Let me preface this post with the admission that I am a huge foodie.  I love going to new restaurants, experimenting with cooking techniques and tasting new flavors.  For the past few months I have been enjoying a service called Blue Apron and have some observations about the experience and how it relates to incentive program success.

Blue Apron sends its customers all of the ingredients they need to make three fresh meals at home.  Along with the ingredients, also included in the package are full-color instruction cards with pictures.  Although I am in love with the entire concept, there are three main aspects about Blue Apron that not only keep me a loyal customer but have caused me to recommend this service to my friends and family.  In no particular order these qualities include convenience, customer care and customization.

These same three qualities are also important when designing, implementing and managing an incentive program.  You want to make sure that the shopping experience is convenient for your participants.  Choosing a vendor that has an online shopping cart which is easy to navigate is important.  Giving your participants the option to ship directly to their homes also adds to the overall experience.

Just like convenience, having a great customer care team can take your incentive program to the next level, and it is important that you get all of the details from your incentive solution provider on the front end. Imagine picking out your reward for 25 years of service only to find out you could not return it if it did not work or was not what you expected.  This experience would most definitely have a negative impact on your recognition moment.

We end with our third and final quality: customization.  Blue Apron keeps it simple.  You are able to check your dietary preferences via a simple form and your menu will customize each week around that.  Don’t like shellfish?  No worries, they will substitute the shrimp entrée with something from their vegetarian menu.

This same concept should apply to your recognition or incentive program.  While your program would benefit from feature like peer to peer recognition, a participant ranking may not be for you.  Make sure your incentive platform is flexible and scalable – allowing for these little customizations in order to maximize the effectiveness of your incentive program.

Contact us to find out more about successfully designing, implementing and managing your recognition or incentive program.  Together, we can cook up a delicious main course!