If you’ve read our earlier blog on rewards programs, you know how popular these types of “recognition events” are. More importantly, you understand how difficult these programs can be to successfully execute. Meticulous planning is an absolute requirement.
One thing this earlier blog did not cover was how rewards are claimed and distributed. That’s because this phase of the program deserves its own careful analysis.
Companies that don’t frequently engage in such programs—maybe once or twice a year to recognize, say, an employee anniversary or to reward a significant achievement—will typically manage the reward selection and distribution effort themselves, with assistance from a fulfillment vendor.
Normally this entails creating a basic online form and e-mailing a link to participants, who will then fill out the form, provide any necessary information (such as size if it’s a piece of apparel, or the preferred item if there is a choice of gift) and hit “submit.”
This information is exported to an Excel spreadsheet. If the gifts require any customization, they are ordered at this point; otherwise, they have probably been preordered and are awaiting distribution.
The fulfillment vendor will then pick and pack the items, add a personal note if desired, and ship them off to the addresses in the spreadsheet. A shipment confirmation e-mail can also be sent to recipients. The vendor will consult with you on the best packing and shipping options for your budget.
While this approach is easy and inexpensive, it has its limitations. For instance, identifiable recipient information is not inherently secure. Reporting is limited and manual. And it’s not reusable—each new program must be built from scratch.
-png.png)
OnFulfillment Ensures Consistent, Efficient, Repeatable Programs
For companies planning to conduct ongoing new hire, employee, customer, and partner reward and recognition programs, OnFulfillment can help you build a repeatable system that ensures a unified and consistent experience across all touchpoints.
It starts with a universal redemption hub that every department across the organization can use for their rewards programs, whether the target audience is internal or external. Through this hub, you generate and assign unique access codes for each recipient for your specific program. Anyone logging on to claim a gift must provide this redemption code, which can only be used once.
OnFulfillment will then create and maintain landing pages for each program, housed within your existing corporate store. Each page is assigned a block of access codes. There is no limit to the number of programs that can be supported, or the number of departments that can use the redemption hub. Gifts are handled just like any item ordered through the online store.
Pages can be used for one-off programs or they can live on indefinitely, either as a portal where recipients can return to buy more branded items or to support multiple tiers of progressive programs that reward participants for achieving additional sales, training, anniversary, or other goals.
For companies planning to leverage rewards programs to their full extent, a repeatable system is the way to go. For more information on how OnFulfillment can help you build such a system, please contact us for demo.
