GiftCard Partners Blog

Employee motivation can be key to maintaining productivity, especially during times of the year like summer when employees can be distracted with kids ending school, or simply the change of season and the nice weather. Providing incentives to create a positive company culture and make the workplace employees feel motivated and inspired to be can provide the motivation to keep your employees productive throughout distracting times. Check out these three easy strategies for employee motivation and see if you could use them to boost productivity this summer.

A positive customer experience is something that every company strives for on a daily basis; experience is the main driver for loyalty. Happy customers are loyal customers and loyal customers are brand advocates. Oracle released a global survey of 1,300 senior-level executives from 18 countries that yielded new insights on succeeding in the ‘customer service era.’ Key findings from the survey included:

In the age of social media, a constant news cycle and a constantly connected consumer base, we all know how important it is to keep customers happy. Happy customers can mean free marketing and public relations in the form of brand evangelization through social media. Unhappy customers can have the opposite effect, casting a negative shadow on your organization's brand through social media or consumer reports. Customers are happy when they have positive interactions with your brand, and when the people who represent your brand, your employees, have a positive effect on the customers. When your employees become true ambassadors and do all they can to positively represent your band to consumers your employees are happier, your customers are happier, and your revenue will grow and gain potential. The importance of happy employees directly correlates to the happiness of your consumers and the strength of therelationship your consumers develop with your brand. Using employee rewards and recognition is a great way to ensure employees represent your brand appropriately, and develop positive consumer relationships. All levels of rewards can fit into an employee rewards program. From a small denomination gift card to a retailer like Boston Market, or Burlington Coat Factory for a well handled consumer interaction, to a weekend getaway for the employee with the highest promoter score, or lifetime value assessment. Employee rewards programs can be tailored to any budget, but their value proposition will always be felt in a big way. Happy employees, happy consumers, and measurably increased revenue.
For more information on using employee rewards to ensure happy consumers check out this article from xceleration.com

Everyone likes cash, but as a performance reward, it is impersonal and predictable. Giving employees personalized rewards can help your organization retain happy employees who know their organization cares about them and their individual interests. Richard Rosenblatt, Chairman and CEO at Demand Media goes to extended lengths to ensure his top performing employees receive personal rewards by spending a whole day with employees delivering reward experiences, such as a day with a personal shopper at an upscale department store for employees who like shopping and fashion. Rosenblatt explains the importance of delivering personalized rewards for top contributors because it shows that the organization takes a vested interest in employees, the way employees spend their time and energy investing in the organization they work for. This supportive environment keeps employees happy, satisfied, and contributing to your organization for longer. Reward personalization can be scaled down to a more streamlined system. Gift cards can serve as a great alternative to cash rewards, and can provide personalization to employees as well as a "trophy value" that cash bonuses cannot. Providing a choice of a diverse group of retailers for employees to choose their reward, as well as having one physical item to give employees makes gift cards a win/win choice for employee rewards. Being able to provide an AutoZone gift card to the auto enthusiast, and a Cheesecake Factory gift card to the restaurant enthusiast will allow your organization to deliver thoughtful rewards, while streamlining the reward system.