GiftCard Partners Blog

Your front line retail associates are often overlooked. The store associates are the people who interact with consumers the most and ultimately have the greatest influence on your brand representation. That’s why it’s critical for you to make the investment in training and education so your employees are representing your brand  as it should be. There are a 
handful of traits that can make truly great retail employees. Here are my 4 favorite traits that create real leaders on your brand's front line.

New research has shown that stressed out or unhappy employees are 
10% less productive than happy employees who feel able to manage their stress and responsibilities. So how do you help your employees manage stress and boost general employee productivity? Feedback. Obtaining this feedback can be as simple as a suggestion box. Providing anonymous forums within your office structure where employees feel confident that their message will be received but also won't be targeted as a result is crucial to obtaining honest feedback and thus improving your organization. The more channels you can open up for feedback in your organization, the more ways you can improve and make your organization best for everyone. When employees feel more comfortable and supported, productivity peaks and the best work gets done. It’s no secret that the best workplaces produce the best work. Providing avenues for feedback allows your organization to remain agile and flexible to employee needs. As you grow or shift demographics, anonymous feedback allows your organization to maximize employee productivity and support. You need to know what your consumers want so you can deliver. Similarly, you need to know what your employees want to make them the best they can be.

National Doctors’ Day was first observed on March 30, 1933.  Originally known solely as Doctors’ Day, the holiday was created when Eudora Brown Almond, wife of Dr. Charles B. Almond, decided to set aside a day to honor physicians.  To commemorate the day, greeting cards were mailed and flowers placed on the graves of deceased doctors. Back in 2006 the National Doctors’ Day organization was created when a website dedicated to providing support for the day was launched.  The organization has since branched out to include many specific products and services to assist office managers and hospital administrators with gift ideas for their doctors as well as many free resources to plan and celebrate this national holiday. Each year the organization also releases a new greeting card specifically for honoring physicians.  This year’s card cover reads “For Making Every Day Count…” and the inside reads “Thank You, Happy Doctors’ Day”.  You can order the greeting card for all of your favorite physicians
here! In addition to your greeting card, gift cards make the perfect gift to honor your doctors. 
GiftCard Partners offers a variety of gift card brands that everyone loves.
This year National Doctors’ Day is Monday March 30^th.  How do you plan on honoring the physicians that play such a crucial role in the lives of you and your family? 

Employee performance should be a main focus for any management and HR team. If your employees succeed it is great for morale, continuity and productivity. High employee performance will yield higher profits for your business and greater success all around. Low performers not only drag themselves down but can really drag their whole team down with them. Here are three ways to transform low performing employees to boost employee performance in your organization.

Mobile is up and coming in the quest to define the omni-channel shopper who shops across devices and digital channels and the omni-channel customer experience. While retailers continue the quest to meet customers in all of the channels and on all of the devices they shop, mobile has prevailed as possibly the most critical of both channels and devices. Mobile feeds into both in-store and e-commerce customer interaction and customer service, which puts mobile in a unique and critically important position. 
According to a new EConsultancy survey, only 50% of retailers believe they have a solid understanding of the mobile user experience. That means half of American retailers are looking to understand the mobile solution and the role it plays in customer-brand interaction. One of the most important components of the mobile question and the role it plays in the omni-channel shopping experience is
customer service. Mobile happens in real-time, as does customer service. It gives consumers the real-time gratification that can be the difference between great customer service and the negative customer experience that can cause retailers to lose customers. Take the plunge into omni-channel shopping through mobile customer service. With
53% of retailers planning to build a unified commerce platform in the next few years, your customer experience and customer service can’t afford to fall behind. It will accelerate your brand's customer focus and create 1:1 marketing opportunities by gaining insight into consumer behavior.