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Regulations, Terms & Conditions of the Competition
The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service is a competition organized by the Stevie Awards. This program recognizes the achievements of sales, contact center, and customer service professionals, and the providers of products and services to those professionals. All organizations and individuals worldwide are eligible to submit entries. Finalists will be announced in mid-January 2012 and the winners of Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Awards announced at a banquet on February 27 2012 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Regulations, terms and conditions are set forth on this page, and official entry instructions are included separately in the Entry Kit.
Entries must be submitted through this web site. Entries for this competition will no longer be accepted by mail or fax.
Regulations, Terms and Conditions
Submission of your entries through our web site at www.stevieawards.com/sales implies that you have read and accept the following rules, regulations, terms and conditions.
1) Eligibility
All organizations (for-profit and non-profit) that were in operation on or after July 1, 2010 are eligible to submit entries, provided
a) That the entries describe accomplishments made since the beginning of July 2010.
b) That the entries can be judged in one or more of the official categories.
2) Categories of Awards
Categories are listed on the awards' web site. Each of your entries must be submitted in one of the categories listed. Included on the category listing are requirements and instructions for submissions to the categories.
3) Deadline Dates
Deadline for receipt of entries with accompanying entry fees and entry forms is as follows:
Early-bird: October 12, 2011
Deadline: November 18, 2011
Late Entries: January 18, 2012
4) Submission of Entries
Entries must be submitted through our web site at www.stevieawards.com/sales. You will be able to register on the web site, prepare and submit your entries through the site, and pay your entry fees online by credit card. (You will also have the option to pay your entry fees by check or bank transfer instead.)
5) Supporting Information
You may support the claims made in your entries by providing the addresses of web pages that feature news stories, press releases, product reviews, video clips, images, or other documents that support your claims. It is not mandatory that you provide links to supporting documents, but it is in your interests to do so, because all judges will be given access to these documents.
If your supporting materials are electronic but are not already online, email the Stevie Awards office for instructions on how to upload them to our FTP server.
If the only supporting materials you can provide for your entries are offline, such as press clippings or videotapes, you may submit them to the Stevie Awards office, but the preliminary-round judges will not have access to them. If your entry becomes a Finalist, the final judges may request that your offline supporting materials be sent to them for review.
6) Language
It is preferred that you submit your entries in English, but you may submit your entries in any of these languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, or Spanish.
The 400-character description of your organization that is required during the registration process must be written in English.
7) Entry Fees
Entry Fees are as follows:
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U.S. $200 per entry in the categories that recognize the achievements of individuals
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U.S. $375 per entry in the categories that recognize the achievements of entire organizations, teams and departments and new products and services
A late fee of $35 per entry will be assessed in addition to the entry fee after November 18. Entries submitted after November 18 will not in any way be penalized in the judging process.
If appropriate an entry may be entered in multiple categories; and the fees are due for each category entered. Each entry will be judged separately in each category entered. Entries submitted in multiple categories are eligible to win multiple awards.
Payment may be made by credit card, check, or wire transfer. We accept American Express, Mastercard, and Visa. Payment by check must be made in U.S. dollars by check or draft drawn on a U.S. bank payable to Stevie Awards, Inc. Non-U.S. bank checks will be returned. Please note the name of the entering organization on your check or draft. Enclose the check with a printout of the "Pay By Check" page on our web site.
For wire transfers to our bank, write to help@stevieawards.com for instructions.
No refunds will be made after October 12, 2011.
8) Shipping Fees
Honorees who are not represented at the awards dinner to accept their award(s) will be assessed a shipping fee for the shipment of their award(s). Shipping fees will be as follows:
• U.S. $50 per Stevie Award trophy
• U.S. $20 per Silver or Bronze Medal
Unless otherwise specified, shipping fees will be automatically charged to the credit card to which entry fees were charged. If entry fees were not charged to a credit card, you will be asked to pay shipping fees by credit card, check (written on a U.S. bank), or wire transfer.
Note that awards will not be shipped to honorees who did not accept them at the awards banquet until shipping fees have been paid.
9) Final Decision
In the event of a dispute as to the category in which an entry(s) will be judged, the decision of the Stevie Awards staff will prevail.
Materials submitted as part of your entries will not be returned.
Failure to comply with these rules, regulations, terms and conditions will render the Entries ineligible. Entry fees will not be refunded.
10) Judging
HOW YOUR ENTRIES WILL BE JUDGED
All entries are first reviewed by Stevie Awards staff to ensure that eligibility requirements are met and that entries are formatted properly in order to go forward to be judged.
All judges receive written instructions about how to score entries. Judges are asked to score the accomplishments portrayed in each entry based on (a) their own experience, and (b) their understanding of how organizations and individuals in the nominee's industry and country performed in the eligibility timeframe, given the condition of the economy in general and the nominee's industry in particular.
Preliminary Judging:
Preliminary judging will be conducted in November 2011 through mid- January 2012. Preliminary judges will be recruited worldwide, will apply to judge on the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service web site, and if accepted will be assigned categories by Stevie Awards staff based on their country, language, industry, function, and experience.
During preliminary judging, each entry will be reviewed and rated by no fewer than five (5) volunteer judges who have been approved as qualified (by Stevie Awards staff) to judge those entries. All entries will be viewed and rated at the judges' convenience over the Internet. Rating will be done on a scale of 1-10.
All entries that receive a high average score in the preliminary round of judging, regardless of category, will automatically be designated as Finalists, and will be eligible to be included in final judging. All Finalists will win an award, to be determined in final judging.
Finalist entries may be audited. Any entry found to contain false or misleading information will be disqualified.
Final Judging:
In late January - early February 2012, members of the final judging committees of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service will perform the final judging. Their average scores will determine the final results. The top-scoring Finalist entry in each category will receive a Gold Stevie Award. Other Finalist entries with a final average score of at least 8.0 out of a possible 10 will be selected as Silver Stevie winners, and will automatically receive a silver medal. All other Finalist entries will be honored as Bronze Stevie winners, and will automatically receive a bronze medal.
The final results will be announced during an awards banquet in on February 27 2012 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Entries and materials submitted may be displayed, shown, duplicated, published, or disposed of as Stevie Awards, Inc. deems appropriate. By submitting entries, the entrant agrees to hold Stevie Awards, Inc. and its employees exempt from any costs or expenses of any claim arising out of any such use by the Stevie Awards.
Honorees will be able to purchase additional certificates, wall plaques, medals and Stevie Award trophies. Order forms for additional awards and commemorative items will be available on the MERCHANDISE page on the awards’ web site.
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