Finding a strategy to keep Medicaid members engaged in healthy activities is not always easy. Medicaid members may have trouble with appointment attendance due to a lack of access to, or inability to pay for transportation; or, they are unable to take time off from work, which is often in arduous, blue-collar industries. 

While getting a customer in your store for the first time is important, in order for your success in retail, the focus needs to be placed on repeat business. It is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep one. Customer loyalty programs work well, but most businesses may be getting it wrong. Here are 3 steps for measuring customer loyalty and rewards ideas.
Track Customer Purchasing Habits  In order to measure the effectiveness of a loyalty program we need to record the number of new customer vs. the number of repeat customers. This is the very basic first step, tracking who is coming in and what they have purchased. The easiest way to obtain this information is through a connected POS system. A connected POS system automatically sets up customer profiles and tracks their purchases every time they return. This helps provide retailers with an insightful analysis of their customer base. Having linked loyalty cards/spending cards also helps in tracking customer purchases.
Calculate Important Metrics Simple metrics can help a retailer know whether or not their loyalty program is impacting their customers. Some important metrics to consider:

Achieving customer loyalty is no doubt one of the biggest challenges our clients face…it’s a moving target. Not only are consumer needs evolving by the day, but retail marketing is impacted by new consumer technologies, for online and brick-and-mortar buying. We have a general picture of how technology is effecting our brand content flow, buying experience, and rewards and loyalty – we are consumers ourselves and we participate in one or all of these brand experiences every day. But how are these technologies effecting our clients? They are retailers and merchants who partner with us to promote their gift cards in programs such as customer loyalty, engagement, and rewards. They are on the front lines of technology evolution, retail marketing, and customer loyalty and engagement and their challenges are multiplied by selling in the B2B marketplace. Check out the
Ten Ways Technology Can Enable Customer Loyalty Infographic posted on the Huffington Post online. Click image to enlarge >>

Innovation is an intriguing idea for employees; it keeps them motivated to keep up with the organizational environment and innovation helps drive learning and professional development from within. Creating and maintaining a culture of innovation at your organization contributes to higher employee retention rates. Innovation tends to encourage employees to maintain their positions because they are constantly engaged in their organizations decision-making and direction, while also being given more autonomy to contribute to the future. Here are a few tips to ensure your organization and its employees remain innovative. 1. 
Create a structure for unstructured time: Ensure employees have the time they need to innovate individually, whether they are innovating internal processes or the product your company sells. Having a designated “innovation hour” gets employees creative juices flowing, allowing for more out-of-the-box thinking. “Innovation hours” also give employees a productive, company sponsored, outlet for self-motivation and pet projects. This type of free thinking often raises productivity within the workplace during structured work time, and will also prevent employees from looking outside of work for a distraction or another position. 2. 
Measure what is meaningful: Finding a way to quantify the products of employee driven innovation is key to finding ROI for organizational management. The measurement indicators could be an increased employee retention rate since employer structured innovation was implemented, or your organization is innovating to the point where you can match actual revenue dollars to employee innovation. However you measure the impact of innovation, collecting data and finding what is meaningful for your specific company’s circumstance is important in finding the organizational ROI. 3. 
Give "worthless" rewards: Find non-monetary rewards like poker chips or Monopoly pieces to give employees in any instance of innovation. These rewards can be used as a recognition tool from the boss for solving a problem- either internallyor externally. These rewards can also be used as a “random act of kindness” among peers for doing someone a favor or helping out on a particular project. However the rewards are used, they raise company morale by getting people around the organization talking to each other, interacting, and forming relationships. This type of morale-building will also lead to higher retention rates by making the workplace a fun, vibrant place to work together and collaborate to further common goals. Creating innovation creates a culture of connection and betterment of the organization and its individual employees. This culture often leads to higher employee retention with employees sticking around to continue to build that culture and reach those common goals. 
How do you create a culture of innovation within your organization? For more information check out this article from Fast Company.