5 Effective Employee Incentives for Encouraging Review Requests

It can be difficult to persuade employees to request reviews.

Incentives to encourage review requests can be extremely successful. But what kinds of incentives are effective?

What is the simplest approach to obtaining client feedback?

Encourage your employees to request them immediately after providing exceptional customer service.

However, this is a concern for many firms. Employees will not request reviews simply because you have an employee reward program.

That requires two elements.

(1) An employee incentive program; and

(2) employee rewards.

With the right incentives, you can generate a large number of reviews much more quickly than email or text message requests.

Today, we’ll look more closely at employee incentives.

Why do most employers select the wrong employee incentives? Rewards penalize your team.

Alfie Kohn makes a good case against employee incentives in his essay for the Harvard Business Review.

Here are a few examples of his reasoning:

Pay is not an incentive. “Just because too little money can irritate and demotivate does not imply that more and more money can boost contentment, let alone motivation.”
Rewards are used to punish. “not receiving a reward one had expected to receive is likewise indistinguishable from being penalized. The effect is the same whether the incentive is withheld or withdrawn purposely, or just not received by someone who had intended to get it. And the more desirable the reward, the more disheartening it is to be denied.”
Relationships are shattered when rewards are given. “The surest way to destroy cooperation and, thus, organizational performance, is to push employees to compete for incentives or recognition or to rate them against each other. For every winner, there are many more who carry the burden of having been defeated. And the more these prizes are advertised through memos, newsletters, and awards banquets, the greater their influence.”
Reasons are ignored in the case of rewards. “In order to remedy workplace problems, managers must first understand what caused them… Using incentives to increase productivity does nothing to address the underlying issues or bring about significant change.”
Interest is undermined by rewards. “Rewards, like punishment, may hinder the intrinsic motivation that leads to maximum performance. The more a manager emphasizes how much money an employee might make for doing an exceptional job, the less interested that person will be in the task itself.”

Is this to say you shouldn’t reward your employees?

No of course not.

Individually distributed rewards cause unneeded competition, damage relationships, and harm morale.

This is not acceptable.

You may, however, reward your employees in a way that strengthens your team. When done correctly, your employee incentive program should keep your workplace from being overly competitive and ruthless.

What’s great about this type of incentive program is that it employs social proof to identify top performers across a wide range of fundamental indicators.

A high-performing review request incentive program’s hidden structure

What constitutes a strong incentive program?

It encourages teamwork. Your incentives should make full use of both public and private rewards. In general, incentives connected to group performance promote cooperation and collaboration. It should not be a zero-sum game (win or lose). Coworkers should be allowed to approach their bosses and say, “Hey, we’re falling short of our objective of #. ‘Where are we going wrong?’ rather than addressing the issue on its own.
Incentives serve a function. Strong incentive programs provide a specific purpose in mind. Are employees: (a.) recognized for their outstanding performance? (b.) rewarded as a token of gratitude? (c.) compensated as a reward for success (d.) given opportunities as a show of trust and confidence?
Incentives boost productivity. This is less about compensating staff and more about aligning your interests. Managers and employees are far more likely to support you if their interests are aligned with those of the shareholders (e.g., employee stock options). Intrinsic motivation comes readily if they believe they will get a return on investment for their efforts.

These should be non-negotiable anchor points for us.

Following that, we must account for company values and culture. Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson outlines the distinction between values and culture.

Values are recorded. Your values are documented and distributed to everyone in the organization.
Culture is a set of living values. It is how your employees act out the words mentioned in your values.

Researchers Robert E. Quinn and Kim S. Cameron discovered there are four types of organizational cultures.

Adhocracy cultures are change driven..This corporate culture is sometimes described as “tents rather than palaces,” as these businesses are in constant motion. These businesses are extremely adaptable, versatile, and creative.
Clan cultures refer to themselves as “families.” These businesses place a high value on mentoring, fostering, and investing in their employees. It’s a family-like setting focused on doing and accomplishing things together. Team development is crucial, as is relying on coworkers as an essential component of the business. Engagement, dedication, and loyalty are non-negotiable core values.
Hierarchical civilisations follow traditions, structures, and procedures. Statements such as “we don’t do that here” or “when I worked at ___, we did ___” are signs of hierarchical culture. Employees are expected to follow predetermined duties and must comply. Seniority, rank, status, decision-making authority, rules and procedures, structure, and control are all important values to have.
Market cultures are utilitarian, kill-or-be-killed environments centred on profits. Companies with market cultures are competitive, achievement-oriented, and driven by results and status. Coworkers are either moving up or out; there is constant internal competition, outcomes are all that matters, everyone is expendable if they fail to perform, and everyone is a means to an end.

What is the significance of this?

The incentives you provide should be consistent with your company’s culture. Group rewards may be effective in clan cultures, but not in market cultures (unless you give them an external enemy to defeat).

Read the room if you’re presenting rewards.

You are now ready to build up your framework for review request incentives. For each incentive, you must determine whether your incentive is:

Private or public (group/team rewards) (individual incentives)
Compatible with your company culture (for example, adhocracy, clan, hierarchy, or marketing) and whether it promotes cooperation or rivalry
For a specific purpose – acknowledgement, admiration, recompense, or opportunity
Aligned with your company’s values

With this in mind, let’s take a look at a few review request incentives you can offer your employees.

Incentive Type #1: Company Swag

Employees appreciate swag that is well-made, intriguing, and enjoyable to use. Don’t assume you have to limit yourself to just a logo.

You can integrate a company slogan or inside joke that your staff enjoy. You can also recognize their accomplishments by including “Review Superstar 2022” or something like that.

Company swag works best as a form of recognition.

Consider golf’s Green Jacket, basketball’s MVP trophy, or the Nobel Peace Prize medal. If you’re going to give out company swag, make sure you include advantages with it (e.g., cash, verbal recognition, extended opportunities, etc.).

Consider company swag as a strategy for increasing social prestige both inside and outside the firm.

Disclosure: Public

Purpose: Recognition (conferring status)

Best for: Market, Hierarchy, Clan

Tip No. 1:

Don’t be stingy. Cheap company swag isn’t worth a fight and may even be offensive. Reviews are an important element of how your firm promotes itself and finds new customers. Employees who request them help your company and its bottom line; respect that.

Tip No. 2:

Avoid using office supplies. Whatever employees enjoy about their jobs, gifting them pens, day planners, or anything else that reminds them of their desks is equivalent to giving your mother an ironing board for Christmas.

Incentive Type #2: Executive/Manager Recognition

A recognition package might help your staff advance in their careers.

Consider this:

Because of your exceptional service to the company, a member of the executive team (e.g., the CEO, COO, and CMO of your company) designs a recognition package for you. This award package could include the following items:

LinkedIn recommendations from your company’s CEO, COO, and CMO
Recognition/recommendation letters are mailed and emailed to you and saved in your file.
Recommendations for company promotions (e.g., upward or lateral moves)
Mentoring through company advisors and mentoring programs

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Consider how great this will appear on your CV and LinkedIn profile. Consider the impact this would have on your career. Isn’t that an incredible thing?

Disclosure: Public/Private

Purpose: Recognition (conferring status)

Best for: All Cultures

Incentive Type #3: Bonuses are given when specific KPIs are met.

Assume you have a few review request objectives.

We will solicit feedback from every customer.
We will strive for a 99% customer satisfaction rating and will respond to any customer problem within two business days.
We will respond to every online customer review.

These are basic and measurable objectives, right? It’s obvious when you’ve met the standard; there’s no secret to improving.

You keep working till you reach your goal.

Now assume that these objectives are time-bound.

So your team establishes new goals each quarter, year, and so on. When your team satisfies these specified requirements, you (the manager) award the entire team with some sort of pay (e.g., group bonuses, profit sharing, stock options, etc.).

Remember that if your interests are aligned with those of your managers, executives, and employees, it will be much simpler to gain their support.

Disclosure: Public

Purpose: Compensation, Appreciation

Best for: All Cultures

Incentive Type #4: Team Perks based on performance

Your customer service staff has just accomplished the impossible. Over the last 24 months, they have maintained a 95% satisfaction rating. They’ve also maintained a 4.7-star rating (average) across all of their major review site profiles.

So you decide to reward your crew.

You provide them with company perks in addition to their gear. All of the following could be sent to your customer service team:

Parking spaces with a premium (customer support teams only)
Vacation credits can be used to purchase flights, hotels, rentals, transportation, and other services.
They get reimbursed for housekeeping, laundry, and childcare.
Special benefits provide your team with the assistance they require to achieve great things.

You’ll want to establish a reputation for your squad. ‘Wow, those are people from the support team 6!’ (lol). They helped sales reach $500 million in the previous quarter.’

The advantages are twofold.

(1.) Once your team achieves this position, they will work even harder to keep it. They’ll do their best to live up to the legendary status you’ve created for your team.

(2.) With the right supervision, your team will be self-sufficient. Top performers in the team will not tolerate poor performance from stragglers; they will do all possible to guarantee that the prestige and accolades they have acquired continue indefinitely.

Disclosure: Public

Purpose: Compensation, Appreciation

Best for: Clan, Market

Incentive Type #5: Intrapreneurship Program Access

Gaining access to your company’s intrapreneurship program is a simple way to make your employees happy.

What exactly is that?

An intrapreneur is defined as “an employee who is tasked with developing an innovative idea or project within a firm” by Investopedia. “The intrapreneur may not incur the outsized risks or enjoy the outsized benefits of an entrepreneur; rather, the intrapreneur has access to an established company’s resources and capabilities.”

This appears to be a lot of work to reward staff for simply doing their jobs. It Isn’t .

In actuality, most employees are already looking for this. McKinsey’s research backs this up.

Employees’ top five priorities are job growth, remuneration, learning opportunities, aligned skill sets, and helpful management.

An intrapreneurship program enables you to offer all of this to your staff on an individual basis. I said earlier in the post that having to watch others obtain benefits can feel like sour grapes.

This program gets around this.

If they earn it, everyone is eligible for the intrapreneurship program. You set forth clear and objective standards in advance so that everyone can perceive that the opportunity is fair.

They are not participating in the intrapreneurship program because they do not want to.

It’s not your fault; it’s theirs.

This treats your staff like adults. If they wish to advance in their careers, they will have to do outstanding work.

It’s an easy technique to boost intrinsic motivation.

Disclosure: Public/Private

Purpose: Compensation, Appreciation, Recognition, Opportunity

Best for: All Cultures

Review request incentives are powerful.

If you choose the wrong incentives, you will undermine trust, damage morale, and raise staff attrition.

You win if you choose the appropriate incentives.

What is the simplest approach to obtaining client feedback? Encourage your employees to request them immediately after providing exceptional customer service.

This isn’t an issue for you. Your staff is motivated to succeed and eager for the opportunity to prove themselves. You have the correct incentives in place, and your personnel are obsessed with providing excellent service. They are eager to request reviews.

You’re primed.

Because of your careful planning, you’re about to receive an avalanche of good feedback far faster than you expected. Suddenly, generating reviews is a breeze, barely an annoyance.

5 Effective Employee Incentives for Encouraging Review Requests