While some of my colleagues may be focused on the NCAA Tourney this time of year, I’m enjoying another annual (US$700 million) phenomenon…Girl Scout cookies!  

I’ve encountered two separate troops recently at my grocery store, and the difference in sales approaches was remarkable.  The first troop was standard, consisting of Scouts timidly trying to approach busy people (who were, in turn, avoiding eye contact and looking guilty).  The second troop, however, clearly had their game faces on.  Not only were they confident in their approach (even offering handshakes to shoppers), but they were actually offering free cookie samples!  Talk about getting people interested in your product!

In watching that exuberant second troop, I had to wonder if they had some extra motivation…something was making them work harder.  Kudos to that troop leader for knowing her sales force well enough to find an effective incentive.  After all, it’s not just ANY incentive that makes someone work harder, it’s the RIGHT incentive. 

So, bringing this thought back to the contact center: how can companies make sure their frontline incentive scheme is effective, especially if they are balancing both service and sales outcomes?

Well, part of the answer is in the right balance of incentive types.  CCC finds, unlike in a pure sales environment, the best service-to-sales incentive plans include an even mix of monetary, non-monetary, and public recognition rewards.  In other words: if you just took a page out of your sales force’s playbook and are EMPHASIZING monetary incentives, you are probably spending too much and could even be harming sales performance.

In addition, effective service-to-sales incentive plans also must be structured correctly.  I’m including below a few key tips to keep in mind for your next campaign:

• Include the team—Combine individual goals with team-based goals to help reps work as a group to achieve rewards.  Building a sales culture at the team level is highly effective.
• Don’t cap reward payouts—Caps encourage top sellers to stop selling after they hit their targets.  Instead, let reps continue to earn rewards and incentives once they pass an initial threshold. 
• Use a quality guardrail—Sales quantity without quality assurance is bound to hurt the customer experience.  Reps should hit a target FCR rate, quality score, etc. before qualifying for prizes.

What’s a campaign that’s worked lately for you? Creativity is not discouraged!

CCC members, check out our complete analysis of what drives effective incentive plans and visit our Service-to-Sales Incentive Portal to get ideas for your next campaign!

Oh, and for what it’s worth, while everyone can agree to like Thin Mints, my favorite cookies are always the Samoas!

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