Case Histories Sales meetings > Employee recognition > Trade shows > Community events > Golf outings > Customer loyalty >

Remember to tell them “Good job!” Challenge/Opportunity A call center had had a tough year. With the pressure of reducing costs, employee turnover, and the constant drive to take more calls, managers had noted that employees were struggling to keep a positive attitude. Employee satisfaction was dropping. Employees did not feel there was loyalty either way, nor did they feel that there was a “team” atmosphere. Goal Management's goal was to improve employee satisfaction from 47% to 65% and to decrease employee turnover from 53% to 20%. Management wanted to put together a program that emphasized teamwork, as well as provide incentives that drove pride, thus making an impact on employee satisfaction. Implementation Management started a performance rewards program beginning with “Customer Service Week”. Employees were

given a company t-shirt with the Customer Service Week logo on the front and the company's logo on the back as well as each team's name and mascot. A point reward program was implemented emphasizing teamwork goals, employee satisfaction goals and personal Employee development. Points could be used by the employee to purchase company logo'd merchandise. Result Recognizing Customer Service Week with t-shirts branded with their team and corporate logos as well as corporate logo'd pens started the week off with a positive "bang". Feedbacks from the employees indicated that they felt the company was beginning to recognize how hard their jobs were. Over the course of the year, of the 300 call center employees, more than 200 were able to take advantage of the point reward program and purchase corporate logo's products. Employee satisfaction feedback at the end of the year rose to 64% that year. Employee turnover dropped to less than 20%, saving the company almost $120,000, easily covering the costs for the implementation of this successful employee recognition program.