In today’s marketplace, what’s easier? Keeping the customers (or employees for that matter) that already exist, or trying to create new ones? I’ll give you a hint: it’s always cheaper to retain than than to gain.
This is exactly the reason why, in the past 3 years, America has seen an exponential amount of incentive programs pop up in almost every corner of country. According to Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company, and author of The Loyalty Effect, “customer spending tends to accelerate over time.” Interesting.
Further research on incentive programs conducted by Deloitee Research found that “manufacturing companies who tracked customer retention, set loyalty goals, and made efforts to exceed their loyalty goals, were 60% more profitable than those manufacturers who made no efforts to track customer loyalty.”
Just in case you’re still not convinced that it’s a good idea to implement an incentive program for your ‘loyal fans’, I’ll throw one more piece of information into the mixing bowl for you to nibble on. Sales & Marketing Magazine reported that the “number of sales calls required to sell a product to a new account was more than twice the number required to sell the same product to an existing account”.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Share This
Today, employee programs of recognition comes in many forms. You can design anything from an employee anniversary celebration program to kudos appreciation, to employee peer recognition, and even manager on-the-spot awards. There seems to be an endless amount of employee program types these days offering up a limitless set of combinations than ever before due to the exponential innovation within online solutions.
What does it all mean though? So the company next door has an employee program of recognition implemented, but so what? Perhaps turning to some cold hard facts and numbers will help shed some light on why.
In January of this year, non-profit global human resources research organization WorldatWork conducted a survey with 5,600 members involving employee programs of recognition. From a response pool of 677 members, the following are some of the results:
1. 86% of respondents reported that their company had implemented an employee program of recognition within the past year (up from 80% between 2009 to the end of 2010).
2. In measuring the effectiveness of the employee programs of recognition, over 50% of respondents agreed that their programs adds a positive impact in employee satisfaction, motivation, and engagement.
3. Furthermore, respondents reported that the median budget for their employee program of recognition was about 1% of total payroll.
So, extrapolating the above facts out (especially the last point), that just having some sort of employee program of recognition will positively impact your employees and won’t cost you a lot of money (in the long term) to do it? Why wouldn’t you?
Popularity: 13% [?]
Share This
Recently, a small tech company based in Dallas implemented an employee recognition program to spark team-building and act as a morale booster. Simple in design, the ‘Awesome’ program’s concept is to allow each employee to vote for another employee who they think is ‘awesome’. The reason can be for anything - performance, assistance on a task, going above and beyond, stellar customer service, whatever. The employee recognition program tallies the awesome votes and displays the results online. At the end of the week, the employee with the most amount of awesome votes gets to choose how they would like to be rewarded.
What can be taken away from this example, is that an employee recognition program, no matter how simplistic or complex it may be, speaks volumes in increasing overall employee satisfaction about the company they work for and builds morale. Far too often, companies feel they need to have a ‘Ferrari’ type solution when it comes to employee recognition because it’s shiny and has a lot of toys - expensive toys. Remember, the more complex the employee recognition program is, the more expensive it will cost to bring to life. Which usually means, less you have to spend on rewarding your employees.
The best advise is to consult with experts who know what they’re doing in the world of incentives and employee recognition. Once you’ve explained to them what objectives you are looking to accomplish, they will have a better understanding (and experience) as to what the proper solution would be best fit for your organization.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Share This
With Black Friday just passing, market analysts saw just how cutthroat competition really is in the consumer industry. According to Colloquy’s 2011 “Forecast of U.S. Consumer Loyalty Program Points Value.”, in 2010, “more than 2.1 billion loyalty memberships exists in the U.S.
What’s interesting to see however, is that of the $48 billion in rewards points dolled out last year to consumers, nearly $16 billion was never redeemed. So what gives? Is the market getting over-saturated with loyalty programs?
Not exactly, rather, they’re evolving. It’s becoming more important to knowing who your customer is as a person and being able to connect with them on a personal level rather than just straight dollars spent.
Try tailoring the loyalty program to each individual consumer. Find out what they like to buy, where they are located, their demographics…everything you can possibly learn about them as a person.
Allow the consumers to choose how they would like to participate in the program. Making your customers feel like they are in control of their own loyalty program will go a long way to establishing a greater connection.
Finally, while it’s becoming quite the norm amongst the giants of loyalty programs - let your customers actually get rewarded. The fastest way to turn off a loyal customer is to dangle the carrot in front of their nose, but then keep raising the carrot an inch higher when they try and reach for it. Make the reward attainable.
Popularity: 14% [?]
Share This
So maybe your organization might not have 10,000+ employees on the books, but rather less than 250. No worries as implementing an employee rewards program is just as important as all the others.
There are plenty of rewards program ideas out there that you can incorporate into your corporate culture even in time for the upcoming holidays.
Consider setting up a points structure of prizes for your employees to strive towards. This will engage your workforce to keep performing at their maximum in order to be constantly rewarded.
Perhaps have your managers walk around and observe what their employees are doing from a day-to-day basis. Empower your managers to reward employees for exemplary work behaviors with a gift card or an award certificate.
Allow those employees who are recognized for their good work practices the ability to choose how they would like to be rewarded themselves. It’s far from us to decide what gift they would want.
When employees feel appreciated, they are more likely to perform and want to stay.
Popularity: 19% [?]
Share This
A recent survey conducted by Staples Advantage, the B2B division of Staples, Inc., found that “70 percent of employees at companies that do not currently offer incentive programs said they would love to work at a company that does”. Further, “40 percent would be in favor of foregoing the company holiday party to implement an incentive program.”
What does the data show us? That there has become greater need for employees to be a part of an incentive program than ever before.
So, if the data is right there in black and white, there should be a nearly 100% buy-in from every executive who wants to see their company succeed right? Not so fast. There is still a staggering percentage of companies not offering incentive programs even though they acknowledge the responses from their workforce. One executive has commented, “Sure, I’d love to give each and every one of my employees a flat screen TV at the end of the year, but we just don’t have that kind of capital laying around.”
A key factor, however, this executive is missing, is that it doesn’t have to be a high ticket reward item to get the engagement flowing within your workforce. Try starting with a simple incentive program is better than nothing.
Whatever form your incentive program may take, it’s important to keep in mind that:
Some type of program, no matter how big or how small, should be started as soon as possible
Encourage your employees to use and recognize others as frequently as possible
When recognition does occur, that a reward is received as immediate as possible.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Share This
Have you ever walked by a restaurant or a swanky nightclub and noticed the long line of patrons who are waiting patiently (or impatiently perhaps), the get beyond the velvet rope? Restaurant and club owners across the world have hatched quite an amazing phenomenon in creating a VIP loyalty type of attitude and giving their patrons a sense that for some lucky few, you’ll make it inside, but not everyone can. It’s the sense of exclusivity, the sense of having something that not every has, and the sense that membership has its privileges.
One such industry that has recently been stretching its loyalty program wings to gain greater market share is beer companies. For decades, beer has been attributed to the casual personae - to the guy who enjoys a brew or two out at the local sports bar watching the game. For some beer companies, however, in order to remain competitive they’re needing greater market-share by keeping their regular crowd, but gaining new ‘members’ in the form of a VIP loyalty program.
The premise of this new breed of loyalty program, is that each time you purchase a glass of Stella Artois, for example, you’ll get points. Or perhaps, each time you post a photo of you and your friends having a Heineken on a certain website, you’ll get more points. Those points add up to exclusive rewards - something not everyone can get such as VIP tickets to a concert or a celebrity meet-and-greet.
By creating exclusivity, many companies have seen the benefits of offering a VIP loyalty program to their customers. Loyalty (or membership) has its privileges.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Share This
The City of Memphis has just taken an out-of-the-box strategy of tackling the ever growing problem of poverty within their community - by setting up a rewards program.
This particular rewards program is not your typical scenario where you have customers buy things in your store, those purchases get them points, they use those points to redeem for items on an online catalog, it’s just in a slightly different looking form. The founding principle, however, still exists - to motive a group of individuals, offering rewards as an incentive greatly increases participation and behavior change.
Mayor AC Wharton, Jr and the entire City of Memphis administration has just kicked off an effort to reduce the level of poverty in the city by “10 percent over the next 10 years at the rate of 1 percent a year.” The question is then, how are they expecting to accomplish this seemingly lofty task?
The project is a three-year, $12 million, initiative which will offer rewards for families in need for completing tasks, like going for a medical check up or academic performance. Rewards will be in the form of cash assistance or food stamps.
“Too many Memphians see no path forward and no way up and out of crippling, multi-generational property”, Mayor Wharton said. ”The ripple effect on crime, education and housing values are evident everywhere.”
Popularity: 18% [?]
Share This
The incorporation of incentive programs and recognition into corporate culture has become a powerful tool for today’s companies to keep their employees engaged while staying ahead of competition through increased performance.
Where many incentive programs fall short, however, is the fact that the majority of employees will primarily change their behavior and motivation when the right incentives are put in front of them.
The right intentions is not enough as a sole incentive - anyone who has pronounced to the world their New Year’s resolution has the best intentions, but rarely follow through because they failed to set up the right incentives once they achieved their goals.
And throwing ideas onto a dart board laced with cash isn’t the best approach either. Before designing an incentive program for your employees, take a minute to think about the people who work for you - what will motivate them the most? Is it more money? Or perhaps it is cool and popular merchandise rewards. Offering the right type of reward is key to having a successful incentive program. Don’t go overboard however - be consistent that the incentive matches the action. For example, if your finance manager finds a way to save the company over $1 million in the next year, don’t just offer them a keychain as their reward. Conversely, if another employee completes a project on deadline (a task that should be accomplished anyway), then perhaps offering them an LCD Plasma TV is not the way to go either.
Whatever shape your incentive program may take, the key is to take into account the people you are looking to motivate and what makes them tick first and foremost.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Share This
Earlier this year, the non-profit organization Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) published a white paper entitled, “Critical Findings For Recognition Travel Programs”. In the white paper, IRF details a case study of a company who currently has an employee program of recognition which incentivizes their sales force for achieving their targets.
Jeff Broudy, chairman of the IRF board of trustees commented, “One of the most interesting discoveries was the power of the nomination process itself”. ”Even though”, said Broudy, “the program was designed to reward only 2 percent to 3 percent of the employees, nearly half of the potential winners indicated that they were motivated by it”
The key is to focus on implementing an employee program that best fits the overall culture of the organization - something that makes sense based on the employees who will be receiving the recognition. For the case of this particular study, offering travel as a reward was the best motivator for the company’s sales force to exceed expectations.
As noted by IRF’s President Melissa Van Dyke, “Aligning a program’s parameters to the organization’s mission and culture is as critical as making it possible for all eligible employees to participate.”
Popularity: 13% [?]
Share This
