I need to come up with a incentive program for this quarter and would like to be creative. I am the Customer Satisfaction Supervisor at a Pet Insurance Company. I have 6 CSR's. Currently we have a quarterly CSR of the Quarter award that includes a plaque and a $50 gift card. We also have a retention competition in which whoever obtains the most gets a $50 gift card. That one is random though as it just depends on who gets lucky enough to get a bunchof calls for retention opportunities. So, now I have a team in a rut. Does anyone have any thoughts on group or individual competitions??

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

6 csr's, 4 quarters/year...means that I'll get a new plaque at least once a year.

My guess is one plaque per CSR is all they would ever need (want). Racking them up is just taking up valuable space (in cube, at home). Maybe change up to quarterly with annual reward/plaque? How much is the plaque? $25? So give 'em $75/quarter and ix-nay the plaque. Do an annual plaque, keep it in the office, and make it one where you can add a new namplate annually, and bump up the annual award to $100 or more.

On retention, I'd level the playing field. Maybe make it monthly...and the winner is the one who retained for the largest annual premium. Or add up all the retained premiums, and award accordingly per time period (montly, quarterly, annually, i.e., Joe retained $9,000 this period, Sue retained $7500, etc.


For "in a rut" I would inject as much lighthearted 'competition' as possible, taking care that it doesn't get out of hand. Best Pet Name of the week. Best Owner Name of the week. Best rejection of the week. Best Fraud Attempt of the week...whatever.

You could also do things like publish stats: everyone's name on a board with # new sales today, # retained, # by pet (4 dogs and 3 cats). Seeing your name with numbers attached, as compared to others, does something psychologically. Helps keep focus...eye on the prize sort of a thing.

Good luck!
ksb

Karen's idea of posting their stats is excellent. I create regular (weekly and monthly) scorecards for my employees. Goals are based on monthly results and scorecards are publicly posted at the end of each week so employees can see how they are doing and what they are on pace to do for the end of the month. I can then offer them suggestions on how to improve to make goal, in addition to having them come up with some of their own solutions to help make their goal. Everyone has a competitive side in them. When we see our results stacked up next to our peers, if ours is at the bottom it will create a fire within us to do better, even if there is no monetary or physical reward at the end.

One other point I forgot to add is that you should find out what will motivate your employees---ask them. Different things motivate different people and money is the most generic and impersonal reward. Want to motivate somebody? Fulfill their greatest need first and then their greatest want and you can get someone to do just about anythihg for you. Now I understand that if your spending on average of $50/month on the reward you wont be able to fill their greatest need or want but if you ask your CSR's what they would like in return you can fullfill those requests that are within your budget if the goals are met. Tailoring the rewards to specific employee requests will make it more personal to the employee creating a greater bond between employee and company.