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How important is the customer experience? It’s the culmination of every moment interacting with your company: from your marketing or website process to your sales reps or phone operators to the delivery experience and beyond. Every moment spent with that customer or end recipient reflects on you. How you manage the customer experience says everything about your brand. When the employee is the customer, are you intentionally consistent to your brand attributes?

One of the biggest changes in the 21^st century is the way in which companies are valued. In the past, company value was calculated based on hard assets such as land, buildings, equipment, products/inventory and factories, etc. Today, over 80% of a company’s value is tied to less tangible factors, such as brand value, customer data, relationships, leadership quality, algorithms and more. Harvard Business Review now believes that competitive advantage goes to companies that manage human capital effectively rather than companies that manage finances effectively.

If you build it, they will come, right? Not necessarily. Proper program design and branding will ensure that your incentive programs are effective and will deliver a higher return on your investment, but make sure that you don’t underestimate the role of communication in employee recognition programs.

What’s in a Brand?

Just about everything we consume has a brand name on it, from our favorite breakfast cereal to the car we drive to the cellular service provider we choose and everything in between. A brand name tells us exactly what to expect when we buy that product or service or interact with that company. That’s why it’s SO important that we are true to our brand in every touch point with our customers, and also with our employees. Why would our reward & recognition programs be any different?

The Forbes Article – 5 Ways Leaders Rock hits the nail on the head in general and the list of 5 recommendations for proper employee recognition are accurately written for sure.  That said, I would offer up a few more ways leaders can rock employee recognition which I have derived from nearly 30 years of providing such programs.

The Grand Motivation Masters Awards featured All Star Incentive Marketing among the recipients in the Engagement and Recognition category. Medical waste disposal firm Stericycle worked with All Star Incentive Marketing to create 1st Safety, a safety improvement program. As a result, Stericycle has seen an 80% reduction in insurance claims. The company has saved $800K in the first 18 months of the program.