Low Cost Employee Loyalty Can Still Be Effective
With employers always looking for new ways to engage employees at work, in hopes of boosting employee loyalty metrics, we looked to our neighbors from the north for some advice. Here are three quick and easy ways you can maximize loyalty at your organization, without attaching any budget to the effort.
Staggering Stats About the (Lack of) Employee Engagement
We found some scary stats from the Harvard Business Review about employee engagement, and how much is lacking from today's workplace. Here are just 3 quick facts from a recent Bain & Company and Netsurvey study.
Customer Loyalty Program Evolution: Profile Unification
The New York Times reports on an interesting new shape for customer loyalty programs, and it’s not as simple as just maintaining, focusing on, or improving a loyalty program. This centers around GE Capital’s relationship with Kobie Marketing to unify shoppers’ profiles, to not just track purchases and create offers and rewards based on what is paid for on plastic, but also monitoring shoppers’ retail social media interactions. The New York Times article explains, “That means they can be monitored across any platforms they might use to interact with the company, like Facebook, Foursquare or an app, and their purchases can be integrated into that profile regardless of how they pay.” The article shows how, “Membership and loyalty programs have been a part of the retail landscape for years, but they have become increasingly important as retailers vie for customers both online and in their physical stores.” An example of the importance of such programs is Sears Holdings’ rewards program, “Shop Your Way”, accounted for 70% of their 3rd quarter 2013 sales
1. Sears Holdings’ year end results
2 may have been even more disappointing WITHOUT the strong boost their loyalty program offered them. Loyalty program evolution and growth is important to retailers and merchants who continually need new and innovative ways to engage with and retain customers. Click for more of the article GE Capital to help Set Up Loyalty Programs for Retailers. Sources: 1. TNYT: GE Capital to help Set Up Loyalty Programs for Retailers 2. TNYT: Sears’s Sales Fell 9.2% in Tepid Holiday Season
Why Gift Cards are Great for Retailers Too
We know gift cards are an effective employee gift or reward and make a great addition to an incentive program for employers. In this space we rarely talk about how effective gift cards are in driving sales for retailers. First Data just released a new study which uncovered convincing evidence that gift cards provide major advantages to retailers too.
Gift Cards- The Good, the Bad and Everything In-Between
Gift cards have been a hot topic in the news over the past few weeks. The holiday season is a big time for gift card shoppers and sellers alike. The National Retail Federation released survey results indicating that this holiday season 8 in 10 shoppers would be reaching for a gift card, totaling a spend of $29.8 billion. That’s a lot of plastic! We’ve seen gift cards used as a go-to for celebrities like Beyoncé, who handed out more than $37,000 worth in Walmart cards in Massachusetts last month to promote her new album, as damage control from companies like UPS and Amazon to apologize for late packages, and also the unfortunate side of what happens when technology goes wrong as in the case of Target’s 40,000 faulty gift cards, which were not activated properly.
