

this: why not change such a

medieval and dangerous rule, and

let people know who accuses

them and why? After all, people

can be mad with you just for

asking them to pay a bill or for

being sent to collections.

Francesco Indrio

CEO

Alpi International Ltd.

Oakland, California

UPIC: ALPI0002

Editor Tina Berres Filipski

responds:

I asked Bille Walchek,

SAGE director of marketing, to tell

us more about how their rating sys-

tem works. Here is Bille’s reply:

THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING

us the opportunity to answer

your question regarding supplier

ratings.

Several of our SAGE

research tools, including SAGE

Online™, SAGE Mobile™ and

SAGE Web™, contain supplier

ratings. These ratings are pro-

vided by distributors for distribu-

tors. Just like at the voting

booth, each distributor gets one

vote, or in this case, rating. The

rating categories are customer

service, product quality, delivery,

decoration quality and problem

resolution. For each category, the

distributor can provide an A+ to

F rating, or select N/A if the

category is not applicable. In

addition to the rating categories,

distributors can provide public

comments regarding their inter-

action, as well as private com-

ments that only the supplier can

see.

Suppliers are automatically

notified of any new distributor

ratings on a daily basis. Suppliers

can choose to publicly respond to

ratings to tell their side of the

story. This allows other distribu-

tors to see the full picture when

deciding on how much influence

to give a particular rating.

It is important to note that

distributor ratings in our services

are not anonymous. We know

exactly who made each and every

rating in the system. Rather, I

think the concern you have is

regarding our policy to allow the