Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business. You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Staff rewards set to focus on the individual

The foundation's latest executive briefing report, entitled '2012 Trends in Rewards and Recognition', found that several trends have grown in recent months, shaping the near-term development of employee reward and incentive offers. For example, among the specific trends observed were:

1. Personalisation
   An increasing use of gift cards and award elements that allow employees to do their own discounted shopping during the redemption process.
2. Participation
   Greater usage of non-cash incentive programmes that increase wellness participation by 26% to 90%, returning more than US$3 for every US$1 invested.
3. Convenience
   The integration of mobile applications into all phases of incentive programme communications to help keep employees feeling 'connected' at all times.

"We reviewed both our own trends data and a host of other leading sources to determine the implications for the incentive and recognition industry," explained IRF president Melissa Van Dyke. The IRF's findings actually revealed a dozen trends, some of the highlights of which include:

• Fast HR
  The most significant observation is the unprecedented rate of change that will pave the way for more flexible approaches and faster responses to the management of people. Reward and recognition programmes have a key role in Fast HR because they can be quickly recalibrated to meet employee needs faster and with greater ease and precision than conversional compensation structures.
• Get into 'Gamification'
  Incorporating the principles of game design into the structure of reward and recognition programmes and meetings will be a key trend in 2012 and beyond.
• We're all marketers
  Recent research has confirmed that people - through their actions and their attitudes - play a significant role in maintaining the value of the brand. As service becomes the 'killer app', aligning employee behaviour through rewards has increased its importance in reducing customer defections and optimizing their lifetime values.
• It's time to repair cultures
  Deep cost cutting during the earliest days of the recession along with reduced resources has damaged the cooperative nature of some workplaces. With up to 74% of the work force open to considering a new job, organisations need to recapture the cultural conditions that made them the 'employer of choice'.
• Virtual workplaces
  More than 75% of businesses use some form of social networking to connect their people, so they need to ensure all technology-based reward and recognition programmes are integrated into social media sites.
• Role convergence
  Role convergence is causing the average worker to do more work and put in more unpaid time. Organisations also expect more from their technologies. Efficiency is a big driver of effectiveness. Applications in the incentive industry must be easy to implement and integrate seamlessly into the organisations workflow.
• Corporate social responsibility
  Sustainability has reached a tipping point in business with most organisations considering it in their strategy. Planners and practitioners alike need to ensure programme components are in line with their corporate values and initiatives.

Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business.

You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy. Grab this goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, technologies, research, suppliers and partners, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid CX strategy.

While most marketers could list maybe a dozen key points for improving their brand's Customer Experience (CX), the researchers and writers at The Marketing Factbook have identified FORTY main 'CX Keys' which will help you drive your customers to new levels of delight, loyalty, advocacy and profitability.

The areas in which customers have direct contact with your organization are perhaps the most obvious places in which CX improvements can be made, and this report addresses all 24 of these 'Direct CX Keys', applicable to offline and online businesses alike.

At the same time there are many other areas that indirectly affect CX (such as the supply chain, policies and processes) in which every business can make simple but far-reaching improvements. This report guides you through the problems and solutions for all 16 of these 'Indirect CX Keys', many of which are often forgotten or under-played even in the best CX strategies.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)