This week we feature an article by Natasha Postolovski who shares the idea of using sales contests to help motivate and promote a higher level of customer experience at your organization. – Shep Hyken Customer experience is the most important factor in the success of a retail business. In fact, in highly competitive industries where brand loyalty […]
This week we feature an article by Natasha Postolovski who shares the idea of using sales contests to help motivate and promote a higher level of customer experience at your organization. – Shep Hyken
Customer experience is the most important factor in the success of a retail business. In fact, in highly competitive industries where brand loyalty is fleeting, companies cannot afford to deliver anything less than a perfect customer experience, or customers may take their business elsewhere.
The aim to provide perfect customer experiences must be present not just at the organizational level, but at the level of every sales associate. I believe that fun and friendly contests are one of the fastest and most effective ways to motivate high performance among sales associates.
Contests are time-limited challenges that bring sales associates into alignment with your organization’s goals. Here are just some of the things you may choose to focus on:
Contests can last for as little as an hour, such as when a regional manager visits a store location, or as long as one month. In general, sales contests result in an atmosphere of fun and friendly competition. Sales associates love to be challenged, and they love to be challenged in new ways. Aside from boosting performance during the contest, I’ve found that participating in a shared challenge brings sales associates closer together and helps them work more effectively as a team.
If you believe a sales contest could help motivate a higher level of customer experience at your organization, here’s how you can get started.
Focus your sales contest on behaviors that will help create perfect customer experiences. This can be direct, via competing around Net Promoter Scores, or indirect, via competing around sales revenue. For employees to maximize revenue per customer they must build trust with the customer, and this means providing the perfect customer experience.
It’s worth noting that the benefits of sales contests don’t end when the contest does. The true purpose of every sales contest is to build beneficial habits that will last long after the contest is complete.
It’s best to be extremely clear up-front about the terms of your sales contest. This will ensure that all participants have realistic and accurate expectations about how the contest will run.
Sales contests are tools you can use to align staff around store or company goals. They’re fun and effective, and I have seen them lead to sales revenue increases as high as 5%. Most importantly, they help to build lasting habits that will improve customer experience long after the contest is over.
Natasha Postolovski is Content Manager at Arcade, a rewards, recognition and communication platform for retail sales associates and their managers.
For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.
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