November 9th, 2011
This article has been excerpted from The Power of Loyalty by Roger L. Brooks, available from Entrepreneur Press.
Reward your customers — they’ll reward you with repeat business
The best way to motivate customer behavior is to provide an incentive or reward for that motivation. Rewarding your customers for a specific purchasing behavior is not much different than training your puppy. With enough repetition and positive reinforcement, your pup can be motivated to act upon instruction. That’s because the pup knows if he listens to your command, he’ll receive his reward.
Human nature isn’t much different. People can be motivated to take specific actions that accomplish their buying goals while also accomplishing your goals to increase their spending, frequency of visits or combination purchases (or comparative goals relevant to your line of business).
The question then is how do you motivate behavior? Below are five ideas that will get you thinking.
- Offer soft benefits that provide value such as special access limited only to members.
- Offer relevant promotions through various lines of communication, for example: e-mail, SMS text, receipt messages, statement inserts, RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
- Up-sell complimentary products or services at the associate level.
- Offer sweepstakes, random rewards or special offers for a limited time frame, keep your strategy fresh and exciting:
- Strategically place messages (via signage, web banners, etc.) that will trigger motivating actions.
Motivate, But Don’t Mislead
Once you decide how you’ll motivate, always do so in an honorable way. Your customers won’t want to be misled into thinking they are receiving something greater in value that what they’ll actually receive as the reward.
Abraham Lincoln put it best when he said, “You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”
Of course, the statement was made some 150 years ago and the President was referring to politicians attempting to fool their constituents; however, the quote resonates with me every time I see a program that offers empty loyalty. Such programs offer an elaborate program on the outside when, indeed, it’s only a facade to increase business. In time, savvy customers will see through the facade. Your promotional strategy to motivate behavior must be phony proof. Once your customers lift the hood and kick the tires, the promotions must stand on their own and offer real value, not empty promises.
Remember, whatever you do, don’t try to fool the customer! Loyal customers will catch on if the loyalty program does not have true value. This can also backfire and cause disloyalty amongst your customers and defeat the entire purpose of implementing your strategy in the first place.
There are two reasons why your rewards offerings should be upstanding:
- Loyal customers have earned the right to receive a valid reward. If they weren’t enrolled in your program, they may have taken their business elsewhere.
- Customers can see through transparent rewards.
If you want to be in the loyalty game, you have to offer attractive redemption items that are achievable for your customers to earn. If customers are willing to change their purchasing behavior and provide you with their loyalty, they will expect the same in return from you in the form of a relevant reward.
It’s the Little Things That Matter Most
If you put on your consumer hat, you’ll understand that it’s the little things that matter most. One component you should incorporate is providing feel-good loyalty. Feel-good loyalty is just what it sounds like, providing something that the customer will feel good about. Offering feel-good-loyalty incentives should be part of your overall strategy and will require some clever and creative thinking. Some companies offer free Wi-Fi, others offer free shipping. Whatever you decide, brainstorm hard, even hold an employee contest. but find your niche and add feel-good loyalty to the mix.
Photofiddle.com is an internet company that offers a service to turn your photographs into art. Simply upload a photo and you can instantly transform that image into pop art, impasto, a black and white sketch and even more. Once you create your personal masterpiece you then have many options for the type of surface the image is printed on (glossy photo paper, canvas, etc.). Finally, you can choose from a number of print sizes and framing choices.
Although Photofiddle doesn’t have a recognizable rewards program they do provide various levels of feel-good loyalty. Upon opening your order, customers see each piece is carefully packaged and accompanied with a pair of white cotton gloves. The label attached to the gloves reads, “All fine artwork should be handled with care. Please use white cotton gloves. Oils from your hands and fingers can leave finger prints. Jewelry on your fingers and wrist can leave markings.”
That’s a personal touch and that’s feel-good-loyalty. It’s doing the little things that matter most with customers. It’s thinking outside the box so that your brand motivates your customers and resonates in their mind. Providing the white cotton gloves with each order sends both a literal message and subliminal message. It reinforces the need to treat your artwork with care and that they treat all of their customers with care.
Roger L. Brooks is a respected loyalty strategist with more than 15 years of experience in developing, supporting, and implementing customer loyalty and rewards programs.
Tags: awards, corporate incentives, customer incentives, employee incentive programs, incentive, motivate, motivational, reward, reward programs, rewards
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November 6th, 2011
It is no surprise that when the going gets tough, the tough must get going with the incentive being survival. Just about every company around the globe is finding new ways to do more with less while trying not to burn out their valuable skilled workforce. A survey by Deloitte of CFOs and other executive managers working at mid-sized companies demonstrated that 70 % of the nearly 700 survey respondents said they have experienced overall improvements in productivity over the past three years, with approximately half of those reporting gains of 5% or more. Most respondents attributed gains in productivity largely due to improvements in processing and technology. Investments in technology has required some companies to cut expenses dramatically to pay for systems, training and implementation however with remarkable gain.
Although technology has greatly improved our professional and personal lives, it is still human interaction coupled with technolgy that boost a company’s effectiveness. Your employees, vendors and customers want to know that if and when technology fails that there is a skilled and caring individual on the other side to help when needed. Nothing is worse that driving off a car lot with your new car then finding out a few days later that there is a problem and no one is there expect the automated attendant that answers the telephone.
In Call Centers across the world, a systems called call presentation delivers incoming calls very efficiently to representatives without them even having to pick up the phone. The representative simply hears a beep and in a few seconds a caller is waiting on the line and their account seems to magically present itself on the Call Center Representative’s screen. Seems easy but if that employee is not trained correctly, is stressed or is disgruntled, it is a recipe for disaster.
Do you remember the scene on the “I Love Lucy” show when Lucy and Ethel were working at a candy factory when all of a sudden the conveyor belt quickly speeds up preventing the two friends from wrapping each piece of chocolate? The belt goes faster and faster sending chocolates all over the floor causing Lucy and Ethel to panic! Soon the two best friends become stressed out due to lack of training, experience and become forced to look for ways to cut corners eating many of the chocolates before more landed on the floor thinking they could save themselves from being fired. It was one of the most memorable scenes of the show and something like this is just as memorable to your customers but without the humor.
Doing more with less is sending productivity higher however at what costs? Usually the first to suffer is quality because employees become tired and frustrated if cuts result in long term sacrifice. Without an incentive to hang in, stretch and grow accustomed adjusting to new demands, employees will make more mistakes and as soon as their is an opportunity, they will leave to greener pastures. Last month, a survey found that a growing percentage of workers are unhappy on the job and are looking for new employment. No matter what the economy, quality skilled workers will always have a place to go. Turn over is just as costly now as it was 6 years ago before the Recession however it is much harder to find those who are skilled.
As Managers, one has to become more creative, foster an atmosphere that is stimulating and provide incentives to push employees to higher standards during challenging times. If you are not a people person that gets involved and greets your employees at least a few times a week, you are not investing in your future. The way you manage your department today will carry you and your company ahead of the competition as the economy begins to turn around. If employees are left to continually think about getting a new job as soon as the economy changes because you did not demonstrate appreciation for their dedication, you will be spending more hours spent on recruiting than in planning for future growth.
Tips to Help Boost Productivity:
1. Make everyone fully aware of goals and expectations each week. Don’t badger just go over expectation, recognize employees who are doing well and train those who need help.
2. Brighten up your department with motivations posters, balloons when they reach their goals and Pep Rally type meetings on Mondays.
3. De-clutter your department and ask your employees to work on doing the same with their work space.
4. Create a contest and reward employees who can an opportunities list suggesting methods to cut waste and increase productivity.
5. Deliver a “Do it right the first time” campaign that often results in less phone calls and rework saving thousands of dollars.
6. Request that employees batch small tasks together and getting them done quickly each day.
7. Revisit individual employee talents. If you have someone who is a good researcher, have them be your point of contact for those needing to do research to complet requests. If one or two of your employees have good people skills, appoint them as your rallying team so they can help you engage other employees. There’s no reason not to use your team’s natural talents to your advantage.
8. Always be ready to capture new ideas as they pop up. Don’t put it off because you may forget.
9. Communicate clearly and often keeping everyone’s eye on the ball.
10. Keep them healthy mentally and physically by bringing in oranges during flu season and have fun frequent contests to provide an incentive to reach higher p
Tags: customer incentives, gift incentives, incentive, incentives, marketing incentives, motivate, reward
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October 16th, 2011
Cash flow issues keeping you up at night? Instead of throwing money at the problem, try strengthening each part of your supply chain.
Cash is the fuel that drives business, and many financial analysts consider the condition of a company’s cash flow to be one of the most important indicators of that business’s financial health. After all, a well-managed flow of cash–like a strong heart–is usually indicative of a healthy business, while poorly managed cash flow, or a weak heart, can cause problems that affect the entire business.
Unfortunately, companies facing cash flow crunches simply throw money at the problem, which is a temporary solution at best, akin to treating heart disease with drugs alone. And just as heart surgeons encourage their patients to eat well, increase their physical activity and reduce stress, cash flow management requires more than just a financial fix. It requires a holistic approach that focuses on making a company’s entire supply chain operate more efficiently. After all, the faster goods move from seller to buyer, the faster sellers can be paid.
It’s important to note that a cash flow crisis is usually a symptom of a broader supply chain sickness. Treating this illness requires the attention not only if the CFO but also of the logistics manager, the purchasing department, operations, the tech guys and even the CEO. And while working with a bank to open a line of credit or amending an existing financial instrument can certainly help, the only real way to address a cash flow problem is to take a holistic, long-term view of the issue. Fixing a cash flow problem requires companies to examine and improve the three key flows of commerce: goods, information and funds. Let’s take a look at the first key flow.
Follow The Goods
The faster a seller moves goods to a buyer, the faster the buyer will pay for those goods, and that impacts cash flow. Therefore, businesses must ask themselves how they can better improve the speed at which their goods exchange hands. And this goes well beyond the actual transportation of the goods. Rather, it requires an examination of the entire process–from sales all the way through invoicing.
Let’s start with sales. It’s vitally important for a company’s decision-makers–and for small and growing firms, that usually means the owners–to be plugged into the sales process, examining the data from the sales staff on a regular basis. How much was sold yesterday, how much will be sold today, and what about tomorrow? The more accurate this information, the tighter the inventory. And the tighter the inventory, the better the cash flow.
After all, every item that’s sitting on a warehouse shelf represents inaccessible capital. Turning that inventory into sales begins to unleash that capital. If the inventory isn’t moving, you’re not moving cash. On the flip side, you have to be prepared to quickly replace sold or outdated inventory. Robust and accurate sales data ultimately drives inventory levels. Of course, this is sometimes a game of chance, but your chances of having optimal inventory levels increase with the accuracy of our sales data.
Next comes fulfillment. When a customer places an order, what happens behind the scenes? Who handles the fulfillment–that is, moving the goods out of inventory and toward the buyers? Is the pick and pack of the goods and the preparation of the shipment an arduous, manual process that delays shipments from leaving your facility? Or have you integrated technologies that create a streamlined, automated and efficient fulfillment process?
And, of course, transportation decisions are also important. Sometimes the cheapest form of transportation–usually also the slowest–isn’t the best choice. Spending more on expedited services can often result in improved reductions in the cash flow cycle.
Use The Information
Your next vital key to good cash flow is information, and for that, you must have visibility of your product shipments. Once your goods leave the dock en route to your buyers, how much visibility do you have regarding the progress each shipment is making? Do you have a tracking number for every package? Did you share the tracking number with the customer? Are you aware that a package was delayed due to weather? While all these questions primarily reside in the operations side of the house, they can also have a major impact on customer service, which in turn can impact cash flow. After all, a customer who feels well treated is more inclined to pay on time–and buy from you again.
In addition to tracking your shipments, using the information you have about each shipment’s status and delivery time enables you to put invoices into the hands of your buyers as soon as possible. Once the goods are delivered, does your business receive confirmation that the order’s been delivered? And upon receiving that confirmation, do you automatically trigger an invoice? All this information helps to build solid, long-term relationships with your customers while improving cash flow.
Speed The Funds
This is the area where business owners usually look for a quick solution. After all, most of us have heard the laundry list of best practices from a financial perspective on how to improve cash flow. Some of these traditional but important remedies include:
- Doing customer credit checks. Perform credit checks on all new and non-cash customers. This process can immediately reduce bad debt, since you’ll stop offering credit to customers who haven’t proved they deserve it.
- Offering term discounts. To encourage customers to pay on time, consider offering term discounts. For example, if your invoice terms are “net 30/2/10,” customer payment is expected in 30 days; however, you’re offering the customer a 2 percent discount if payment is made in 10 days.
- Asking customers to pay by cash or credit card. Rather than sell on term payments, sell on cash or credit card payments. Once you’ve got the cash in hand, deposit the funds immediately.
- Charging late fees. Indicate on your invoice when payment is due, and specify the penalty interest for late payment.
These solutions have been and will remain key ingredients in helping to cure cash flow ailments. But they’re not the only funds-related prescriptions. Consider these options:
- C.O.D. (Collect On Delivery). C.O.D. delivers cost savings and processing efficiencies that improve cash flow. This process may seem archaic, but the reality is that you’ll be paid faster with C.O.D. than a traditional 30-, 60- or 90-day term agreement.
- Inventory financing. Have you ever thought about unleashing working capital generated from inventory that traditional banks won’t finance, such as inventory you’ve got housed overseas? What about moving that inventory to a different location that enables those goods to be financed? Unfortunately, many businesses simply throw up their hands in defeat when they learn that overseas inventory can’t be financed. But that’s giving up too soon. If you take a holistic supply chain approach, you’ll realize that realigning your supply chain can enable you to gain economies of scale, reduce inventory expenses and ultimately obtain additional working capital. Most traditional banks are simply focused on the money flow, not the supply chain.
- Credit insurance. Today’s business environment pretty much mandates that small companies go global. But conducting business with trading partners overseas can be risky. Credit Insurance can help mitigate the risks by protecting the value of your receivables. By guarding your bottom line against nonpayment–or even slow payment–of invoices, you can breathe easier about your decision to conduct cross-border trade. And credit insurance can be used on a case-by-case basis–for example, with new customers whose payment histories you’re unfamiliar with. Once you’ve established a more solid relationship with them, you can then stop charging them for the credit insurance.
To be successful at cash flow management is to make sure all three flows of commerce–goods, information and funds–are working together to accelerate the movement of money through your supply chain. In all my years in business, I’ve learned that cash flow can be–and must be–managed wisely, and that better cash flow management goes hand-in-glove with better supply chain management. This will help you create a healthy, strong business.
Tags: cash flow, manage supply chain, reward, supply chain, supply chain management
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June 6th, 2011
Today started like all other days. I watched all the people I love in my house rush off to work and school, it seems like every day is a fire drill around here for these people. I can actually hear a seemingly endless hum of blow dryers and footsteps scammering back and forth while I lay half asleep in my comfy bed downstairs. I wish they would give it a break so I could get some extra zzz’s! Why do they leave there warm comfy beds every day when it feel so good anyway? There just must be some kind of benefit in return for it all. Oh well, in a flash they all go out the same door we use to get in the car to drive to the park.
I have been living with these people for just about 10 years now. I have taken the time to observe and learn from them. They can be quite interesting. A dog has gotta be aware you know and you really can teach an old dog a new trick or two. I have learned that my dad treats me a bit different than the two girls do that live here. My dad is cool but boy when he is mad,watch out. He gives me commands and expects a lot out of me. Sometimes I just say to myself ”Look buddy, if there is no treat involved, it ain’t gonna happen.” Just before he gets ready to burst because I have not rolled over yet, I break out my cute girl powdy eyes and then he walks over to the pantry to get me a treat. Yeah, the powdy eye thing is a great things that I learned from the girls. It works most of the time with my dad and just about every single time with the girls, ya gotta love them. The girls think I am just the cutest thing on four wheels.
My relationships are really simple in this house. I behave, try not to mess up the carpet and I don’t get too crazy when the cats walk into the yard. If I provide love, love is returned to me from that pantry. Life as a dog is really pretty great, no matter what those Calico Cats tell you.
The other day my mom was talking about her boss at work. She told my dad that her boss was an Absentee Boss who all of a suddent barked out orders for her to increase her team’s sales figures. As both she and the vegetables steamed, she continued to tell us her story. This boss I guess never provided she or her team with goals except when it looked like he was not going to be able to keep his job. He did not seem to care about her team and never gave them any treats as incentives when they achieved high numbers. What a jerk, if he were here it would be my teeth in his calf! Anyway, her team felt that his appearance alone in the department meant bad news because he never walked through to say good morning or spread some good stuff around to anyone.
When the steam stopped coming out of my mom’s head and from the over cooked veggies, she said some pretty interesting things. She said she could manage the situation her way and train her boss like she trains me, what a smart cookie. She would first start with a quick observation about what motivated her team. Were they talking about the changes in their employee benefits or perhaps the incentive program some of the other teams started using to motivate their teams?
The economy has been tough on my family and many others. Sure we eat but the Pooch Spa never comes over any more to leave me that nice sparkle like they used to. I really miss that guy, he had a way with a dog brush that made me look 5 years younger but I have adjusted. My mom brushes my hair now and she also has started to praise me and her department more. I think she knows that we will hang in there and do good if, we know we are appreciated. She told all of us a few nights ago that she does not skip a day when she does not appreciate us. She has promised to thank someone at the end of each day for their efforts and good roll over. She also sends surprise emails to employees when she sees them doing a great job with coupon so they can go see a movie. My mom is pretty smart. She knows that it is the sincerity of presence with people and dogs that make a difference. The eye to eye contact and thank you along with a treat for the extra effort.
The true benefit from life is being able to inspire and make a difference, I love my family.
D. Fred
Tags: benefits, benefits and incentives, incentive, incentive programs, motivate, motivation, reward
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May 18th, 2011
Back in the 80′s hair was big and so were the perks. Employees were used to working hard and receiving double digit increases, bonuses and a Christmas Party to talk about all year long. Recently, a hiring manager asked a prospective employee in an interview why they felt that employees were no longer loyal to their employers. The prospect was shocked but was frank in stating that perhaps employers were no longer loyal to employees. After all the prospect shared, salaries and benefits have shrunk, bonuses have been eliminated and more is demanded by employers. The hiring manager agreed by gently shaking his head in support of her comment.
At all levels of within Corporate America there is a feeling of discontent and wonder for the future. Everyday business is challenged to make money also trying to get by with less while consumers demand more from them. One case in point is the battle of the banks, one bank charges a fees then all of a sudden everyone is charging a fee. After a long hard lesson from the recent banking crisis consumers are wounded and are no longer being patient putting up with less than average service while being charged a fee. The winner in the game? The winner is always the bank with the best service ratings, ease of day-to-day business transactions and most importantly, customer edification and incentives.
Benefits and incentives should be obvious and attractive demonstrating the company’s interest in your customers. Within the first few pages of a website, a savvy company will pepper deals and incentives throughout knowing that it will peak interest extending visits to the site. These companies know that within the first 30 to 40 seconds, a customer makes a quick decision to continue shopping or move on. Below are a few tips that you may find beneficial to your company’s Internet storefront:
- Display your telephone number frequently on each page of your website for customer convenience
- List discounts and coupons on your home page and contact page
- Provide buyer and referral incentives that build motivation with bigger rewards
- Update your website using search words found on Google Adwords reporting the most popular words used
- Contextual targeting displays your advertisement to consumers on sites featuring content related to your business type
- Behavioral targeting specifically displays your ad to consumers who have shown recent online behaviors and interests that are relevant to your business type
- Blog about interesting topics at least once a week attracting more visitors who will become followers. Those site owners who have not blogged in months or sometimes even years, may appear to not concentrate fully on their business
- Manage wholesale & retail customers in one convenienet online store that serves both their needs of product pricing and availability
- Use SMS messaging sending text messages from one cell phone to another about your featured product or service
- Make coupon code promotions avaiable providing instant discounts or free items
- Don’t be shy. You are a benefit to your customers, make it known throughout your website
- Survey your customers and sales staff every quarter looking for trends and customer desires
Demonstrate appreciation while making an impact continually ask for business, you are the customer’s Expert Advisor.
Tags: awards, benefits, benefits and incentives, incentive, motivate, reward
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May 6th, 2011
Donors are coming out of a long dry spell carefully looking for organizations to donate to in 2011. Attract the one time, annual and generational donors with an incentive that will answer their “What’s in it for me” question.
Taxes deductions and t-shirts are terrific but what about a reward that gives back to them over and over again? Incentives geared toward levels of commitment and motivating one level to move to a higher level. To find the perfect incentive program require some homework regardng the culture of your organization and type of donor. Annual surveys help to determine the reward that your donors are looking for and the use of an Incentives Broker. An effective survey is one that includes the following:
- How many potential donors are in the household?
- What is their reason for giving?
- What other charities are of interest to them?
- What types of physical activities does the family enjoy on the weekends?
- What is their favorite entertainment venue?
- Favorite food?
- Would they donate more often if they could select their own incentive?
- Are they interested in providing a testimonial?
- Would they be interested in donating their time calling others to donate?
One California Incentive Broker believes that their choice, is their motivation when it comes to incentive programs. When donors hear that they can select their incentive that includes their family, they are immediately driven to donate more reguarly and usually tell a friend.
Once you begin to design your donor incentive program, don’t forget your Blood Donor Schedulers, Call Center Representatives and Marketing Staff who create donor drives. Employees can select from over 70 Total Benefits & Incentives to Choose From to Create Your Own Customized Discounts. Health Provider Discounts include Aetna Dental, Lab & Imaging, Vision, Fitness, Tele-Doc, Medical Equipment and more. Their family will love the discounts to nationwide restaurants, golf courses, hotels, legal services and theme parks, plus additional services and fun!
We do what we do every day because we are motivated forone reason or another to do so. We go to work to pay for our homes and go on vacations. We brush are teeth to keep them healthy for life. If we find answer to their “What’s in it for me” question, our donors will help us motivate others sharing their incentive experience increasing the number of those who give.
Tags: blood donation incentives, blood donor incentives, donor incentives, donor incentives program, employee rewards, motivate, reward
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March 7th, 2011
What happen to the front porches? They came on to the landscape years ago in the South and later were part of American Culture throughout the United States. Either small in size or like a big beautiful ribbon wrapping around the entire front of the house they could be seen almost every where. Each porch had its own lovely character and charm.
Porches were commonly admired in the south when people walked by on a warm evening. You could hear the creaking of the old rocking chairs as they rocked back and forth. Laughter filled the air and the lemonade glistened in the setting sunlight. The porch seemed to welcome all passers by over for a conversation or at least offered a smile and a wave to all who walked by.
The neighbor porch wasn’t just a place to cool off, it offered a connection to people and nature around it. Life is busy and now our front porch is social media. Social media offers us all a far reaching front porch, reaching out around the world bringing us many passersby and an education of what is out there to see and learn about. The only question is, what is the incentive for someone to visit your Facebook Page or website out of the millions that exist? Do you have have that welcoming feel and glistening lemonade that will attract others to interact with you on the Internet?
How Do You Make that Connection and Motivate Others onto Your Front Porch?
- Does Your Visitor Feel Motivated and Confident About Your Website?
- Does it Provide Beneficial Information?
- Does Your Website Answer Their Incentive Question, the “What’s in it for Me” Question?
- Does it Prompt the Visitor to Share Their Positive Experiences with Others?
- Do You Survey Employees, Clients, Donors and Visitors About Your Website?
Combine old with the new! People are simply starving for good old fashioned service and respect. Someone that appreciates their business and does not take it for granted. Offer incentives and reguarly thank your visitors oftne. Each click and phone call is an opportunity to present your business in a positive light and demonstrate your appreciation for their contact.
Keeping Your Porch Attractive to Others
- Make regular sincere calls taking interest in on their personal lives asking about their kid’s teams, their favorite sport or charitable organizations.
- Send articles or pictures that are of interest to your client on a personal enrichment level.
- Be an advisor and not a salesperson.
- Truly invest in your client for the long haul. Make it your goals to be there for them.
- It is not only the first impression that is important, it is every single impression.
- Be yourself and be personable. Laugh and show your lighter side.
- When in doubt use the Golden Rules, you can not go wrong.
Make your passersby all feel welcome so they have an incentive to come back.
www.strategicconcepts-ca.com
Tags: customer incentives, donor incentives, incentive, marketing incentives, motivate, motivate employees, reward
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March 4th, 2011
Reward your customers — they’ll reward you with repeat business.
This article has been excerpted from The Power of Loyalty by Roger L. Brooks available from Entrepreneur Press.
The best way to motivate customer behavior is to provide an incentive or reward for that motivation. Rewarding your customers for a specific purchasing behavior s not much different than training your puppy. With enough repetition and positive reinforcement, your pup can be motivated to act upon instruction. That’s because the pup knows if he listens to your command, he’ll receive his reward.
Human nature isn’t much different. People can be motivated to take specific actions that accomplish their buying goals while also accomplishing your goals to increase their spending, frequency of visits or combination purchases (or comparative goals relevant to your line of business).
The question then is how do you motivate behavior? Below are five ideas that will get you thinking.
- Offer soft benefits that provide value such as special access limited only to members.
- Offer relevant promotions through various lines of communication, for example: e-mail, SMS text, receipt messages, statement inserts, RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
- Up-sell complimentary products or services at the associate level.
- Offer sweepstakes, random rewards or special offers for a limited time frame, keep your strategy fresh and exciting:
- Strategically place messages (via signage, web banners, etc.) that will trigger motivating actions.
Motivate, But Don’t Mislead
Once you decide how you’ll motivate, always do so in an honorable way. Your customers won’t want to be misled into thinking they are receiving something greater in value that what they’ll actually receive as the reward.
Abraham Lincoln put it best when he said, “You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”
Of course, the statement was made some 150 years ago and the President was referring to politicians attempting to fool their constituents; however, the quote resonates with me every time I see a program that offers empty loyalty. Such programs offer an elaborate program on the outside when, indeed, it’s only a facade to increase business. In time, savvy customers will see through the facade. Your promotional strategy to motivate behavior must be phony proof. Once your customers lift the hood and kick the tires, the promotions must stand on their own and offer real value, not empty promises.
Remember, whatever you do, don’t try to fool the customer! Loyal customers will catch on if the loyalty program does not have true value. This can also backfire and cause disloyalty amongst your customers and defeat the entire purpose of implementing your strategy in the first place.
There are two reasons why your rewards offerings should be upstanding:
- Loyal customers have earned the right to receive a valid reward. If they weren’t enrolled in your program, they may have taken their business elsewhere.
- Customers can see through transparent rewards.
If you want to be in the loyalty game, you have to offer attractive redemption items that are achievable for your customers to earn. If customers are willing to change their purchasing behavior and provide you with their loyalty, they will expect the same in return from you in the form of a relevant reward.
It’s the Little Things That Matter Most
If you put on your consumer hat, you’ll understand that it’s the little things that matter most. One component you should incorporate is providing feel-good loyalty. Feel-good loyalty is just what it sounds like, providing something that the customer will feel good about. Offering feel-good-loyalty incentives should be part of your overall strategy and will require some clever and creative thinking. Some companies offer free Wi-Fi, others offer free shipping. Whatever you decide, brainstorm hard, even hold an employee contest. but find your niche and add feel-good loyalty to the mix.
Photofiddle.com is an Internet company that offers a service to turn your photographs into art. Simply upload a photo and you can instantly transform that image into pop art, impasto, a black and white sketch and even more. Once you create your personal masterpiece you then have many options for the type of surface the image is printed on (glossy photo paper, canvas, etc.). Finally, you can choose from a number of print sizes and framing choices.
Although Photofiddle doesn’t have a recognizable rewards program they do provide various levels of feel-good loyalty. Upon opening your order, customers see each piece is carefully packaged and accompanied with a pair of white cotton gloves. The label attached to the gloves reads, “All fine artwork should be handled with care. Please use white cotton gloves. Oils from your hands and fingers can leave finger prints. Jewelry on your fingers and wrist can leave markings.”
That’s a personal touch and that’s feel-good-loyalty. It’s doing the little things that matter most with customers. It’s thinking outside the box so that your brand motivates your customers and resonates in their mind. Providing the white cotton gloves with each order sends both a literal message and subliminal message. It reinforces the need to treat your artwork with care and that they treat all of their customers with care.
Roger L. Brooks is a respected loyalty strategist with more than 15 years of experience in developing, supporting, and implementing customer loyalty and rewards programs. He has worked with esteemed companies such as Verizon, Sam’s Club, and Chase Universal MasterCard, and he currently serves as the vice president of loyalty marketing for ValueCentric Marketing Group, Inc., managing growth for new and existing clients including GE Capital, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bank of Montreal.
Tags: blood donation incentives, corporate incentives, customer incentives, donor incentives, incentive, point rewards, reward, reward programs
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March 3rd, 2011
Could location-based mobile apps possibly have a beneficial business purpose? Survey says … yes.
I’m not ready to say that this past holiday season was the tipping point for mobile, but I know I found myself doing a lot more with my mobile phone in December. Primarily I checked in to retail stores and locations.
And I wasn’t just advertising to my Facebook friends and Twittering to relations about how much I was spending on their gifts (“Look! I’m in Tiffany’s!”). Mostly I wanted to see what merchants were willing to offer me for simply walking through their doors.
When the right offer came along, I bit–whether on 10 percent off at Radio Shack or a free eggnog latte at a coffee shop in the mall. Then I posted the find to my social graph.
Loyalty programs or lead generation? You make the call. But I know I wasn’t headed in that direction until I checked in to Foursquare, Gowalla, shopkick, Loopt or one of the other geo-location services.
Where y’at?
Location-based mobile services are becoming easier both for consumers to find and marketers to use. Facebook and Google have launched services in the category, but here are the independent hot spots
Foursquare: About 5 million members worldwide check Foursquare regularly to locate friends and to find tips and offers in places they’ve never been before.
Loopt: With more than 4 million users, Loopt recently announced plans to migrate Loopt Star, its standalone rewards-only app, to the main platform.
Gowalla: An admitted underdog, the 600,000-user app has made itself compatible with both Foursquare and Facebook Places (which claims 30,000 users.)
Whrrl: Allows members and brands to set up “societies” based on shared interests; brands can offer real-world rewards for digital actions such as check-ins.
Critics have been quick to point out defects in the location-based strategy. Yes, the incentive to check in is pretty thin when your only reward is a badge or some other sort of honorific. (How hot are you to become “mayor” of your local dry cleaner, anyway?)
And, yes, the number of people who have downloaded the apps to their phones is relatively small. Foursquare, the category leader, has about 5 million downloads worldwide. That’s a sliver of the 60 million smartphone users in the U.S. alone–and doesn’t even take in the much larger U.S. audience (170 million or so) who are still using regular feature phones and can’t access the app.
The question is, are those objections true for your business? If you had customers who would respond to a location-based game and you could find a way to give them something valuable as a reward, would they check in?
They have for Murphy USA, a gas retailer based in El Dorado, Ark., that operates more than 1,000 kiosk-style gas outlets, most located next to or near Wal-Mart’s big boxes. Buying gas is not exactly the kind of activity you’d expect to tweet to your pals, or even enjoy. And frugal Wal-Mart shoppers might not seem a target audience for a campaign that requires a smartphone and some mobile savvy.
Nevertheless, the company ran a promotion last July on the Whrrl location-based social network. Users who downloaded the app could check in at the pump and win instant prizes, from free beverages and discounts to a daily $50 gas giveaway.
Murphy, already active in creating loyalty among brand fans, publicized the campaign on Facebook and Twitter. It also put up a point-of-sale message at the pumps, with instructions on how new users could get engaged with the Murphy community on Whrrl–or “society,” as the groups are known on the platform–and what they stood to win.
The results compiled from the three-month pilot were impressive, says Casey Petersen, senior Internet business specialist for Murphy. For example, the industry average for pump visits is two a month. Customers who checked into the Murphy Whrrl society visited four times a month on average, and almost half of those checking in bellied up to the pump an average of six times a month. What’s more, the average fill-up ticket per visit by Whrrl users was $30–twice the industry average.
But the most amazing result was that the check-in drove new customer acquisition at an astounding rate. During the pilot period, 44 percent of those checking in to the brand’s society on Whrrl had never been to a Murphy station before.
“We’re a low-cost, high-volume chain, and we’ve been careful in everything we do online not just to do something because it’s a fad,” Petersen says. “We really want to provide value for our customers, not just a badge.” In fact, 85 percent of the check-ins said they chose Murphy over a nearby competitor specifically because of the Whrrl promotion.
Going with a location-based strategy was perhaps counter-intuitive. Murphy USA tracks Wal-Mart demographically and geographically, so the average customer is going to be female with a family. According to a Pew Internet survey in November, only 3 percent of women have used check-in services on mobile, compared with 6 percent of men.
On the other hand, an earlier survey by game maker PopCap found that 55 percent of the player base for social games–like FarmVille and Mafia Wars–are women, and their average age is 43. So maybe the best approach is to ignore the polls and the wisdom about edgy tactics and simply go out, see what your target prospects respond to and build a mobile promotion around that.
Tags: employee rewards, gifts, loyalty, loyalty programs, loyalty rewards, point rewards, reward
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February 15th, 2011
Don’t Sell Yourself Short
It’s not what you have but what you do with what you have that will determine your success or failure. Abraham Maslow, the great psychologist said that the story of the human race is the story of people selling themselves short. He said people have a tendency to settle for far less from life than they are truly capable of. Many people are spinning their wheels in careers where they should be moving rapidly onward and upward. Here’s how you can put your career on the fast track.
Choose Your Parents Carefully
Someone once said that the key to success was to choose your parents carefully. That may be partially true but it is even more important to choose your job or career with great care. The choice of a job or occupation for which you are ideally suited comes before anything else. If you try to work at something you don’t enjoy or don’t believe in, you’ll never be happy, and you’ll never be successful.
Be the Best At What You Do
Which leads us to the next point. If you want to reach the stars in your career, you have to become excellent at what you do. You have to pay any price, go any distance, spend any amount of time necessary to “be the best.” Extraordinary rewards only go for extraordinary performance; average rewards for average performance; below average rewards, insecurity and failure for below average performance. And here’s a vital key, you are being paid today exactly what you’re worth – no more, no less. If you want to earn more, you must increase your worth, your value to others.
The Key to Motivation
The reason why choosing the right career, why doing what you love to do is so important, is because unless you really care about your work, you will never be motivated to persist at it until you become excellent. And until you become excellent at what you’re doing, you can’t move ahead.
The Key to Peak Performance
The antidote to these fears is the development of courage, character and self-esteem. The opposite of fear is actually love, self-love and self-respect. Acting with courage in a fearful situation is simply a technique that boosts our regard for ourselves to such a degree that our fears subside and lose their ability to effect our behavior and our decisions.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to be more successful in your career.
First, set high standards for yourself and recognize that anything that someone else has achieved, you can probably achieve as well. There are no limits.
Second, select one key skill area that is important in your job and resolve to become absolutely excellent in that area. Start today to get better and better.
Tags: employee rewards, motivation, recognition programs, reward, reward programs
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