4 Ways to Bust Incentive Program Fatigue

NGC is excited to work with retailers, like Best Buy, who are actively proposing new ways to enhance the gift card experience.  In the following white paper, Best Buy presents four ways to keep your incentive program interesting and accessible to all employees.

Gift cards have been the go-to choice for incentive programs for some time.  For good reason, too.  They aren't easily absorbed into the day-to-day household budget, which means they carry with them a sense of occasion while giving recipients the chance to pick their reward. Still, for all the excitement gift cards generate, some companies struggle to keep employees and clients interested in their programs.  If you're one of the many organizations experiencing program fatigue, try these tactics to jumpstart participation.

1. Build Anticipation While Building Value - A tiered approach to your gift card program can both spark initial interest with low-level rewards and maintain that interest by offering greater and greater incentives for returning participants.  The key is to make sure you offer gift cards to stores that carry items at a range of different price points.  Access to everything from mid-range audio accessories to high-end appliances is reason enough for recipients to stick with the program from beginning to end (and beyond).  Plus, if they choose, your clients and employees can save up gift cards over time to buy that big ticket item they've been wanting, further holding their interest in a long-term program.
2. Let Trophy Value Do the Work - Using gift cards tied to sought-after items quickly increases the trophy value of your program rewards. For example, a premier developer of residential golf communities used this tactic to generate interest around the community facilities at their upscale resort/residential properties.  Customers who toured the facilities were rewarded with a Best Buy gift card.  Access to premium electronics and technology proved to be the perfect draw.  The company credits the success of the program to their partnership with Best Buy and continues to increase their use of the gift cards to market to this discerning audience.
3. On-Theme Prizes Stay Top of Mind - A theme can help put a twist on an existing program or even turn a new program into something your clients and employees will talk about.  Amplify this buzz even further by offering gift cards tied to products that align with your program theme.  Let employees choose their favorite fitness tech to boost your wellness program.  Celebrate a home closing by helping your clients shop for a new home theater system.  Reward a test drive with electronics for their new vehicle. The possibilities are essentially endless, but all will keep your program top of mind.
4. Offer Instant Gratification with E-Gift Cards - Traditional plastic gift cards lend a bit of ceremony and pomp to your rewards program, but there's something to be said for instant gratification.  An accredited continuing medical education company found that e-gift cards would provide the perfect combination of ceremony and immediate payoff for their medical professional customers.  They used Best Buy e-gift cards as an added bonus with each subscription to their service.  The immediacy of the e-gift cards aligned nicely with the idea that each subscription came with instant access to their library of educational materials.  The program resulted in the company's largest recorded sales in 60 years.

These are just a few tactics you can use to breathe new life into your gift card incentive program.  It's important to remember that the best way to keep your customers and employees interested is by offering gift cards with access to items they really want.  By letting recipients shop thousands of sought-after products, Best Buy gift cards do exactly this.  Easy to redeem in store or online, they're the idea way to tie your incentive program to tangible rewards customers and employees will be talking about long after the gift card is spent.

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