One would think research has clearly defined the most effective option, but it continues to be part of the conversation when designing an employee or channel engagement platform. When clients informally canvas their employees or channel partners, the response is usually…  “just give us cash”. But there is substantial research to support that this is not the most effective option. 

It is critical that employers first provide the right intrinsic benefits. If an employee’s basic needs are not met, extrinsic rewards will have little value.  When designing an employee engagement program, it’s important to distinguish between compensation and recognition and define the program objective. Cash generally is associated with compensation; recognition is all about the acknowledgement of achievement. When cash crosses over in to recognition platforms, here are some of the pitfalls:

1. Most people spend reward cash on food, gas, and other every day necessities. There is no life enhancing, let alone life changing, impact.
2. Cash quickly becomes confused with salary and the expectation that it will always be there.
3. Ending a cash program can have a significant negative impact as people feel their pay has been cut. 
4. In a channel program, unless you can consistently pay the most cash everyday on every item, you’re at risk. There is no brand loyalty driven by the desire for a life enhancing event or item – i.e., family vacation, golf clubs, etc.

Non-cash items in the form of merchandise, travel, and event ticketing are customary. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. At PPM, we’ve enabled participants to use their points to go back to school, to take their family to a FIFA World Cup, to pay for a wedding, to help a family member “Walk for the Cure”.  These awards are life-changing and while they may take some effort and energy to deliver, imagine the emotional impact and connection with either an employee or customer. There is a lot to consider when choosing between cash vs. merchandise incentives. 

We can help you take your program to the next level. Our “EngagementWorx” survey can identify engagement gaps in your current program with employees or customers and our seasoned professional team can design and implement a more powerful strategy. Best of all, there’s no charge for the survey and analytics to qualified clients.

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“How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?”

The answers you get back from your customers to that very simple question will go a long way in understanding how successful your business practices are in creating brand evangelists.  Simple and inexpensive to implement, but powerful enough to steer your entire business – measuring your Net Promoter® Score (NPS) is a highly predictive growth indicator.

NPS is a loyalty metric and a discipline for using customer feedback to fuel profitable growth in your business. It allows you to hold your employees accountable for how they treat your customers and promotes customer-centric change and performance. The more “promoters” your company has, the greater the potential for growth.

Getting to the score is the easy part. The hard part is using the score to boost loyalty. The right customer experience application makes that hard part simpler by automating data acquisition and response, and by enabling a customer-centric culture.

• Understand customer loyalty drivers across channels
• Build customer obsession through accountability
• Create processes to target and reengage detractors
• Mobilize loyal promoters to evangelize your brand
• Monitor customer sentiment and issue resolution

NPS is based on the fundamental perspective that customers can be divided into three categories: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. By asking one simple question, you can identify these groups and get a clear measure of your company’s performance through your customers’ eyes. Customers respond on a 0-to-9 point rating scale and are categorized as follows:

• Promoters (score 8-9): loyal enthusiasts who will continue to buy and refer others; fueling growth
• Passives (score 6-7): satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings
• Detractors (score 0-5): unhappy customers who can damage your brand and inhibit growth through negative word-of-mouth

The Net Promoter System:NET PROMOTER SCORE =  %age of Promoters – %age of Detractors

• Calculate: Your score…and if possible benchmark against your completion.
• Integrate:  The score into business processes and customer satisfaction metrics.
• Apply: Use NPS to innovate and grow a customer-centric culture.

PPM is uniquely structured to improve our clients’ NPS. We’re passionate about our craft and firmly, thoroughly subscribe to the notion that fully engaged, customer-centric employees are the key to improved enterprise performance.

Give us a shout.  We’d welcome the opportunity to discuss how we can help turn your customers into frothing at the mouth brand evangelists.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.

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Transforming Channel Partners into Brand Ambassadors

Successful strategies to better engage those who sell your products no longer rely on “touch points” through the marketing and sales process, but on an ongoing dialogue that is easily facilitated by the digital age. If you have an online loyalty platform to reward your channel partners, you have an incredible tool that is likely underutilized in this effort.  How can you rethink your promotion platform?

Let’s look at two approaches.

Company A has an online promotional platform to engage and reward their channel partners. From time to time, they promote a product or series of products over a 45-60 day time frame to stimulate sales. Additionally, a group of higher end products are featured in a year-long promotion.

Company A communicates via email and through the promotion site – but most of the communication is devoted to promotional announcements. Engaged salespeople sell and earn for each unit sold. Generally Company A experiences a 20% lift in sales during the promotion and some slight sustained gain in the 30 days following the promotion.  All good, right?

Company B does the same thing as Company A, but their approach employs long-term strategies that focus on the intrinsic value of the relationship. Here are some differences:

Budget:

Company B allocates some of their promo budget to driving incremental volume and building intrinsic value for their partners. They invest in “learn and earns” and engagement strategies that focus on incremental sales as opposed to simply paying for an order.

Education Strategy:

Company B populates their channel loyalty site with significant product and company information that strives to differentiate and elevate them from the competitive environment. They want to ensure their participants – the people who engage with end users everyday – are passionate about the brand and know how to communicate product differentiators to end users. Their partners learn through documents and videos how the company’s products meet the needs of today’s consumer. You might ask, isn’t all this information found on the company’s website? Much of the information found on the promo website is available on other company sites as well. Redundancy can be a good thing.

Focus on the Incremental Lift:

Company B participants earn additional rewards and/or privileges for:

a) selling more than they did in the prior promotion and/or

b) achieving “thresholds” of sales performance

These awards and privileges include: access to company logo’d merchandise at steep discounts; registration discounts for industry events and training; discounts on “special” award items. Entrance in to the “Ambassadors” club carries with it a strong recognition component through site “badges”  as well as acknowledgement from management and recognition at national events, special “concierge” treatment and shopping privileges.

Company A wants to increase sales and does so for specific products during a specific time. Company B wants the same thing but has a strategy that focuses on incremental lift while building and sustaining a relationship with brand advocates.

Brand advocates are a powerful marketing force. Do you think building a relationship with brand ambassadors is worth the time to create?

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Planning your company’s next incentive program?  Want to know “what’s hot and what’s not” when it comes to incentive program design and awards?  Check out The Incentive Research Foundation’s Fall 2012 “Pulse Survey” to read of the latest incentive industry trends.  While you can view & download the full report by clicking here, the report highlights included these findings:

The ‘average’ incentive program in the Fall of 2012…

• Is less likely to incorporate a social media and/or CSR component (compared to Fall of 2011 findings)
• Is more likely to incorporate a gaming component (up 6 percentage points)
• Most likely remains a domestic destination rather than overseas (45%)
• Increasingly involves the company Procurement department (38%)
• Will have essentially the same budget (48%)
• Will include a destination in North America (53%) or the Caribbean (46%)
• Will involve more individual travel (32%)

The ‘average’ merchandise/noncash incentive program in the Fall of 2012…

• Will be positively affected by the economy (50%)
• Will have increased merchandise award values (36%)
• Will offer more gift cards (31%)
• Will include these types of rewards: Electronics (79%), Golf Items (68%), Luggage (66%) and Housewares (62%)
• Will be a point-based program (82%)
• Will have a slightly higher budget (42%)
  

Kudos to the Incentive Research Foundation for conducting their Pulse Surveys twice a year (Spring/Fall), asking thousands of Incentive industry Buyers (corporate planners, Incentive company staffers and program managers) & Suppliers (staffers at hotels, airlines, destination management companies, merchandise providers) for their opinions about trends affecting the industry.  As their press release states, “the IRF Pulse Surveys cover budget changes, specific program elements, incentive travel, merchandise/noncash rewards and other issues affecting program planning and implementation.”  Incentive Buyers comprised 53.7% of The Fall Pulse Survey respondents, while 33.7% of the survey respondents were Incentive Suppliers.

We’ll forward a link and highlights from the soon-to-be released Spring Pulse Survey once posted.   In the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts, in the comments below, regarding trends in your own company’s incentive programs.

Tell us what incentive trends would you like to see?

Bob Stergos knows incentives.  He has been in the industry longer than anyone you know, guaranteed.  If you’ve got a question about incentives, Bob is the guy to ask.

If you would like to know more about incentive trends in 2013 email him:  BStergos@PerformPlus.com or tweet him @BStergos

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I know what you’re thinking. You read the blog title and it immediately sounds counter intuitive.  Please hear me out, because although your employees may tell you that a big bonus would be rewarding, or maybe a prepaid credit card reward program would be the way to go- the truth of the matter is: Cash is not rewarding.

Cash isn’t memorable, but vacations as rewards create memories that are very memorable.

1^st: Cash isn’t memorable.  It’s easy to promote your goals by reminding everyone that last years winner received a vacation, or the latest tech gadget.  It’s not easy to promote an artificial giant check. How well you can promote the award to encourage people toward their goals, as well as talk about past years should certainly be considered for any program you start.

2^nd: Cash incentives are seen as compensation.  When you receive cash, you consider it part of your take home pay. There isn’t anything that separates it to make you feel rewarded.  You add it to your bank account or pay bills with it, but you don’t relate it to anything memorable.

3^rd: Cash has a lack of brag value.  Let’s be honest, we are not going to talk about money with others.  Cash rewards loose the ability to have some social broadcasting of why hard work pays off at your company.  Vacations, merchandise, and other awards can have significant worth because employees will talk it up amongst one another.  That builds up interest as well as competition.

4^th: Ending the cash flow has negative impact.  Once a program is in place, it is very difficult to remove a cash based program. For companies that go through difficult times and remove the cash program, end up demotivating employees, since cash is seen as compensation.

5^th: Management prefers merchandise.  According to a study released last year, managers think non-cash rewards are “more important, more effective and generally superior for achieving the majority of specific organizational objectives.” (study included 235 managers by the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement).

Cash becomes groceries. People don’t remember groceries.

6^th: Cash becomes groceries, and groceries satisfy needs not wants. Sure, we all need money and it isn’t difficult to add a little to paychecks and call it a reward program, but to motivate people you need to give them something they really want. No one remembers groceries, a new surround sound system, however will be something you’ll remember for many years. Vacations will generate memories and you’ll associate those memories with how you got it.

7^th: Cash isn’t personal. Taking the kids children on a vacation they will never forget is extremely personal, but cash that I put towards the mortgage isn’t.  Rewards should hit a person with a note of thoughtfulness, and cash just doesn’t do that.

This list is by no means all inclusive, what rewards have meant the most to you?

Valerie Fletcher Uhlir is Marketing Manager at Performance Plus Marketing, and one of our “Directors of Positive Energy.”  She loves all things relating to leadership and understanding team dynamics. You can tweet her @VeryValerie or find her on whatever the latest social media has to offer, trust me, she is on it.

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Responsive design is one of the hottest topics in front-end Web development right now. As recently as 18-24 months ago few of our clients were asking about it.  Today all are demanding it.  Creating performance improvement (employee engagement, sales incentives, channel loyalty) initiatives must now bow to the mandate of responsive design.

So just what is this beast we call Responsive Web Design (RWD)?  Simply put, it’s a web design approach aimed at creating sites that provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktops to tablets to mobile phones).

A few factoids help explain why RWD is front and center:

• 10.3 Million Terabytes of mobile data traffic will occur per month by 2017…up from 889,000 per month in 2012. (Source: iGR Consultancy)
• 41% of businesses can currently track and analyze the different behaviors between mobile and desktop users. (Source: Econsultancy)
• 48% of 18-24 year olds believe that text messaging is just as meaningful as an actual conversation. (Source: MobileGroove)
• 41% of all emails were opened on a mobile device (tablet or phone) in the second half of 2012. (Source: Knotice Mobile Email Opens Report for HR 2012)

The implications for developing relevant content delivered in an appropriate environment will continue to define and reshape the various engagement strategies we develop for our client partners.

With Responsive Design, you create one design that will automatically adapt itself based on the screen size of the mobile device. This approach offers plenty of advantages:

• It saves time and money as you don’t have to maintain separate websites for desktops and mobile phones.
• Responsive Design is good for your website’s SEO (search rankings) as every page on your site will have a single URL and thus Google juice is preserved. You don’t have to worry about situations where some sites link to your mobile site while other link to your desktop site.
• Your Google Analytics reports will paint a better picture of your site’s usage since the data from mobile and desktop users will be consolidated.
• The same will be true for the social sharing stats (Facebook Likes, Tweets, +1′s) since the mobile and desktop versions of your web pages will no longer have different URLs.
• Responsive Designs are easier to maintain as they do not involve any server-side components. You just have to modify the underlying CSS of a page to change its appearance (or layout) on a particular device.

PPM uniquely understands the changing engagement landscape and how best to connect our clients’ audiences driving performance and results.  Give us a call.  You’ll be delighted by our responsiveness.

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Today’s top performing organizations have moved from traditional engagement models to “sustainable engagement” – a work environment that more fully energizes employees by promoting their physical, emotional and social well-being. It’s no longer simply about job skills, it’s a much broader approach to the employee as an individual. And, sustainable engagement provides big dividends for organizations and their employees.

The Towers Watson 2012 Global Workforce study found that companies with low engagement scores had an average operating margin just under 10 percent. Those with high traditional engagement had a slightly higher margin of 14 percent. Companies with the highest “sustainable engagement” scores had an average one-year operating margin of 27 percent.

Gallup has identified five areas that managers should look to boost energy and promote sustainable engagement:

Career well-being: Are people really able to use their strengths in the job they’re in? This is when employees are in a role where they really enjoy the projects and work that they do.

Social well-being: This refers to the level to which an employee feels able to connect with other people — both in and outside of the office — in a way that’s personally fulfilling.

Financial well-being: Are personal finances a daily worry? If finances cause daily stress, it can have an effect on an employee’s level of engagement and, in turn, productivity. Many organizations are equipped, through education and other general support, to help employees in this area.

Physical well-being: A culture of wellness in an organization not only promotes good employee health but it mitigates stress and increases energy. Most firms should be able to provide employees with resources that promote an active and healthy lifestyle.

Community well-being: Sponsoring programs that help employees participate in a community service project or providing resources that educate them on local causes in the communities within which they live.

PPM’s EngagementWorx survey helps you discover the engagement gaps in your organization followed by a plan that will create a sustainable engagement model. A margin differential of 17 points is compelling. Give us a call and we’ll walk you through our process.

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If you took a long hard look at the employees at your organization, how many would you estimate are engaged in their job and loyal?  If we pull back the microscope and take a look across America the numbers show that about two-thirds (63%) of U.S. workers are not fully engaged (according to research from Towers Watson’s Global Workforce Study).

What is the effect on an organization with disengaged employees?  According to Julie Gebauer, managing director, Talent and Rewards, Towers Watson: “when workers are not fully engaged, it leads to greater performance risk for employers.  It makes companies more vulnerable to lower productivity, higher inefficiency, weaker customer service, and greater rates of absenteeism and turnover.”

Delving deeper into the study, one begins to see the correlation between employee engagement and profits.  When Towers Watson looked into the engagement and operating margins for 50 global companies they found that high sustainable engagement had operating margins almost three times of those with mostly disengaged employees.

So, how do you solve this engagement problem within your organization?  We suggest starting with a survey of your current workforce.  Our EngagementWorx survey can help you do just that, by giving you a baseline for where you are now, and what areas need work.  Next, you’ll need to develop a plan that will consistently address the needs of your employees and address the causes.  Our team can help strategize and make recommendations on a solution if your workforce is disengaged.

What ideas do you have for improving Engagement at your organization?

Valerie Fletcher Uhlir is Marketing Manager at Performance Plus Marketing, and one of our “Directors of Positive Energy.”  She loves all things relating to leadership and understanding team dynamics. You can tweet her @VeryValerie or find her on whatever the latest social media has to offer, trust me, she is on it. 

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There are essentially two types of loyalty initiatives in today’s marketplace: proprietary programs (the most common) where customers earn award currency by purchasing from a single company; and coalition loyalty programs in which customers earn by purchasing from a number of non-competitive companies utilizing common currency and a shared loyalty platform.

Let’s explore the advantages of the coalition approach.

The Coalition Approach

• Improved customer acquisition- sponsoring partners can share their respective customer base and, in many instances, dramatically expand the customer base for all.  Customer acquisition costs are also dramatically lower…often for a fourth to a third of the cost of traditional promotions.
• Cost savings- developmental and ongoing operating costs are shared by the coalition sponsors.  It’s not uncommon for a proprietary program to cost $250,000+ in set up fees with annual operating costs equaling or exceeding $200,000 depending on program complexity and analytic requirements.
• Enhanced ROI- greater lift, up sell/cross sell, lower acquisition costs and the cost savings outlined above all drive a dramatically better ROI.
• Greater earning opportunity- program participant’s earning opportunity increases dramatically through the aggregation effect.  Capturing the customers’ share of wallet in the high spend, high frequency categories will result in the attainment of meaningful rewards…much faster.
• Keeping the program fresh and relevant- coalition programs have far greater promotional opportunities driven by the variety of the sponsoring partners.  Improving customer engagement through surprise and delight events, product education and gamification become affordable in a shared cost environment.
• Thought leadership- coalition partners can share best practices, cross-promotional concepts while leveraging data driven strategic insights and implications.
• Program exclusivity- with the right mix of partners, a coalition program will be extremely difficult for the competition to replicate.

PPM has the experience and assets to help you think through if a coalition program may be the answer to a loyalty initiative that could benefit from a new look…and a new beginning.

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If you’re an HR or Organizational Development Manager… and you’re charged with putting together a Suggestion Program for your organization, what do you do?  You’ll likely have to cobble together all the disparate elements of an employee suggestion program to get your program launched.  And gee, with all the challenges amidst rising healthcare costs & ever-changing regulations, you’ve likely got lots of extra time on your hands, right?

Well, to save you valuable time and help you get an effective suggestion program up & running quickly and inexpensively, here’s a turnkey solution for you:  PPM’s web-based Ideas at Work™ suggestion program.

Ideas at Work includes all the suggestion program elements you’ll need, including:

·       A digital/email-based communications campaign to launch the program and sustain interest throughout the term of the program

·       A self-paced web-based program training module, which employees can complete on their own timeframes prior to program launch…and revisit during the program as needed

·       A simple, intuitive web-based administrative system, containing everything from Program Rules to Idea Submission Forms to Idea Tracking and Individual Award Account Statements

·       An attractive, diverse points-based online awards offering, including:

o   1,500+ Merchandise Awards

o   Airline Ticketing

o   Event Ticketing (concert, theater & sporting event tickets)

o   Digital Downloads (music, videos, books)

o   Hotels (Marriott, Ritz-Carlton & Fairmont chains…with more coming online soon!)

If you’re interested in engaging more of your employees to manage change by submitting ideas to reduce costs, generate more revenues , improve quality or customer-service, PPM’s Ideas at Work program would be a great tool to help you launch such an effort very quickly.

Contact PPM EVP Tom Wessling at (678) 397-1813 or twessling@performplus.com to discuss implementing an Ideas at Work program at your company or organization.

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