Points Programs

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Call Centers and Employee Incentive Programs: The Perfect Marriage (Part 1)

Our company has seen an influx of new call center incentive program clients in the past couple of months. Call centers are perfect environments for successful incentive programs and in the next two weeks I will provide the top ten reasons why a marriage between the two can provide real results.

1. It is easy to develop a list of incentive program goals.

Within a call center, managers are often painfully aware of what improvements need to be made if revenue is down. Alternatively, managers can also determine what factors are contributing to high revenue stream. No matter the situation, when an incentive program is set up the goals of the program will be designed to increase revenue or sustain revenue for the call center.

Companies with several call center locations are able to compare important metrics from which the incentive program goals are developed. Almost all of the call center employee incentive programs I have worked on begin at a test location. Then as the incentive program is fined tuned, it is implemented in all locations. The goals may vary by location but the program run essentially the same way throughout the organization.

2. It is easy to change incentive program goals over time.

As a call center improves in certain areas, you will want to target other areas that need improvement. Incentive programs allow you to change the goals and with enough communication, get people to improve in these new areas of focus. One employee incentive idea is to introduce the program as a limited run, one year only deal. Then after the year ends, the company can determine the impact of the incentive programversus the budget spent. If the program was popular and helped the organization to meet its goals, management can take the time to find out what goals have been achieved and what other goals should be introduced. After the program has been tweaked, it can be promoted to employees as a new program back by popular demand.

3. Incentive Programs allow for 360° degree recognition.

No matter if your call center is involved with customer service or sales, recognition from customers, managers and peers is an important aspect to employee motivation and retention. Incentive programs can include online nomination forms so that anyone can nominate an employee for a reward. When I was involved in sales, I remember having customers frequently ask me, “How can I make sure your manager gives you a bonus?” or “Is there something I can do to let your company know what a good job you are doing?” This consideration always made me feel great, except for the fact that my customers really didn’t have a way to formally give this feedback to my managers. Receiving formal recognition from people is essential to making employees feel important and needed. It gives them a reason to keep coming back to the same job, day in and day out. When you have an incentive program in place, your employees can answer these kinds of questions from customers by responding, “Please visit our website, click on the feedback link and mention my name on the form!”

4. Incentives give call center employees motivation to work towards something.

Working at a call center is not an easy job and often involves making customers feel satisfied no matter what the situation. This can put a lot of strain on people and throwing money at the problem does not fix the fact that workers are put into difficult situations throughout the day. Christopher Cabrera, writing for Connections Magazine, declares, “Given the correct circumstances, any number of noncash items are more motivating than money to the individuals who work for you. The trick is bringing the prize, the circumstance, and the individual into alignment in order to fuel new levels of call center performance.” Employee incentive programs bring these three components into alignment and create employee motivation to work towards achieving company goals.

5. Online incentive programs are easy to access at work.

Most call center workers are in front of computers all day. Since they have internet access, it is easy for them to visit the online incentive program and learn how they can participate, how the program is doing and what other people are doing in the program. Call center employees are a captive audience for incentive programs and their familiarity with computers in the workplace will help to increase the acceptance and understanding of the program. Employees will also have more time than those who may have to share a workstation to browse the online catalog and select the items they want to earn. Call center employees are able to piece together what needs to be accomplished in order for them to earn a desired reward.

Check back next week for the last 5 reasons why call centers and incentive programs go together like peanut butter and jelly!

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