Trophy Store Aims to Offer Award-Winning Service

Dominic May knows the secret to owning a sucessful trophy business is treating his customers right.

It's a method he learned from his nearly 30 years of experience working for the McDonald's corporation and one that has helped him through 13 years of owning , in Pine Brook.

Crown Trophy carries trophies of all shapes and sizes and does general engraving (excluding names) on trophies purchased at the store for free. Customers come mostly from Montville, Parsippany, Dover and Lincoln Park, as well as from out-of-state

May is a former basketball and baseball coach and would often purchase trophies for his players from the Riverside Crown Trophy store. When he learned that the owner of the Pine Brook store was selling the business, he figured it could be a good opportunity for him.

"It was just time for a change, something different," he said.

So he left McDonald's and started with Crown. But he had no idea just how challenging running a trophy business can be. May said customers tend to repeat-purchase from the stores they have previously bought from. Bringing in new customers is a difficult feat and advertising has hardly worked for the store.

"I have tried every way to bring in new customers," he said. "This business is all about word-of-mouth."

But word-of-mouth only works if you treat your customers right, May said. Customer service is a priority at Crown Trophy and May works every day in the store so that he can be there, personally, to tend to patrons. The store specializes in trophies, plaques and medals, as well as glass statues.

Since taking over the business from the previous owner, May said he has sold three times as much as the business sold before.

"It's all by how you're treating the people," he said.

May said he also does his best to accomodate every customer, whether they are placing an order for dozens of trophies or for one single trophy. Recently, a customer walked in with rocks that her parents have had since they escaped a foreign country during WWII. May is designing a special piece that includes them.

"You have people in here crying, which is something that happens when you do your job right," he said.

May likes to think of each trophy as if it were something he were giving to his own child and said that the quality of each trophy is inspected as such. Because of the quality of his trophies, May said his business has not been greatly affected by the economy. He also said he thinks it is because people still have a desire to recognize accomplishments of others.

"Everybody comes in with the right attitude," he said. "They're coming to buy something for somebody else."