GiftCard Partners Blog

The first quarter of 2012 included GCP’s visits to and participation in many meetings, conferences and events, including the PrePaid
Expo, the InComm Partner Alliance, the South Florida Success Expo (SWFL), and the Loyalty Expo. In Q1’s trend report, we captured a pulse on 2011 B2B gift card sales results, key gift card market expansion trends for 2012, and an update on the effects of New Jersey’s gift card laws to our industry.
Read the full B2B Gift Card Trend Report here.      

It is a proven and accepted reality in business today that engaged employees increase a company's bottom line. However, new research from Gallup show that engaging B2B customers by establishing an emotional connection based on confidence, integrity, pride and passion is crucial to customer impact. Engaged customers deliver 23% more revenue than average customers in wallet-share, revenue, relationship growth, and profitability. According to the same Gallup research only 13% of B2B customers are fully engaged. Engagement exists when customers go out of their way to favor a relationship over price. This deepens a relationship, and often customers  are rewarded for their loyalty with either a discount for services rendered or other perks from the company providing the service. Treating customer engagement and employee engagement similarly will garner similar outcomes. Reward customers for any business you gain, the way you would an employee. Provide spot rewards, such as a small gift card for small business gained and for a major expansion in business or formation of an industry partnership, provide a broader reward. Creating a 360 degree customer feedback loop provides opportunities for relationship growth. Putting constant work into the companies' relationship is crucial. The time you spend ensuring that your employees are loyal should be equivalent to the time you ensure that your customers and partners are going to continue to drive your business.  
For more information on B2B customer engagement check out this Business News Daily article.

Thank you to the Prepaid Expo for bringing us this interesting infographic, which was commissioned by CoreCard®. The History of Prepaid Infographic highlights the progression of Prepaid, starting in the 1970’s and heading into predictions for 2013. The future of prepaid is not just about spending and consumerism; prepaid will thrive in government and healthcare sectors via benefit payment programs.

Since gift cards are given as gifts, incentives and employee rewards, they are often thought of by retailers and merchants as a customer acquisition tool. Let’s say a customer doesn’t shop at a particular retailer or merchant often or at all. Yet a family member, friend or employer gives a particular brand based on it meshing well with the recipients’ needs. This gift card now becomes a new customer acquisition tool or a customer loyalty tool for the retailer. BUT, are retailers also thinking of their own gift cards as a tool to lower operating costs? When your customers use debit and credit cards for their purchases, the burden of the transaction fees falls on that retailer. There are no fees when your customers utilize their closed-loop gift cards in your own name. The impressive numbers add up when you think of the difference your gift cards can make when selling them by the hundreds and thousands in the B2B market. GiftCard Partners’s customers buy multi-millions of dollars in face value gift cards annually across all our retail brands. Those are all consumers using your gift cards versus credit or debit payment card options that rack up fees charged to you. Check out
First Data’s Perspective: The Evolution of Gift Card Strategy to see how retailers and merchants are re-evaluating their cost of payment acceptance at their POS locations.

Although the roots of the term “social incentives” goes back to the positive feelings humans gain when interacting with friends and peers; the term and concept has been leveraged in the workplace with great success. Historically, social incentives include the positive feedback one receives from peers, and even the presence of friends can be considered a social incentive. In the workplace, it has been proven that the presence of friends affects worker’s attitude, behavior and their levels of productivity. Employers can help forge new friendships and relationships in the workplace by formalizing social incentives as part of their ongoing motivation, recognition and rewards programs. Employers would thereby use the concept of social incentives as a way to encourage teams of coworkers to work together for common goals. Teams, cross-functional teams or randomly assembled  groups can join forces in a health and wellness program to collectively improve a workplace health and wellbeing outcomes, while driving individuals’ positive behaviors, keeping participants engaged and ultimately, drive results. Where’s the proof? In the article Increase Participation with Social Incentives, by Wellsource; it is reported that a rate of 64% participation was garnered for individuals on a team, versus 44% participation for those in the same program, with the same incentive, but without being part of a team. Now add a carrot like gift cards for successful participation, reaching milestones, and continued engagement and you are employing a well-rounded idea to keep your programs fresh. Why gift cards? Rewarding with a gift card like
The Cheesecake Factory or
Subway and the teams can dine together or get healthy take-out together to further develop the Comradery created by your program. Are you encouraging teams to work together for common goals and individual productivity?
Source: Wellsource: Increase Participation with Social Incentives