GiftCard Partners Blog

You may find it easy to attract new customers with the lure of incentives, deals or promotions. BUT, are you keeping them after that? A recent Forbes article,
Warning: Is Your New Customer Coming Back? 4 Steps You Should Take Now, explains that spending all that effort and time bringing in new customers may be costing you a lot more than it would keeping an existing one- in some cases 6 to 7 times more! Of course attracting new customers is a crucial part of your loyalty program that should not be abandoned but a healthy balance between attracting the new and nurturing the current can spell success for your loyalty program as a whole. Recognizing your current customers in a unique way can give them that sense of ‘special’ treatment that encourages them to stick around: Try Saying Thanks - Sounds simple enough but it’s sometimes forgotten that a thank you goes a long way. Try sending a ‘Thank You for Your Loyalty’ email to customers who reach the one year mark, five year mark, etc. Customers don’t always need an incentive or reward for being loyal, just a little appreciation. Use holidays as a way to appreciate your current customers- Sending out gift cards to
The Children’s Place on Mother’s Day, gift cards to
1-800-Flowers on Valentine’s Day, or gift cards to
CVS/pharmacy on a customer’s birthday shows how much their loyalty means all year round. Take the time to take a special interest in your customer, it’s got its rewards. Check out Forbes,
Warning: Is Your New Customer Coming Back? 4 Steps You Should Take Now to get more ideas on keeping your customers close.

Many employers look to employee loyalty as an expectation, rather than an organizational goal. However, for employees, loyalty is viewed as quite the opposite; something that an organization should earn through mutually beneficial working conditions and effort committed. Here a 5 keys to earning employee loyalty and retaining a more productive and sustainable workforce.

The Affordable Care Act is enabling employers to offer more health and wellness program options for their employees, while helping employers control their health care costs. Along with updated guidelines for how employee health and wellness programs need to be executed, the Affordable Care Act is increasing the maximum reward for employees to  20 to-30 percent of their total health care costs. These rewards increase to as much as 50 percent of health care costs for employees participating in any kind of tobacco cessation program. These types of changes make it easier for employers to get involved in health and wellness programs, knowing that they will be easing both the financial burden of health care on their employees, as well as improving the health and well being of their workforce. Below are 3 of the new proposed rules the Affordable Care Act introduces with regard to employee health and wellness programs. Take a look, and see how you could be helping your employees get healthy, stay healthy, and save money for both themselves and the organization. The rules below are being enacted to ensure health and wellness programs are run in a way fair to all willing employees.

GiftCard Partners is finding that more and more of our customers are working to develop or enhance their safety program and instill the value of safety within their organization. Doing this does not need to be difficult but it does need to be taken seriously. Business & Legal Resources is here to help, discussing the importance of emphasizing your organizations safety culture with workers. BLR explains that the cost savings that come with a successful safety program is just a part of what you need to assess. Take a closer look at the safety culture in your organization and join BLR’s safety webinar about accurately assessing, and improving the role of safety in your workplace.
Learn more about the Safety Culture Webinar here and sign up to attend on February 13^th  

The infographic below reflects a recent survey from Mercer of 2,400 people that represent a microcosm of the American workforce. Since almost one in three people are looking to leave their jobs, it is important to know who is most likely to be looking to move on, and why. An employee’s retention and  satisfaction leads to their loyalty, so pinpointing and fixing those issues will be financially efficient and better for themorale at your organization. Loyalty and retention rates can be boosted by implementing an employee loyalty program, offering small incentives, such as small denomination gift cards to employees as loyalty rewards, or as a carrot reward for employee retention. Check out this infographic as a start to figuring out your organizations weaknesses and turn them into strengths. Providing employees support, career development, recognition and rewards can minimize turnover and increase loyalty. Knowing which populations are most likely to be looking to leave is a good way to start working to maximize employee loyalty.