FIVE IDEAS FOR STRENGTHENING INCENTIVE/REWARDS PROGRAMS FOR DEALERS

Nov. 1, 2017  I  Gage team

When it comes to loyalty and reward programs for dealers, there’s a basic understanding: you need to gain incremental volume within a contained reward budget. The approach for rewards must be engaging, yet flexible enough to deal with your unique situation and company structure. But, how?

 

1) Keep it simple

Your program must be easy to understand, requiring minimal effort to participate. To accomplish this, put robust systems in place behind the scenes. Automate processes, and provide user-friendly tools and features to make participation effortless. For example, if you are asking a loyalty program participant to register through an email message, append a unique CRM tracking code to email links, and prepopulate the details in the registration form. 

Nov. 1, 2017  I  Gage team

When it comes to loyalty and reward programs for dealers, there’s a basic understanding: you need to gain incremental volume within a contained reward budget. The approach for rewards must be engaging, yet flexible enough to deal with your unique situation and company structure. But, how?

 

1) Keep it simple

Your program must be easy to understand, requiring minimal effort to participate. To accomplish this, put robust systems in place behind the scenes. Automate processes, and provide user-friendly tools and features to make participation effortless. For example, if you are asking a loyalty program participant to register through an email message, append a unique CRM tracking code to email links, and prepopulate the details in the registration form. 

2) Utilize tracked data

To ensure a high participation level, tracked data – such as sales – must be captured in a non-intrusive way as close to real-time as possible. When it’s not possible, we’ve established an algorithm to distribute sales figures based on historical data to track the program.

 

3) Experiment with reward program structure

Rather than award points with a flat structure – by SKU or invoice dollar volume – experiment by offering higher points with greater margin, bonus points for discontinued items that need to be liquidated, or overlay efforts with more time-sensitive promotions, such as new product launches, BOGOs, rebates and contests.

2) Utilize tracked data

To ensure a high participation level, tracked data – such as sales – must be captured in a non-intrusive way as close to real-time as possible. When it’s not possible, we’ve established an algorithm to distribute sales figures based on historical data to track the program.

 

3) Experiment with reward program structure

Rather than award points with a flat structure – by SKU or invoice dollar volume – experiment by offering higher points with greater margin, bonus points for discontinued items that need to be liquidated, or overlay efforts with more time-sensitive promotions, such as new product launches, BOGOs, rebates and contests.

4) Reward at the individual level

Our experience has shown that loyalty programs create a more memorable impact when it recognizes individuals rather than organizations. This also opens your loyalty program to a host of gamification options, including leaderboards and badging. And, let’s face it, a person is more likely to promote via social media that she was the salesperson of the month.

5) Test incentives

Ultimately, rewards offered must be perceived to be worth the effort. This is the same as an optimization regime applied to marketing or content: user feedback, A/B testing and research can help you determine what incentives drive behavior. Look for reward platforms with that feature.

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