GiftCard Partners Blog

Customer loyalty and retention go hand in hand. When you are loyal to your customers they will be loyal right back. Industry research shows that retailers are better suited to invest in retaining their customer base than spending to generate new customers. Existing customers drive a higher share of revenue, have higher conversion rates, and continue to stay loyal to your brand during tough economic times.

Saying this time of year is busy is an understatement. While it's easy to get wrapped up in the decorations, music, food and everything else that comes with the holiday season, it's also an important time of year to reflect on what we can do for others. This can mean volunteering your time at a food kitchen, helping collect gifts for needing families, or simply making a financial donation. But before you take out that check book it's important to note the growing trend towards gift cards this holiday season. Many nonprofits are recommending donors give gift cards instead of the standard canned foods or teddy bears so that families are then able to go make the purchases for food or gifts themselves. See how these organization are making a difference in peoples lives with gift cards during the holidays:

As we enter the season of open enrollment employers are looking for ways to minimize health care costs and employees are already thinking about new years resolutions and how they can get healthy “after the holidays.” According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, half of large employers in America require employees to submit to some time of biometric screening. However, it is important for employers to consider how required employee health screenings affect their relationship with employees. So what’s the risk? Employees are all adults, and they ultimately can choose when to go to the doctor. Some go to the doctor regularly, others choose to go less often. Still others might be generally healthy but don’t check in at the doctor’s office as much as they should. So requiring biometric screening can feel invasive and create the illusion of “forcing” employees to go to the doctor, potentially against their general practice.

The care that a patient receives directly after leaving the hospital is critical to keeping hospital readmission rates low. It is estimated that nearly 20% of patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of being discharged and about 75% of those readmissions are preventable. There are various factors as to why hospital readmission occur. Most often patients are not seeing their Primary Care Physician while they are in the hospital and their PCP is only receiving a summary of treatment instead of a complete diagnosis with follow-up care recommendations. Low-income readmissions can potentially lose hospitals money with the odds being higher that another hospital bill will go unpaid. In 2015, The Affordable Care Act has mandated a financial penalty of up to 3% for institutions that have not complied with standards for reducing readmission rates. Incentives can play a huge role in reducing readmission rates. They allow you to reward patients for taking small steps that make a big difference between a healthy recovery and another trip to the ER, whether it be following up with their Primary Care Physicians or adhering to their prescription medication. Download our free white paper Reducing Readmission Rates through Incentives and Education to learn more on how to use incentives to reduce that 20% readmissions rate. Learn more about:

The top three challenges Human Resources departments across America face right now are employee turnover, employee engagement, and succession planning. All three present interesting challenges, but can be overcome if HR leaders take on the challenges with creative solutions. Let’s take a look at how HR departments can change their views on these issues to ease concerns in the new year. Consider these three New Year’s resolutions from your HR department in 2016: