Q: Our agents turned up their noses at our last rewards contest. How do you offer short-term incentives to experienced technical support professionals without coming across as silly or demeaning?

A: Good for you in getting a reading on how your incentive programs are being received. As for achieving a better result, here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Let your people choose their own incentives.

Periodically survey your reps concerning what they want in the form of perks and rewards. Try including an open ended question on this topic in your next employee satisfaction survey. Or consider appointing a cross section of reps as an incentives task force.

Be open to offering a smorgasbord of incentives people can choose from. Not everyone has the same hot buttons.

2. Think outside of the box

Don’t assume that cash equivalent awards are the ultimate incentive. Our research shows that many contact center professionals are motivated to obtain additional skills and knowledge they can use in advancing their careers.

So you may want to periodically consider offering participation in a skill-building seminar or attendance at a mind-expanding industry conference.

About the SSPA Support Staff Excellence certification program.

The Support Staff Excellence Program reinforces product knowledge and technical acumen with the relationship management skills your people need to ensure total customer satisfaction.

Certification-driven, and developed in partnership with support staff best practices authority, Impact Learning Systems, the Program delivers an industry-recognized standard of performance that may be merchandized to both inside and external audiences.

To view the impact of the program on important call center metrics like call handle times, first time resolution rates, escalated calls and customer satisfaction levels, simply request our complimentary SSPA Support Staff Certification Impact Study.