RETENTION

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Focus internally on employee retention and customer service

Retention begins internally with your employees. You want an enthusiastic workforce that will provide excellent customer experiences, generate new ideas and make operations more efficient. Dissatisfied employees, on the other hand, translate into lackluster interactions with customers. In fact, 68% of customers reported leaving a company because they were upset with the treatment they had received, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

If you are concerned on unsure about the quality of customer service provided by your company's employees, you may want to consider surveying your customer base. Bain and Co. provided statistics in the Harvard Management Update that revealed that 80% of surveyed companies claimed they offered superior customer service, but only 8% of their customers agreed with them. Internal surveys can also be a great idea for human resource departments interested in convincing management that measures are needed to improve employee satisfaction. If you already have an employee engagement initiative or workplace wellness program, then consider tying in our incentives.

Travel incentives are especially adept at motivating employees, who return to work rejuvenated. According a Glassdoor Q1 2014 Employment Confidence Survey, 22% of employees reported receiving no vacation or paid time off, 15% of employees who receive paid time off took none of it, and on average, employees only took 51% of their available time off. If this is any indication, most employees could use a vacation - and will react positively to travel rewards.

While employee retention can have an indirect effect on customer service, we can also help you target customer service specifically. For example, you could reward employees who receive positive testimonials online with gift cards. On a larger scale, you could reward employees with high customer service marks in customer surveys with one of our cruise incentives.

CUSTOMER RETENTION

Implement a targeted customer retention program

Retention programs identify customers who at risk for discontinuing business with your company and then work to preserve those customers. Each client we work with has a unique situation so we find it helpful to focus on one or several of the 7 Detriments of the Customer Life Cycle:

1. Customer expectations versus the quality of the delivered product or service
2. Value
3. Product uniqueness and suitability
4. Loyalty mechanisms
5. Ease of purchase
6. Customer service
7. Ease of exit (level of switching cost)

Where are the leaky holes in your business? Our incentives have been repeatedly used to increase product or service value in businesses that have traditionally cut prices to increase short-term demand. Our incentives are farsighted, making customers “stickier.”

When value is established, the cost of switching brands tends to be higher, making your retention rates higher. However, some companies already have high switching costs and become complacent, allowing customer service, quality or ease of purchase to suffer. In these cases, our incentives can be used internally to motivate employees to meet the expectations you set for service and quality.

CUSTOMER LOYALTY

Increase the value of customers through a loyalty program

Unlike preservation-focused retention programs, loyalty is all about gRowth. New North defines loyalty programs as marketing programs that transform a customer's positive interactions with a company into positive outcomes for the customer. This reciprocal approach allows you to reward, and therefore gRow, beneficial customer habits. For example, you could reward customers for making purchases, recommending you, or using your product or service frequently.

Your loyalty program could take the form of a point system, game, VIP club or customer appreciation giveaway. In all these cases, you need something to give to your customers, which is where we come in. From complimentary vacation certificates to gas rebates to retail gift cards, our incentive products have wide appeal.

Perhaps sales won't directly correlate to loyalty gifts, but customers will certainly remember you the next time they are ready to make a purchase in your industry. According to the North American Technographics Retail Online Benchmark Recontact Survey, 33% of respondents tend to buy from the service or product with a loyalty program when choosing between brands, and 22% tend to buy more from the companies whose loyalty programs they join.