Incentive Programs??

[C.Tracy]

One of the biggest issues my organization has faced is creating long-term incentive programs to boost performance.

My question is: Do you believe incentive programs work in call centers? If so, what type of inventive programs do you run?

Or are incentive programs just short-term fixes that cause more problems than they are worth? One of my managers argued recently that he spends more time of tracking and keeping the program together than he does on any other function.

Please let me know your thoughts!

Thanks!

[donnapestell]

Our company has a staffed person in each site who deals strictly with the incentive program. As incentives go, we have scratch cards with different prizes and they are offered from mgr/sup level to agents, hourly support staff, etc.

We have quarterly banquets to recognize, at the agent level, high performers based on attendance, quality scores, metrics, attitude, etc.

We also have top team (sup and pod) each month based on the same as above. They receive a banner that stays in their area for the full month.

We have recognition cards to fill out for a "job well done".

As we are in a downtown core, free parking is hard to come by, so this is something else we offer---free parking pass for 3 months (parking paid by company).

There is more, however, I thought this would give you a good start.

[beejay]

Yes, they absolutely do work.

The programs have to be based upon performance achievement in most cases. That way you are driving the correct behaviors. You can get the best ideas from the floor. I have regularly done "skip level" meetings with agents and the consistent thread as to the rewards is always "something we can use." Depending upon your center of course but the demographics will come into play. Our agents generally are either just out of college (so first really good job) or single parents. They want items they can use in their personal lives such as gift certificates from Target, movie passes, McDonalds gift certificates, etc. The agnetes will help you with the rewards ideas which don't have to be expensive. And they will give you great suggestions on the program itself.

Some suggestions for you: Based some of the programs on team competitions. Then the winning team all particpates. We run regular contests to reward the top performing team based upon overall productivity objectives for a week. Or we pick one like attendance. The winning team gets to come in casually dressed (jeans, etc.) for a day. Costs nothing but generates excitement.

We started an Attendance Time Bank and for perfect attendance for 1 month, you get 2 hours off work (your choice of the hour) and it's paid. If you have perfect attendance for the quarter, and don't take the 2 hour block off, you get a paid day off.

Depending upon time of year, we'll compete team against team on the performance objectives. Quality scores get extra points. It might be a racing theme, let's say in May when racing is in the news. We'll put up a large "track" on the wall and each team has a car. The excitement is something as each team moves down the track over the program. Winning team gets a catered lunch.

Just some additonal thoughts to help get you started. Hope these help.

[Canadianyankee]

Incentive programs absolutely work!!
I currently run several individual, team, weekly, monthly and quarterly programs as well as awards for Outstanding Achievement (nominated by co-workers and management)
The program is currently active in 2 of our locations and we will soon be implementing it in a third. (including a total of about 550 agents) The key is to mainatin some sense of consistency while providing new formats and interesting themes. In the past some of longer contests have been centered around Survivor, Grand Prix, Game Shows and I am currently working on a Murder Mystery theme. The difficulty may be trying to include all different aspects of the call center (admin, CSRs etc.) I would gladly help out in anyway possible. Just let me know if you are interested.

Have a great day!

[cjw17]

I agree that incentive programs absolutely do work. In my call center, incentives are an important part of the CSR's compensation. Top performing reps earn as much as 15% of their salary through incentive.
We have performance standards in place which measure telephone monitoring scores (independent quality assurance group), AHT, utilization, error rate, attendance, lateness. CSR's with different skills may have different standards, but they all roll up to an overall rating which determines how much they will receive in their quarterly incentive payment.
A while back I posted a question as to how other call centers were handling evaluations on simple calls. My issue was that too many of my reps handle them perfectly, and no matter what standard we add, they quickly adjust. Tell them they need to start generating referrals, they'll make an attempt on every call. Tell them they have to do it all in less than 4 minutes & they'll do it in 3:59. This is what an incentive program can do for you.
As for the record-keeping, I do employ a full time programmer who has automated the entire performance standards database & incentive process. We change standards constantly, so he's always busy with that...plus he automates everything else we do manually in this department.

[smack]

Incentives are great tools to motivate your employees. Just make sure it's for the right reason.

The center I am at runs a number of different programs and incentives. Here's a list of a few:

-Weekly call of the week winners- Got quality?- Includes casual pass, AMEX check, etc.
-Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly call winners based on weekly winners- same as above with bigger AMEX check
-Quarterly team awards for quality- Amex checks
-Employee recognition awards-

One of our managers pulled an old trophy from a throw away pile at a garage sale and the teams compete for that each week based on overall performance. (Ugliest trophy ever)

I have also seen programs that dedicated money to the individual teams based on performance achievement in a set of criteria (quality, handle time, attendance, adherence). With the different levels of accomplishment, the team earned or lost money. At the end of the month, quarter, or year the team decided what to do with the money. Some took trips, some went to a show, some had a party. They did have to account for the spending though.

And finally, recognition and incentive programs do take time to administer and keep up. So your manager may not be off base with his comments, especially if he struggled in other areas.

[Ian Alexander]

I've worked in an environment which had a successful tierd incentive plan..

if you meet level 1 (eg: call quality) for the quarter, you get $200 bonus

if you meet level 1 & 2 (eg attendance) you get an additional $200
(but you must @ least meet level 1 to be considered for level 2)

if you meet level 3 (eg number of sales) you get an additional $200, but you must meet levels 1 & 2 to be considered for #3

So, even if you have a rep which met criteria for #3, but just #3 they would not recieve a bonus, you must first meet the preceeding level before being considered for the next. You just want to be sure to place the tiers in an appicable order for your centre's objectives.

[Cunningham]

Ian

That program sounds interesting. Can you send me the project plan? Thanks

[SANEMAYDIN]

Ian,

I am really interested in the incentive plan you have stated. We are trying to develop an incentive plan and your plan seems suitable to our objectives. If you send me your e-mail adress, I will be very pleased to contact with you.

Sanem

[Northernchick]

I will be starting at a new Call Center in a couple of weeks. I am
definately interested in more ideas that you have for incentives.
I am looking more for short term incentives. The longest being monthly.

Thanks