GiftCard Partners Blog

Stress. We all deal with it every day, constantly finding better ways to deal with it, cope with it, release it, but we rarely think of the long term effects it has on our bodies, or our careers. However, for small business owners employee stress is a top concern. According to a national survey done by Humana Inc., 93% of small business owners consider employees’ physical and mental health as contributors to their bottom line. Managing employee stress and the negative effects is has on health is crucial for small business owners. The effects of stress can decrease employee productivity, increase absenteeism, and hurt a company's culture and business results. According to the Humana survey only 22% of the small business owners surveyed offer Health and Wellness programs, while 85% of those surveyed believe that these programs are worth the investment. Implementing Health and Wellness programs can help manage employee stress, increase productivity, and decrease absenteeism. Offering small incentives for employees who reach various health and wellness goals, such as a goal weight, lowering blood pressure or mitigating risks of other conditions that can become serious and costly, can provide that supportive 
pat on the back that employees need to lose those few extra pounds, or take an active role in managing their stress. Incentives can be as inexpensive as a small denomination gift card to a health-promoting retailer such as 
CVS/Pharmacy or 
GNC. An small investment like this can be just enough to show employees that the organization they work for supports and commends them for their hard work. Health and Wellness programs are a win-win investment for organizations, improving their workforce while helping to control long term health care costs.

Loyalty360 recently released
Understanding Customer Engagement: The Opportunities & Challenges Marketers Face Today. The report goes into depth about defining exactly what customer engagement is and the importance it has for today’s marketers. Depending on the organization or company, customer engagement can come in a variety of forms but one consistent thread needs to be addressed and acknowledged: look at customer engagement as a
two-way street, a constant dialogue between a company and its customers. In the report Marc Glazerm, VP Brand Loyalty from Kobie Marketing discusses the stages of moving the customer across the “engagement continuum.” Glazerm explains that, “The overarching goal of course is to move someone into the Advocacy stage, where they've grown so much, earned so many points/status, claimed their winnings and rewards and now believe so fervently in the brand and its wares that they can’t wait to tell the world about it and share the benefits with friends and family, in turn creating new members with their own customized life cycle.” Without rewards, engagement can take a hard hit. Giving customers the gift of choice and flexibility, with rewards such as gift cards, can increase traffic to your brand or service and in turn raise engagement levels.
To learn more from other leading marketers in the industry check out Loyalty360’s full report here.

Customer Relationship Management systems are vital to an organization's success. It is how the sales and services teams manage clients and prospects, without whom no company would exist. Some may even so far as to say the CRM system is the lifeblood of the company, with its maintenance being crucial to success, even if it is not a main responsibility. However, many employees are too busy and unmotivated to maintain a current CRM database. The maintenance work is tedious and time consuming and most employees push it off for a slow day that may not come for months. Gamifying your CRM system could be the solution to motivating employees to keep the CRM database as current as possible. Offering point systems that keep track of work done within the CRM system, which employees can then redeem for rewards creates friendly competition among co-workers and real life incentive for employees to get their work done as efficiently and effectively as possible. Offering flexible rewards such as gift cards to a diverse array of retailers such as
The Limited,
The Children's Place,
Boston Market and
NutriSystem gives employees an opportunity to choose from a reward that is valuable for them. Redeeming gamification points, in addition to trying to out play (or work!) colleagues will create healthy competition, increased productivity, and a motivated workforce that is happy to do even the most mundane tasks.

2013 is upon us, and if you have not created a plan to keep employees engaged and motivated throughout the year consider these tips from industry leaders. There are a variety of small things you can do throughout the year that will motivate employees and make them feel appreciated, and keep them less focused on a large year end bonus.