As our worlds increasingly shift into a digital landscape, seamless and instant attributes are the new normal. While moving processes and actions online was once considered an innovative approach to business, now it’s a regular touchpoint of our daily lives.

These technological updates don’t apply just to business — they are essential almost every hour of our waking day.

Many of our day-to-day actions — shopping online, ordering on food delivery apps, and scheduling appointments — are accomplished with a click.

Don’t be left in the dust. As a company, you must evolve with the times, especially when motivating your sales teams, the heartbeat of your bottom line. Your team is looking at you, their leader, to show them why their extra effort is worth it.

Without a plan, you may risk leaving a void in them, making no connection between positive action and being rewarded. So how can you push your sales team to be their best and keep up with an ever-changing digital world?

What Makes Gift Cards So Popular?

According to GlobeNewsWire, gift cards are expected to become a $1.4 trillion market by 2026, so it’s safe to say if you don’t already consider them to be the new norm, you should.

This statistic, while overwhelming in size, is unsurprising. That’s because gift cards are so popular.

If you thought we peaked at convenience with traditional gift cards, think again. To make the use of gift cards even more manageable (and innovative), consider eGift Cards. These digital gift cards have all the same popular attributes as traditional cards — but take it up a notch.

For example, Prezzee’s Smart eGift Card option allows the recipient to swap a card that doesn’t quite hit their interest mark with another retailer that knocks their socks off. The best part is that they can do this swap without losing monetary value. Can your traditional gift card do that?

Digital gift cards grant the following perks to the recipient:

• The freedom to choose exactly how they wish to spend their card (the retailer, the shipping, and the ability to spread one Smart eGift Card across several brands)
• The flexibility to shop anywhere, anytime. Who said you couldn’t do your grocery shopping while you stand next to the water cooler?
• The convenience of no wait time to receive their reward funds. You can extend your team’s thrill at reaching their goals by sending them a brand-new digital gift card.

When gifting a gift card, you are also saving recipients time, complication, and energy. Especially in today’s world, that might be more valuable than the monetary worth itself.

Now that we understand why gift cards are a great choice as an incentive tool, let’s dive into how you can implement them into your incentive plan to reap maximum results.

How Can You Use Gift Cards as Incentives?

Gift cards can be a highly effective tool in motivating your sales force. Still, like anything else, you must implement it properly to optimize its effectiveness.

For example, giving an unsuitable card may cause a stall in your employees’ efforts. Why? Because their hard work didn’t amount to something they were interested in.

You shouldn’t wait too long to distribute eGift Cards as rewards. If you wait too long, the recipient might miss the correlation between hitting their goals and receiving positive reinforcement.

The Prezzee Difference

With Prezzee, you can unlock the best qualities of gift cards and stack their unique offerings to produce the ultimate rewarding experience. The more features you combine, the more of an impact you can make.

Look at the two best practices below to learn how to get the most value from your incentive plan.

1. Reward fast and frequently: Easily send a virtual gift card when a goal is reached. Psychologists tell us that immediate rewards help the action become intrinsically motivated, making it enjoyable.

The takeaway: The faster you reward, the more motivated your employee experiences.

2. Combine rewards with employee recognition: Be specific about why the employee is receiving the prize. Also, be precise about how their incredible work matters to you as the team leader and the business.

This helps the employee understand what should be repeated for the next go around to receive the same management enthusiasm. On a personal level, acts of recognition allow your employees to realize that their company values them and their contributions.

The takeaway: Don’t just deliver the reward; communicate why your employee deserves it. With Prezzee, you can simply write a message or record a personal video letting your team members know how much you appreciate them.

The takeaway: Be strategic in what you gift: The effectiveness of the reward depends on it.

Press Go

Ready to get up to speed? Consider Prezzee as your incentive jet pack. Prezzee is a one-stop shop for eGift Cards that checks all the boxes. From instant delivery to the ability to personalize, and even the option to show off a premium touch by incorporating official company branding, Prezzee has you covered.

If some — or hopefully all — of these tips inspire you to leverage the popularity of eGift Cards through an incentive program, you can make it happen when you sign up for a free account with Prezzee Business.

Sources:

Global Gift Cards Market to Reach US $1.4 Trillion by the Year 2026 | GlobeNewswire

It’s About Time: Immediate Rewards Boost Motivation | The Cornell Chronicle

Creating a Culture of Recognition | Great Place to Work