Month: September 2016

Millennials – Mobility Agility?

I recently attended my younger brother’s wedding, and while there had an opportunity to sit back and do some serious people watching.  From my vantage point, I had a pretty good view of my parents’ table, which were mostly Baby Boomers and my brother’s table which were mainly Millennials.

I was able to observe behaviors from many different areas including dancing, (Millennials-never left the table; Boomers were shaking it) drinking (Millennials-craft beer; Boomers-wine) and oyster consumption (Millennials-yum-briny!; Boomers-not so much).  Just for the record, my table was mainly Gen X and we were right down the middle (some dancing; drank beer, wine and liquor equally; we ate the oysters), but the real topic I wanted to mention was in communication.

The Boomers were talking and having a good time, but they were very infrequently using their smart phones. When they did use them, they usually had to dig them out of a purse or jacket pocket first.  The Millennials all had their smart phones at least on the table if not actively using them for texting, searching or talking.  Full disclosure, our table was again right down the middle.  Half had their phones away while the other half had their phones on the table or in their hands.

While all of the observations were interesting, it really drove home to me how important a mobile accessible website was to business today.  We use our smart phones constantly, which is especially important as more Millennials enter the workforce and chances are if your company website is not mobile accessible, you are leaving some business on the table.  At QIC, our Incentrac platform that we use to manage our incentive and recognition programs is mobile enhanced, which allows for contractors or employees in the field to access the site and check their status in the program, input variable data into the platform to capture awards and go shopping and spend their hard-earned points.

In summary, if you want to make a quick buck, I recommend a mobile enhanced website that caters to ordering fresh oysters and locally sourced oysters.  My non-scientific observation says it will work!

Spotlighting Merchandise Rewards

Small businesses are experiencing high levels of success utilizing incentive programs that feature merchandise rewards, according to a recent IMRA (Incentive Manufacturers and Representatives Alliance) survey/study.  The survey was conducted in partnership with the IRF (Incentive Research Foundation) and focused on companies with between $1 million and $50 million in annual sales. IMRA found that… Read more »