New Year’s Resolutions to Improve Your Corporate Rewards Programs

The coming of the new year is not only a time for people everywhere to make resolutions, it’s also a great opportunity for companies to reflect on their efforts and plan improvements for the future. And your corporate rewards programs are an easy place to make adjustments for better effectiveness and efficiency.

Giving rewards and incentives to customers, prospects, employees, and research participants is a key strategy for meeting your business goals. If you haven’t even implemented the most basic of corporate rewards programs, now is the time to start.

But if you’ve already begun rewarding and want to optimize your programs, here are five resolutions to make for the new year.

READ MORE: 6 Corporate Reward Programs That Will Boost Your Bottom Line

Explore Untapped Reward Opportunities

When you think of corporate rewards programs, employee recognition and customer holiday gifts may be the first things that come to mind. But there are endless opportunities to expand your rewards to help your organization reach goals across different teams. Consider making these programs available for:

• Sales. Incentivizing demo or meeting attendance will help reduce no-shows, while offering a limited-time reward with purchase can create a sense of urgency and speed up the sales cycle.
• Customer service. Appease frustrated customers by arming your frontline reps with rewards that send a positive message about your brand and improve their experience.
• Customer loyalty and engagement. Sending rewards to your most valued clients shouldn’t just be a holiday occurrence. Think bigger. Customer rewards can be extremely effective in generating repeat purchases, encouraging advocacy, incentivizing feedback surveys, and more.
• More comprehensive employee programs. Yes, recognition is important for employee satisfaction. But there are so many other ways to engage your teams beyond performance-based rewards. Adding rewards for wellness programs, personal milestones, and day-to-day habits can help build an ongoing culture of recognition and increase retention.

Give Recipients Choice and Flexibility

The company swag, food baskets, and generic office supplies that you’ve been sending all these years typically end up in the landfill or the donation pile. It’s time to face the facts: Gift cards and prepaid cards are the way to go for your corporate rewards programs. Not only are they easier to send, they also allow recipients to choose a reward they actually want.

Go Digital

Sending gift cards and prepaid cards digitally via email or SMS offers a better experience for both you and your recipients. You can deliver rewards quickly, all over the world, quickly and for free, while recipients can redeem them immediately.

Offer Mobile Wallet Compatibility

Nearly half of consumers (45%) say they prefer to store digital gift cards in a mobile wallet, according to our 2024 Global Gifting study. Providing this option makes it more convenient for recipients to spend their reward either online or in store.

Eliminate Manual Processes

Even digital rewards can turn out to be a hassle if you’re still ordering bulk gift cards directly from a retailer and manually sending out codes to your customers, prospects, employees, or research participants. Find the right tool that will streamline your corporate rewards programs by letting you order, deliver, and track rewards all in one place. Even better, an integrated rewards solution can help you automate processes and save more time.  

Ready to hit the ground running in the new year? Request a demo to see how BHN Rewards will help you optimize your corporate rewards programs for more success in 2025!

about the author

Hannah Prince

Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.

Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.