situation
Our client, one of North America’s top automobile manufacturers, launched its initial Rewards and Recognition program for dealership personnel. In 2009, they made big changes to its overall training program, and felt it was the right time to evolve the rewards and recognition program as well in order to improve profitability, customer satisfaction and customer experience in sales, and parts & service, by changing behaviour to improve performance.
solution
We developed an umbrella Rewards and Recognition program designed for all our client’s personnel. The program rewards exceptional achievements, recognizes outstanding efforts and increases technical performance across the dealership audiences.
It’s a unified program that encompasses all dealership staff—sales, parts, service, technicians and warranty administrators – so that everyone has the same, clear, focused path to success. It’s a transition from the previous sell and earn model to a program that motivates individuals to improve performance from the inside out. It is designed to measure progress and recognize the effort required to move through the stages of success. This also helps encourage the “middle” performers who often have the greatest impact on a company’s success.
The first change from the previous program was to differentiate between front line and leadership staff, and provide these groups with separate, applicable recognition criteria. Previously they had been seen as two different audiences; now the linkages were seen as important. Leaders can be recognized for their individual contributions, as well as for the accomplishments of their team.
The second change was streamlining the recognition levels from three levels down to two, and awarding a points prize for each. This was seen simultaneously as both an effective motivator, and a more cost-conscious approach to fulfillment.
The third, and perhaps most important, change was to change the timing of delivery of rewards to ensure they were as immediate as possible, a central tenet to changing behaviour. Rewards for achieving a particular performance level were fulfilled throughout the year, instead of at the end of the year, to a maximum points level annually depending on position. There are still two extra end-of-the year prizes for excellence.
This solution was created in combination with our Marketing Communications teams, our Incentives and Loyalty teams and E-Business. e-Business developed the web site; online, personalized performance reports, monthly fulfillment reports the Rewards platform and monthly refreshes of the redemption website. The Incentive team sources rewards and our Loyalty’s Insight and Strategy team provided Performance target analysis and analytics to determine the year end winners. Marcomms provided strong communication strategy during the program year including print pieces, digital elements and emails/bulletins.
results
- 10,000 participants
- Number of winners doubled from 2008 to 2009
- It was important to develop a program that encourages all employees. “Middle Performers” (account for 46% of all Sales Associates, and over half of all vehicles sold, meaning this group is responsible for the majority of vehicle sales.)
- Certification rate increased from 79% in 2008 to 83% in 2009 for the Sales audience --and from an average of 30% in 2008 to 45% in 2009 for the Parts and Service audience.
