Incentive - February 2008 - (Page 46)

Here & Now Linked In By Alex Palmer V erizon has announced that its Business Link Rewards program has partnered with Excitations to offer adventure and experiential gifts to loyal business clients. Excitations, based in Sterling, Va., offers packages for individuals, kids and couples that include such varied activities as a biplane ride, polo lesson, or shark dive. These rewards will now be available to Verizon customer companies that are part of its loyalty program. Verizon’s program offers an interesting extension of typical points-based loyalty programs by providing it to small businesses. Corporate members of Business Link receive a Bonus Credit for every dollar spent on calls with Verizon, and extra credits for things like adding new phone lines or completing surveys. These rewards can be redeemed from the expansive catalog, which includes everything from a Sony DVD player (62,055 Bonus Credits) to Williams-Sonoma gift certificates (2,250 Credits for a $25 card). “We encourage the small businesses to use their bonus credits in one of three ways. One is for their customers, one is for their employees and the third is for themselves,” says Sharon Avery, VP of client services for Kobie Marketing, which runs the Business Link Rewards program. Avery suggests member companies use prizes as rewards for short-term sales contests, or as a recognition for outstanding performance. While Business Link Rewards was started in 1995, Kobie Marketing, based in St. Petersburg, Fla., took over in July 2006, and since then, has helped increase membership by over 60,000 through the new benefits and promotions the group brought into the program, including new member surveys, expanded reward offerings, and adding more retailers and unusual rewards, like those offered by Excitations. One of the most popular additions to Business Link has been periodic auctions available on the program Web site (businesslink.verizon.com). Participants can use their Bonus Credits to bid on items that may be in very limited supply. “We encourage small businesses to use their bonus credits for their customers.” —Sharon Avery “The highest bid that we’ve ever gotten was last year for a pair of tickets to the Grammys,” says Avery. “But the secondhighest bid was for the Wii. It was amazing, people were just desperate to get one. So I’m sure that was the case where the business owner—who was paying the phone bill, after all—either decided to use his points to try to get the Wii, or he decided that it would make a great gift for somebody in his organization.” s 46 | Incentive | February 2008 | incentivemag.com http://businesslink.verizon.com http://businesslink.verizon.com http://svmcards.com http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - February 2008

Incentive Magazine - February 2008 Editor’s Note: Archie and the Boys In The News Cover Story: On The Ball Incentives Incentive Primer: How to Use Sporting Events Incentive Interview: Jim Avery on Doing the Right Thing Employee Empowerment Motivates and Pays Dividends Hospitals, Nurses Win With Flexible Scheduling Legal Ease: Safety Programs and Unions Case Study: The Weitz Company Retains Its Boomers Potentials: Here and Now Star Power in the Kitchen Awards: Gift Card Trends for the New Year Travel News The Manhattanization of Las Vegas Classics Renewed: Monaco and France Advertiser Index Off The Cuff: Tumi’s Mike Landry

Incentive - February 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.