5 Ways To Incentivise Your Employees And Customers

Using experiences is a powerful sales incentive for business. Time and time again, it has been proven that monetary rewards are simply not as effective as non-cash rewards in incentivising people, whether they’re customers or employees. Shared experiences foster relationships, generate conversations, create memories and build emotional bonds. These are all invaluable results that monetary incentives cannot achieve.

What are employee incentives?

“Incentives matter tremendously. You really want people to be rewarded for doing the right thing for the customers and the organisation,” Ramez Naam.

When RedBalloon founder Naomi Simson started experience brand RedBalloon in 2001, the business was all about delivering memorable experiences to customers – and that is a core purpose that the business still stands for today. 

Corporate gifting wasn’t necessarily part of the fabric from day one, however, only six months in, Simson saw the opportunity to provide experiences in the workplace. Experiences are a powerful tool for motivating employees, inspiring results and shifting behaviours.

It was Fuji Xerox who inspired the initial move towards putting experiences to work as corporate sales incentives. The business wanted to use RedBalloon vouchers to incentivise sales of their printers through both their own workforce and their third-party distributors. They asked RedBalloon to build a special system for them as an incentive program. That program continued for more than 18 months, and over the years, major business players and small businesses alike have chosen experience vouchers as an incentive. 

What are customer incentives?

In today’s business world, it’s commonplace for companies to offer incentives to customers for purchasing their services. These incentives range from gift cards to travel incentives. One of the most important functions of customer incentives is to boost customer acquisition, and just as important to retain the ones you’ve worked so hard to earn.

Recently, TechnologyAdvice did a survey to test the effectiveness of incentives for customer retention. The survey polled 387 people and found that 80% of them reported they’d be more likely to do business with companies that offer loyalty programs or incentives.

Nothing engages people more than a great promotion or campaign. It might be ‘tell us in 25 words or less’, ‘collect three of these to win’, or ‘sign up now to go in the draw”. Whatever the call to action, whether trying to attract new customers or cementing relationships with existing ones, if you have a high value prize such as exploring outback Australia or scuba diving your way around the Great Barrier Reef, then you’re sure to create engagement and gain serious traction.

4 ways to incentivise stakeholders

1.Build a cohesive team through offsite activities

To achieve great feats, you need a reliable team. While trust, rapport and respect are established in the office, new bonds are formed, and existing ones strengthened through participating in team experiences. There’s something about seeing colleagues taking on new challenges in different environments that inspires great camaraderie

2. Boost productivity through friendly competition

Create some excitement by running some internal promotions to ignite and inspire. Whether it be building up points towards a reward, running internal competitions within teams, creating goals and rewarding effort will transform the office vibe. RedBalloon experience vouchers are a great prize option, giving your winners the gift of choice, with thousands of experiences to choose from

3. Host a raffle for your workplace charity of choice

Employees want their organisations to invest in meaningful social causes. Survey your people and have them select a cause they’re passionate about. By seeking employee input, they’ll feel engaged and be more supportive of fundraising efforts. Raffles are a fantastic way to raise money, and are relatively simple to organise. Your business could run a raffle for a meaningful charity, and purchase a unique Australian experience as the prize.

4. Reconnect with valued clients through shared experiences

Business is all about building sustainable rapport with people. Last year was fraught with challenges, making it difficult at times to nurture those important client relationships. This year, let’s focus on reconnection and reengagement. Organise a client day out on the harbour, <lunch by the bay, or host a weekend in a vineyard. Creating shared stories and memories through experience is the ultimate way to foster relationships, and you can support local businesses along the way.  

FAQ

Q: What are some employee incentives?

A: Here are some great incentives for employees and stakeholders:

1. RedBalloon gift voucher, so your employees and customers can choose an experience they’ve always wanted to do
2. Offsite employee activities, from cooking classes to kayaking to build an engaged team.
3. A bit of healthy internal competition, like offering a unique experience as a reward for the employee who surpasses their targets for the month.

Q: What are examples of incentives?

A: Experiences create a tangible outcome and deliver the type of emotional connection to your brand that other incentives simply cannot, so, using RedBalloon gift vouchers as an incentive for employees or customers is a no-brainer!