Employee Feedback

Listening to what your employees have to say about the company is vital to your company’s growth, both internally and externally. Sometimes it’s a challenge to generate this kind of constructive feedback on a consistent basis. It may be time to sweeten the pot. Here are a couple suggestions:-

-Conduct a monthly contest for the suggestion that is the most revenue generating or most cost saving for the company. Give prizes to the most creative suggestions in one or both of these categories. Try to put the suggestion into place as soon as possible, but don’t commit yourself to an actual timetable, and don’t guarantee that the suggestion will definitely be implemented. After all, things may happen that could hinder the idea’s progress, and tying yourself down to a plan that became unworkable will compromise future suggestions by your staff.

-Try the old standby: the suggestion box. Make it anonymous, and see what responses you get. Employees who are cloaked in anonymity will naturally be more candid, and it could lead to a suggestion you never would have thought of otherwise, or to a problem that you didn’t know existed.

-Ask. Solicit advice from employees in an impromptu format, like at the water cooler or in the parking lot. Most employees would be flattered to be asked for their advice. Oh, and make sure you listen closely to what they say, and thank them for their opinions, no matter what they may be.

I wrote the book on incentives. Check it out at http://www.incentivetoolkit.com

Retention Incentives

There is a big challenge hanging over any incentive that deals with customer retention. It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss, but everyone knows it’s there. Trust.

Since incentives based on retention are inherently difficult to track effectively, do you trust your people enough to know they will play by the rules? You need your employees to save customers and to garner repeat business. But how do you know that the customer wouldn’t have come back, or not cancelled their service (whatever service that may be), regardless of what that employee may have said or done? If you’re willing to make that leap of faith, then retention incentives can be very effective.

Let’s say you’re a bank manager and you want to run an incentive with your tellers to keep customers from canceling their account in favor of your competition.

The most effective way to run an incentive like this is to have your employees buy in to the company’s overall customer net growth goals. Base the incentive around that goal for the month. This way the employee takes ownership of the goal and becomes deeply involved in what the company (in this case, the bank) wants to accomplish. Don’t give away sensitive information to the employee obviously, but customize a goal for them that will help you achieve your goals, and make sure it encompasses the retention you need.

When employees have ownership of their employers’ goals, they become more enthusiastic by nature. And if they end up with a perk at the end of the month, all the better.

I wrote the book on incentives. Go to http://www.incentivetoolkit.com to learn more.

Andy