ITA Group Insights Magazine — Channel Issue 1

MAGAZINE

FEATURED ARTICLE

2021 Predictions For Building the Best Channel Partner Programs

SALES & CHANNEL INCENTIVES | VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

contents

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2021 Predictions for Building the Best Channel Partner Programs

10

New Channel Research: Simplify Your Vendor Program To Increase Participation

12

Designing a Sales Incentive To Handle Current & Future Uncertainty

20

12 Steps to Revive Customer Service Incentives

from the desk of

BRENT VANDER WAAL A key learning from this past year is the importance of building a company strong enough to play offense when the market hits a downturn.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many brands into defensive mode as they adapted to market changes, tried to reduce costs, and overcame new employee and customer challenges.

However, staying solely in a defensive posture has proven to weaken companies when coming out of a recession. In fact, a Harvard Business Review study of the previous three global recessions found: > Companies

who focused mainly on deep costcutting had the lowest probability (21%) of becoming market leaders after a recession.

> Companies who used a combination of defensive

strategies (selective cost-cutting and efficiency) and offensive strategies (investing in the future), saw a higher probability (37%) of becoming market leaders and outperforming industry rivals by at least 10%.

As the world begins welcoming back things we said goodbye to one year ago, brands’ efforts should refocus on positioning themselves for growth. Organizations who invest in marketing, research and development and new assets, while maintaining a more selective cost-cutting approach will reap the benefits of future growth as the economy rebounds.

Like many others, ITA Group has experienced a challenging year due to the reduction and cancellation of live events. As we looked at how we would address our challenges, we decided early on to balance cost management with investing time and money in team members, marketing and new capabilities where we felt we could position ourselves to deliver greater value to our clients in the future. A few examples of these investments include: > Improving

culture/employer brand

> Maintaining

team member expertise and capacity for when live events return

> Increasing

global presence in Europe

> Continuing

investments in new customer solutions and capability expansion

> Managing and operating healthy and hybrid events > Developing

additional technology advancements

> Cross-training > Opening

and developing team members

customer feedback forums

> Improving

operational processes

As you and your organization looks forward, my hope is that perhaps our investment examples might help generate ideas for you to focus on.

What is something you could do tomorrow or in the coming months to refocus on future growth?

Brent Vander Waal President & CEO, ITA Group volume 1 issue 1 • insights magazine | 1

2021 PREDIC TIONS FOR:

BUILDING THE BEST CHANNEL PARTNER PROGRAMS 2 | insights magazine • volume 1 issue 1

If there’s one thing to have to keep from 2020 it’s our newfound appreciation for the fundamentals of partner programs— communication, engagement and simplifying the ways to work together.

The past year also taught us quite a couple additional lessons, like: Weathering & Overcoming > Failing

forecasts

> Budgets

under scrutiny

> Examination > Leaner

of the value of programs

channel teams

Recognizing & Acting On the: > Partner’s > Shift

appetite for learning

to digital and social selling

> Importance > Need

of supporting each other

for clear direction

> Virtual

engagements

The most successful partner programs of 2020 tackled these lessons head on, invested where it counted and paved the way for a fresh start in 2021.

WHAT DOES 2021 HOLD FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO BUILD THE BEST CHANNEL PARTNER PROGRAMS? After a year of so much change and evolution (thanks COVID-19 and your pandemic bulldozer), we’re all left with an incredible opportunity to innovate even further on our channel partner programs. That’s why we've put together six focus areas we predict the best channel partner programs will adopt in 2021 to continue to flourish.

1 Partner Journeys 2 Partner Experience 3 Skills Development 4 Smaller Niche Partner Segments 5 Program Alignment 6 Personalized Engagement Programs

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THE PARTNER JOURNEY WILL BECOME A REALITY The partner journey is the culmination of all the pieces of infrastructure, planning, strategy and learning that’s been invested into program development over the years.

It's the how and the why behind all the infrastructure channel leaders have put into place.

How all these pieces fit together holistically from start to finish is where we see investments being made. How does your PRM, enablement, portal, TCMA, MDF, incentives, communication, channel manager interactions, recruitment, onboarding, etc. fit together for new and existing partners?

Mapping out these partner journeys will allow you to overlap how desired partnercustomer interactions can help you reach your end goal of greater market share, increased sales, higher retention rates, improved customer satisfaction, and adoption of new technology and services.

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Plus, how you examine and craft the partner journey will be a stand-out opportunity (and differentiator) for partners to work with your brand and engage inside your partner program.

Don’t believe it? Hear what some of our clients had to say:

“Our partner network was growing 15–20% a year, and we wanted to understand that journey— what partners are seeing the most success and why?

How can we understand more about what successful agents are doing to achieve success, and then help all growing networks do the same?”

“Without a doubt our program is an extremely critical part of how we connect with agents and partners. Ultimately we’re after increasing engagement. We have a large population of partners.

This program allows us to reach every level of production. There are new agents, established agents… we can reach and provide extra support at every level of the journey. We just couldn’t do it with sheer man-power. Doing this strategically, operationally and consistently is the key. This is helping us increase sales and optimize where we spend time and money. But it’s so much more than just a sales program.”

A PARTNER EXPERIENCE THAT’S MORE THAN A PARTNER PORTAL

SIMPLIFY PROGRAMS THROUGH CONSOLIDATION & ALIGNMENT

According to the Computing Technology Industry Association, a strong 43% of global B2B marketing decision makers ranked improving customer experience as a top priority in 2019, while 39% were looking to improve the partner experience.

New research (see page 11) shows that one of the most challenging aspects of vendor programs is the difficulty to participate, qualify, or advance.

This shift is due to the changing relationship between vendors and partners.

Partners and vendors alike are realizing there is a lot more choice in who to work with and what they value most out of these relationships.

Additionally the customer’s experience and journey has required that partner program elements become more nuanced and move past traditional goals and requirements to move up tiers. It’s become a relationship where both parties—the vendor and partner— must find value.

This focus on the partner experience means moving past just how partners access information inside a portal. Instead, the focus should be on how channel programs treat partners.

Much like employees and consumers, B2B companies will see an increase in the efforts to recruit, onboard, activate and ultimately accelerate these relationships so vendors can achieve their KPIs and ROI expectations.

The partner experience will require better positioning and value propositions to your partners—one size doesn’t fit all. You'll need to remove the barriers and complexity in your programs. Ask yourself, “How easy is it to participate and find value?”

Confusing and complex earning criteria will be a thing of the past, and targeted engagement efforts will reign supreme.

Almost a sub-section of the partner experience, we predict we will see an effort to streamline how programs operate.

Consider the following: > Business

units all running different promotions

> Partners

with countless options for promotions

> Program

structures that are unclear

> Benefits

that don’t apply to the partner’s needs or values

> Confusing

earning criteria for spiffs and promotions

If this sounds like your program, the disjointed nature of it will quickly come under scrutiny.

Partners are participating in so many vendor programs. If yours is cumbersome to navigate and understand why wouldn’t they engage somewhere else?

Making it easy for partners to work with you, participate in revenue generating activities, and find the support and value they need is the direction the best programs will take.

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THE UNTAPPED POWER OF REINFORCING TRAINING & SKILLS DEVELOPMENT The impact of the pandemic and growing digital transformation initiatives are forcing entire workforces to change the way they do business— this goes for partners, too.

Research has consistently demonstrated that humans only retain about 10% of any new skill they learn, unless they’re regularly practicing it.

Generally described as skill development, this can include upskilling, reskilling, cross-skilling, developing new skills and more.

So all that effort we’re pouring into skills development probably isn’t going to be remembered if they’re not using what they learned in their day-to-day interactions right away. Reinforcement can encourage partners to actively use specific training and incorporate lessons into their day-to-day interactions

In order to change a workforce culture, a blend of disciplines like engagement, recognition and retention paired with behavior-based incentives will be the go-to route. In fact, some of the skillsdevelopment process is the un-learning of habits, which is an ideal area for incentives to play a role.

Training must be an element to any partner program or incentive effort going forward.

Here’s a quick look at the power of reinforcing training and skills development:

A client of ours, a telecommunications company, wanted to motivate their dealer sales representatives to increase sales, improve product awareness, build long-term loyalty, and instill the importance of training and certification in their team.

To do this, we helped them put together a tiered training reinforcement program. As an independent dealer channel, we couldn’t mandate participation, but we could use rewards to encourage active engagement.

The approach was simple:

The results?

> Enroll

In the first year of this training reinforcement program, the client saw an incredible outcome:

all dealer sales reps in a sales incentive program with rewards for sales of eligible products

> The

dealer sales reps who completed a series of product training and quizzes earned more rewards for each sale: –

–

150% greater rewards for each sale by completing pro-level training 200% greater rewards for each sale by completing master-level training

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15%

Increase in overall sales in a stagnant market

280%

More product sales for reps who completed pro-level training than those who did not

SMALLER NICHE PARTNER SEGMENTS According to a recent Forrester report, there have been notable shifts in the types of partner program incentives vendors offered in the past four years. The numbers are staggering.

Forrester notes a whopping 571% increase in incentivizing non-transactional referral partners; a 200% increase in recognizing electronic reseller/retailers and a 124% increase in service provider eligibility.

Conversely, they note a 23% decline in the inclusion of volume resellers in their channel incentive programs, which is likely attributable to the shift away from hardware sales as the foundation for channel businesses.

This means not only do you have new partners coming to the table and trying to work inside a program that was probably built for your VARs, you’ve also got a number of new roles who need help understanding how to represent, implement, sell and grow your products and services.

This in turn prompts creating or revamping programs that focus on service and technician support roles, marketing teams, account management and growth teams, etc.

These new partner types and roles are trying to understand how to get the most out of their relationship with your brand inside your partner program—because it’s what they have.

Capitalize on this and create tracks and segments for enablement, training, rewards... the list goes on.

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Can you make room for more types of partners— more people who need different things—and continue to make it relevant for everyone?

The only scalable way to do this is with sophisticated segmentation, flexible or custom portals, and a team that can keep up with the work it takes to fill that portal with the tools your partners need.

That can be the tricky part if you have a lean channel team, so the question then becomes, how can you prioritize the segments to tackle first?

Answer: Analyze your data and work with an expert—like ITA Group.

We’ll continue to explore and share future articles and white papers about what personalized engagement programs and incentives look like to help you in your journey for the best partner program.

In the meantime, be sure to check out our ultimate guidebook to channel partner ecosystems. info.itagroup.com/ultimate-guide

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PERSONALIZED ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS Personalization will revolutionize partner programs by providing customized learning experiences for every partner, appropriate promotions and rewards based on their role, and tailored offers, materials and support based on the customers they serve down market.

This prediction is the outcome of all the things listed above. Use segments to target the ideal partners with the appropriate enablement that aligns to the buyer's journey—and make it intuitive and easy.

How Effective Is Your Channel Partner Program?

Our assessment will reveal your score and expose if your Channel Partner Program is on a solid foundation for success.

Learn if you’re headed in the right direction and receive tailored recommendations to help maximize your strategy.

Find Out How Your Channel Program Stacks Up info.itagroup.com/my-channel-score

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NEW CHANNEL RESEARCH

SIMPLIFY YOUR VENDOR PROGRAM TO INCREASE PARTICIPATION

For decades, vendors have used channel incentives to drive behavior— suppressing old behaviors, establishing new one or completely repositioning partners for a new opportunity. Rewards have played a large part in promoting successful partnerships, but new research reveals it’s time to look beyond just rewards.

To explore the topic of how vendor programs are evolving and what motivates partners, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of ITA Group surveyed channel partner owners and channel partner sales reps who are responsible for channel relationships and/or incentives.

Our research shows that rewards are not the top motivation for participating in vendor programs; product and staff development are.

Vendors should focus on simplifying the entire program experience without losing the program's fundamental qualities that partners find valuable like lead sharing and opportunity management.

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Key findings from the study include: > Top

motivations for participating in vendor programs are rooted in business benefits— not rewards.

> The

most challenging aspect of vendor programs is the amount of effort it takes to participate, qualify, or advance, and the sheer number of competing promotions.

> Respondents

indicated that personalization and strong communication would encourage them to increase their investment of time, resources and revenue with vendor programs.

Here's a sneak peek snapshot of the study!

LEAD GENERATION IS THE MOST VALUABLE ASPECT OF VENDOR PROGRAMS Vendor programs are strategic business initiatives that allow partner firms to advance their solutions and to motivate their staff. Partners understand the multitude of benefits that vendor programs offer, but they primarily participate to drive business outcomes.

Opportunity creation and lead sharing are essential to channel partners regardless of their level. Both surveyed channel partner owners and sales reps indicated that lead sharing and opportunity management are the most valuable aspects of their vendor programs in their current state.

After that, channel partner owners are focused on business relevance while sales reps are focused on sales and marketing enablement aligning with their role responsibilities.

“What aspects of vendor programs do you find most valuable today?” (Rank top 5) Final Decision-Maker/Business Owner

59% Lead sharing/opportunity management

57% Relevance to my business and customers

54% Clear and frequent communication

Channel Partner Sales Rep

59% Lead sharing/opportunity management

54% Sales enablement

50% Marketing enablement

Does Your Channel Program Have What It Takes to Increase Partner Effort?

Find out. Access The Full Study. info.itagroup.com/channel-study

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DESIGNING A SALES INCENTIVE TO HANDLE CURRENT & FUTURE UNCERTAINTY We’ve had a fair number of conversations and inquiries lately on how to adjust in-flight incentive programs as well as how programs should change or be crafted for the next year.

If you’re reading this you might also find yourself asking: > What

are others doing?

> What’s

reasonable?

> Can

we still use historic sales figures?

> What > How

should we do?

does my budget change?

And in response, we would counter with a few questions: > What’s

the data telling you?

> What

are your frontline sales members telling you about deals? Industries?

Current clients?

> Is

this a temporary or prolonged situation?

> Is

there a threshold that demands action? (e.g., 25% decrease in sales volume?, 15% decrease in incentive earnings? Other metrics that keep you up at night?)

The answer no one wants to hear is that it always is going to depend on your situation, the audiences at play and the data you have available to you.

There just isn’t going to be a one-size-fits-all answer to these questions. Full stop.

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Given that, there are some very real concerns that can come up when you’ve got sales incentives in place that aren’t tolerating the market impact.

Concerns like: > Low

giving up on unrealistic goals

motivation to do the basics

> Perceived

lack of understanding of the reps' situation

> Don’t

possess the skills or knowledge needed to navigate the new marketplace

> Internal

optics (if you’re making cuts elsewhere, why not here?)

> Incentive

budget or profit concerns (if you’ve structured programs without an incremental sales portion counter-acting the investment)

> Forecasting

ADJUST CURRENT INCENTIVE PROGRAM GOALS If you’ve reached the point where you need to adjust in-flight incentives, here are some things you can consider to help you make better decisions. Ideally you’d involve an expert to help run some analysis on the impact the changes could have on your program and financials.

> Payout

Threshold

> Amount

You Pay

How you move these sliders up and down can solve your issues if done correctly. The trick here is meeting your needs for the remainder of the year you’re trying to get through.

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payout threshold

Midterm Ideas

Imagine if you will two sliders:

For example, provide two times the credit for new client revenue or product XYZ types during the final quarter.

You may be thinking to yourself, “Why would I do this? It’s going to cost me money I may or may not have.” And the answer is: It’s even more important to maintain the mindshare and morale of your people—especially your top performers.

appropriately

If you’ve got quite a bit of time left in your fiscal year and the timing makes sense with your financial outlook, you can consider changing course with the goals themselves.

Additionally, you could provide “bonus credits” that apply to their annual attainment figures based on reaching focused short term behaviors.

Annual goals may stay the same, however increase reps' probability of achieving them by providing the boost.

The top performers really set the momentum and act as credible examples for others (they also account for significant portions of revenue).

You could think of it more like an investment in your future; one that can have extremely positive payoffs like giving you an edge that grows market share. amount you pay

> Reps

If you’re trying to make your reps “whole,” you could lower the thresholds and keep your payments the same. Allowing them to maintain some semblance of what they would have achieved in a normal year.

If you need to reduce expenses, you could lower the amount you pay by lowering the payouts themselves.

Ultimately, it’s not usually a recommended solution to cut the amount you pay (it’s not quite as bad as cutting an entire program), but it can come close because the perception is that you’re asking them for the same effort for less, and that can impact performance.

One of our experts in incentive design likens this to proceeding with surgical cuts versus field trauma response tactics. Let the data strategically guide payout reductions by audience and model scenarios that would have less impact on critical or target audiences. Instead of a broad stroke reduction on payouts that has a universal impact.

Ideally a combination of threshold and amount payouts could be used so it feels like less of a hit— easier to achieve but also less paid. Marry this up with being smart about where to use surgical cuts instead of applying a mid-year program design change to an entire audience.

If you go the ‘do nothing’ route you’ll likely want to run a few different forecasting scenarios to play out the ending in a few ways. We’ve helped a handful of clients with this because historical sales figures just aren’t as reliable at this point.

Demand-driven sales dictate everything, and demand in most industries is not stable— everything feels abnormal (and the data says the same as your gut).

Another option is to place less focus on the revenue and instead encourage behaviors that will help fill the funnel.

Short-term Ideas If you’ve got very little time left in your sales incentive earning timeframe, you could opt to change nothing and live with the outcomes.

This is playing the long-game with your shortterm strategies while still encouraging participation and goodwill with your reps.

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The way this can work is you’re continuing to invest in the people you need to drum up the demand that is there and reinforcing behaviors that will grow your market share and revenue once the market returns to closer to normal.

This is a great way to stay in front of your reps with consistency, create positive behavior change, and set yourself up for long-term success.

The majority of participating organizations anticipate a negative impact on business results related to COVID-19 over the next 6–12 months.

According to a survey from Willis Towers Watson, the majority of participating organizations anticipate a negative impact on business results related to COVID-19 over the next 6–12 months. Similarly, the majority indicate a negative impact to their: > Short-term

incentive plan (85%);

long-term incentive plan (69% among those operating one); and

–WILLIS TOWERS WATSON

One last piece of advice: Do everything you can to avoid completely cutting a program from existence. We’re not even going to talk investment or budget here, the reason is optics (which isn't glamorous, but a very real risk).

> Performance-based > Sales

incentive plan (63% among those with applicable plans).

COMMUNICATE UPDATES & CHANGES TO YOUR CURRENT PROGRAMS No matter what you do—communicate, communicate, communicate.

Even if you change nothing, you should still be communicating that you’re there, you’re listening, and you’re going to help them understand what is and isn’t going to change with how they earn in your sales incentive programs.

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Over several real world examples and a few regression models we’ve created, most companies stand to lose between 30%–55% of sales if they totally yank a program from the market without replacing it.

By keeping programs and instead shifting your messaging toward support and ongoing investment, you'll not only create appreciation and future goodwill with your participants, but also send a message of brand stability and longevity.

At ITA Group, we study and use the nature of brain science and psychology as motivational tools to inspire and increase engagement.

If we’re going by the brain science, keeping programs in place, even if you need to make design adjustments, means you will continue to create positive emotional responses tied to your brand—because you maintained your recognition, praise and reward elements.

These are the elements that release serotonin, a brain chemical that counteracts the release of cortisol which occurs when people are stressed and scared (and we can all imagine how often that is right now).

Serotonin is important. Sales incentive programs are important. Your reps are important. Balancing all of that with your financial situation is the question at hand—and ITA Group can help.

Need More Advice On Sales Incentives?

Check out our blog post on channel sales incentives best practices you shouldn’t overlook. info.itagroup.com/incentives-best-practices

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DESIGN FUTURE SALES INCENTIVES We will keep this section short and sweet. None of the traditional incentive tactics you use will change. These remain fairly constant. The thing that changes is your earning criteria and rules structure paired with the financial considerations at play in your sales landscape.

You may also be faced with a near future that requires a heavier investment in training and certification. Especially if you’ve got sales or service teams heading back into the field.

A large amount of safety measures and regulation changes may need to be at play inside the design of your programs (even heavier in some industries like pharma, medical equipment, manufacturing, food and beverage, etc.).

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Training is a big picture item for any industry that has changed messaging or processes, is re-skilling sales teams for digital and social selling tactics, or is offering new products and solutions for the changed buyer types.

Honestly, training should be a part of your sales incentive design no matter what. It’s proven again and again to be one of the single most important and effective things you can do inside a program.

Here are a handful of other things that you can play with (again, we encourage working with an expert) to balance motivation, sales achievement, and budget needs:

When You Pay Every time? Quarterly?

At milestones?

Yearly?

Activity & Behavior Driven Elements

What You Pay Cash, trips, points, etc.

Payment Levels or Multipliers

The key is to make sure the elements chosen match the outcomes you desire and are valuable enough to inspire action, and always keep in mind simplicity. It sounds easier than it is to pull off.

A few other options to consider: > Moving

away from a yearly goal to shorterterm quarterly efforts, which could help you adjust for future disruptions as you go

> Long-game

behaviors and activities vs. rewarding just for transactional sales

> Combinations

of sales and behaviors and training/certification

> Proper

segmentation

> Open-ended

budgets based solely on incremental gains (programs that pay for themselves)

> Team-based

Thresholds

Points-toDollar Ratio

If you’re considering changing sales incentive design inside your programs, the sky is the limit, and it’s a great time to try something new. There is more tolerance and understanding that things need to change to keep pace with the new normal.

Don’t be afraid to test a few things with a pilot or a small group. And definitely play out a few scenarios to see what works.

Learn more about testing as well as what can be measured, monitored and optimized in order to help you achieve your core business goals in our blog, Beyond Channel Program Buzzwords: Differences Among Measurement, Metrics, KPIs & More. info.itagroup.com/beyond-buzzwords

goals

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STEPS to REVIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE INCENTIVES 20 | insights magazine • volume 1 issue 1

Is your customer service incentive program lagging?

Are your people feeling disengaged and unmotivated?

Is the quality of your customer service dwindling because of this?

Under-motivated teams are unlikely to push themselves to their full potential for their organization. They’ll do what’s required, of course, but if that’s all you’re getting out of your people, it’s time to breathe new life into your customer service incentives.

No matter your industry, the following 12 actionable ideas can help add fresh interest to an otherwise stale program.

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2 1 DEFINE POSITIVE BEHAVIORS You already know who your top customer service performers are. But why are they top performers?

What steps do they take and what behaviors do they exhibit that put them ahead? Those are the things your program should focus on.

Do This Now Create a list of positive behaviors your top performers do that you’d like others to emulate.

SEGMENT YOUR PERFORMERS Who are the top customer service performers?

Who didn’t quite live up to your expectation?

Real success in your customer service lies in your entire team’s ability to perform. If you can identify those struggling, you can provide better resources that drive them to do better.

Understanding your employees on an individual level will help you foster reasonable goal setting and appropriate individualized communication when segmenting your audience.

Do This Now Divide out top- and middle-tier employees.

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3 DEFINE EXPLICIT GOALS With that list of positive behaviors you want each segment of your customer service team to exhibit, create an outline of specific goals you want to achieve. More than that, detail the steps needed to achieve that goal.

For instance, if your goal for your customer service team is to know your product offerings better, outline the steps needed for that: reading product documentation, answering customer questions, using the product and more.

Do This Now Create clear, attainable and distinct goals and the steps leading up to each.

4 BALANCE MOTIVATIONS Some employees lean more toward extrinsic motivation—tangible awards and money, for instance.

And others are swayed by intrinsic motivation, including purpose, belonging and praise.

But the secret lies in the balance of internal and external motivators to align and inspire your employees.

Do This Now Consider how your customer service team is motivated both intrinsically and extrinsically.

5 MAKE IT SHORT Even if your customer service incentive program has long-term goals, breaking it up into smaller programs or sprints can make it more impactful over the short run.

6 ENCOURAGE GROUP GOAL SETTING, COLLABORATION & TEAMWORK

On account of the deluge of online information, millennials and Gen Z will have little patience for a long-winded, cumbersome incentive program.

Sometimes the intrinsic motivation of not letting your team down, paired with the extrinsic motivation of a reward you can all enjoy has the power to do what an individual incentive could not.

Do This Now

Do This Now

Think about how your program can be broken down into smaller, more imperative components.

Create team-driven incentives directly and visibly linked to the company’s strategic intent.

Are your people working remotely these days? Learn more about intrinsic and extrinsic motivators as well as applying the science of motivation to improve mobile work. info.itagroup.com/mobile-motivation

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7 LET THEM STRIVE FOR SOMETHING BETTER When your employees can pool smaller earnings over time to save up for something larger, you’ll see a customer service team dedicated to hitting goals.

And with a deep award catalog, your employees are sure to find something that keeps them going.

Do This Now Allow employees to pool earnings and give them awards they really want.

8 REWARD PEOPLE ON THE SPOT

9 BE PERSISTENT

See someone exhibiting positive customer service? Recognize them and give their peers the ability to do the same.

If at first people aren’t participating, grab their attention with communication.

Do This Now

Consistent and vibrant communication will drive interest.

Offer compliments freely when your people succeed or show growth. A simple thank you goes a long way at work.

Do This Now Communicate—early and often.

Find out how ITA Group implemented a successful employee communications plan to roll out new benefits throughout our organization. info.itagroup.com/communicate-to-motivate

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10 ENABLE TWO-WAY FEEDBACK Your employees know what you want out of the program, and they can be a big help in knowing how to make your program better.

Let them share their impressions of the program and how to improve it.

Do This Now Conduct follow-up surveys before, during and after your customer service incentive program.

11 FOLLOW THROUGH ON WHAT YOU LEARN Don’t just gather feedback and do nothing with it.

If your employees have actionable tips that could be seen as beneficial to the process, implement them. Asking for regular feedback from your team, and acting on it, will build a culture of fairness and open communication.

Not only will this improve the effectiveness of the program, your employees will be inspired to participate knowing their concerns are addressed.

Do This Now Find a way to implement feedback.

12 REPEAT YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE INCENTIVES Companies can’t turn on and off incredible customer service like a light switch. It’s more like a battery—it tends to get gradually weaker until it’s reengaged with its power source. Your team must have their batteries charged, and that’s where customer service incentives come in.

Do This Now Leave a base, steady program throughout the course of the year and strategically sprinkle in bursts of communication, earnings and awards when you anticipate a slump.

SUCCESS COMES DOWN TO MOTIVATION No matter what industry you’re in, motivating your service personnel to step up their game is incredibly important. One false step in a customer service interaction, and you’re in trouble. Start with an assessment— like we did for one automotive OEM service incentive program that resulted in a 5-spot jump in national customer satisfaction rankings in just two years. info.itagroup.com/customer-satisfaction-story volume 1 issue 1 • insights magazine | 25

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