There’s no doubt about it — your employees want recognition. And while thanking them for a job well done is always appreciated, employee incentive programs can amplify your praise into something more meaningful. Think improved morale, increased motivation, and reduced turnover. In fact, according to our latest research, 72% of employees are extremely focused on finishing projects and/or achieving goals when they know they can earn rewards and/or recognition. If you’ve ever shown your appreciation of an employee by giving a gift card, you’ve already witnessed the impact of adding rewards to your verbal or written thanks. When you formalize that action with employee incentive programs, appreciation becomes part of a vibrant workplace culture that fosters stronger, more productive teams. Not sure where to start? Here are the most effective employee incentive programs to consider adding to your organization. Points-Based Reward Programs Your employees are already accruing loyalty points with their favorite eatery, airline or credit card. Why not at work? Employee incentive programs based on points give your organization plenty of opportunities for positive engagement. That’s because points are: Empowering — Giving points that add up to a gift card offer clear milestones that reward employees for their actions....
Whenever you can increase your survey response rate, you also increase the validity and usefulness of your survey. To do that, it’s important to understand participant preferences and habits so you can optimize your promotion and incentives strategies. By knowing where people learn about survey opportunities, what survey topics they prefer, and what motivates them to choose to participate, you’ll reach more potential respondents and recruit them more successfully. Our recent research with integration partner Qualtrics surveyed more than 2,000 participants and asked exactly those questions. Here are five insights that will inform your work and help boost your survey response rate. READ MORE: Download our full report, “Maximizing Research Participation & Optimizing Incentives” Demographics, Survey Topics, and Incentives All Affect Participation Only 54% of younger participants fill out online surveys daily, compared with 73% of those in older generations. Reaching Millennials and Generation Z has been notoriously difficult for everyone from marketers to TV networks. The same is true for researchers, since younger generations report participating less often. If you need to hear from an even distribution of ages or you are specifically looking for insights about younger people, you’ll need to tailor your research plan to ensure a...
Fewer demo no-shows? More prospect interactions? A shorter sales cycle? Better (and more profitable!) customer relationships? For any sales manager, the benefits of a rewards management platform to empower their reps should be a no-brainer. But the realities of budget and access must always be a consideration, too. With an enterprise-ready rewards management platform like BHN Rewards, though, you can give your reps the freedom to incentivize their prospects and nurture their existing partnerships while setting important guardrails. Even better, BHN Rewards integrates directly with CRMs such as Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365. That means your teams won’t have to learn a new tool to incorporate rewards into their sales cycles. Managers or operations specialists can serve as account administrators to grant appropriate access and budgets. Here are four ways BHN Rewards helps you arm your sales teams with effective rewards for prospects and customers while making sure they don’t overspend and you have 100% visibility. READ MORE: Download our Sales Playbook on using rewards for prospects and customers Set Up Separate Groups for Different Sales Teams The BHN Rewards management platform allows account administrators to create multiple user and budget groups, so you can set different permissions and budget...
There’s a customer care gap brewing, and digital gift card solutions are going to become even more important to help close it. While advances in artificial intelligence promise to provide more efficient digital experiences for consumers, the technology is still underperforming. Talent shortages are also exacerbating many brands’ quality of service. Against this backdrop, customer expectations are rising, with increasing demands for more personal contact and responsiveness. Companies cannot afford this kind of disconnect. According to research from Zendesk, 73% of customers will switch to a competitor after multiple bad experiences. And more than half will leave after just one unsatisfactory interaction. As businesses work to improve their customer experience, digital gift card solutions can help keep their customers from jumping ship. Here, we break down the most common customer service challenges and how to use digital gift card solutions to let your customers know you value their business. Challenge 1: Handling Unhappy Customers “The customer is always right” is a mantra that consumers have taken to heart. These days, they’ll post online every time they’re unhappy—and get specific with their feedback. In a survey by HubSpot, customer service leaders’ most reported challenge was “dealing with upset customers.” While your...
When you launch a rewards program for research, marketing, sales, customer appeasement, employees—well, basically any use case—it’s important to optimize every aspect, from the reward value to the distribution process. One part you might overlook, though, is the online gift card email delivery. It may seem like a formality—it’s how the recipient claims their reward, and who wouldn’t want a reward?—but there’s more to it than that. The reward delivery email can make all the difference for the ROI, recipient satisfaction, and compliance of your program. Here are some tips on making the most of the online gift card email delivery for your rewards or incentives program, and how the BHN Rewards platform can help. READ MORE: Customize Your E-Gift Card Email Delivery to Improve the Customer Experience Personalize the Experience Nearly two-thirds of consumers (65%) say they will remain loyal to a company or brand that offers a more personalized experience, according to Salesforce data. Luckily, that’s easy to do with your rewards program and online gift card email delivery. BHN Rewards allows you to add personalization tags into the email for each recipient, so it includes their first name or other details. We also recommend including messaging that...
For most people who conduct any kind of research, incentives are nothing new. What you might not know is just how vital rewards—and the way they’re executed—are to your recruitment and response rates. Based on our recent research with Qualtrics, one piece of advice becomes clear: Get virtual prepaid cards, like Mastercard and Visa, as incentives. They’re a popular payment method among consumers, making it easier to get people to participate, plus digital rewards also allow you more convenience and time savings than traditional cash or check payments. READ MORE: 5 Features to Look for When Rewarding With Virtual Prepaid Gift Cards Flexible Is Their Favorite In our study with Qualtrics, which surveyed 2,000 U.S. research participants, 54% say they prefer to receive incentives as prepaid and gift cards, even more than cash. That demonstrates participants’ desire for incentives that offer convenience and flexibility—but they actually want even more flexibility than they’re getting. When asked to get more specific, 43% say they want prepaid cards over retailer-specific gift cards. But only 34% report actually receiving prepaid cards—a gap of 9 percentage points. The Faster, the Better—and Cheaper Not only do participants value speed, they’re even willing to accept a smaller...
It’s no secret that replacing customers is far more expensive than retaining them. And when consumers and B2B buyers are worried about the economy, your customer retention efforts become even more valuable to your organization’s bottom line. HubSpot’s 2024 Consumer Trends Report shows that 57% of consumers think the U.S. economy is currently in a recession, and 53% of U.S. adults are being more careful with spending. Given that, it’s easy to understand why more than 80% of customers say their purchase decisions are motivated by the opportunity to earn back money or a reward, such as a business gift card, according to our research with Aberdeen Group. Companies of all kinds are also facing pressure to cut costs and limit operational spending. That means in both B2B and B2C markets, even your most loyal customers may be willing to take their business elsewhere in order to save money. To keep your retention levels up where they need to be, consider finding additional ways to delight your customers. Delivering a business gift card at appropriate touchpoints throughout the customer journey can encourage continued engagement and increase each customer’s lifetime value. Here are seven strategies to incorporate into your retention efforts....
The old adage “you have to spend money to make money” is still around for a reason. And when you buy digital gift cards to incentivize your prospects and customers, that’s exactly what you’re doing. You’re making an investment that pays for itself over time, either in new business or customer retention. To help you maximize your budget, check out these suggestions for getting the most bang for your buck when you buy digital gift cards to increase sales. READ MORE: Streamline E-Gift Card Delivery for Sales and Customer Service Reduce Demo No-Shows Everyone knows that sales is a numbers game. The more people you can get in front of, the more sales you’ll inevitably make. Offering a digital gift card to attend a sales demo or product presentation shows potential customers you value their time. Even better, rewards will reduce your no-shows, so your sales team isn’t wasting time on flaky leads. Speed Up the Sales Cycle Once a rep has overcome a qualified lead’s objections and given an amazing demo, they still might end up just waiting—and waiting—for a signed contract. When potential customers are dragging their feet, you may want to buy digital gift cards to help...
May is Global Employee Health and Fitness Month, making it the perfect time to launch a new—or promote your existing—workplace wellness program with corporate gift cards. Since the pandemic, employee wellness programs have proliferated. In fact, 62% of small firms and 80% of large firms offering health benefits also have at least one wellness program, according to a KFF report. That’s likely because organizations understand that their efforts to support employee well-being are worth it. In a 2021 Statista survey, most U.S. employees said wellness programs help them be as productive as possible (79%), help them avoid getting sick (79%) and are one of the reasons they stay at their job (75%). Here are seven ideas for using corporate gift cards to increase engagement with your organization’s wellness program. READ MORE: Online Gift Cards to Send Employees to Show You’re a Company That Cares Step It Up Challenge No need for a smartwatch—just ask participants to download a free step tracker app on their smartphone. Reward participants with the highest number of steps each day, every week or during the entire month. Give your employees a selection of corporate gift cards so they can choose a prize that motivates them...
Depending on the size of your company, you may have dozens or even hundreds of frontline reps working the phones, making it seem impossible to arm them all with digital rewards. But the benefits — reducing meeting no-shows, speeding up the sales cycle, and appeasing customers after a bad experience — mean it’s worth finding a solution to simplify e-gift card delivery. Using digital rewards for prospects and customers not only help you sell more, they also can increase customer engagement and retention. Both your sales reps and your call center or customer service agents should have the ability to send rewards on the spot. By integrating BHN Rewards with sales and service tools like Salesforce or HubSpot, you can give your teams an easy way to deliver e-gift cards in three ways. READ MORE: Using Rewards in Every Department to Drive Organizational Goals One-to-One Individual reps can quickly send rewards with one-to-one e-gift card delivery. This is a great way for your sales team members to build rapport with both prospects and customers, since it creates a personalized experience. It’s also ideal for support agents, who can send an appeasement reward to a frustrated customer or caller on the...
