While intrinsic motivation is usually enough to spur business owners to give their 100 percent, many employees need extrinsic motivation to achieve high levels of productivity. As a result, many HVAC/sheet metal companies turn to offering a performance incentive. This is one of the strongest proven ways to motivate the team and spur greater sales — but the incentive program itself has to be well-designed in order to achieve the desired results.

In addition, distributors, dealers and contractors need encouragement to participate in reward programs and input warranty registrations, which brings multiple benefits to your business.

The key to improving incentive reward programs is to take advantage of the tremendous advantages offered by mobile apps. These apps ensure that the incentive program is more convenient for the user, easier for you to implement, and ultimately the fastest route to achieving your business goals and incentive program return on investment.

Ease, transparency and opportunity

Many companies are turned off by the idea of a workplace performance incentive for employees program because owners believe a lot of work will be involved. While this is certainly true in some cases, it is definitely not true when mobile apps are involved. Not only will the mobile app keep track of points accumulated by your employees, but it will also reduce much of the work related to the redemption of rewards.

If you want to have buy-in when it comes to performance incentives for employees, there needs to be transparency — since the last thing you want is for people to feel cheated out of deserved points. Your employees will be able to closely monitor the number of points they have accumulated simply by logging into the mobile app. The team will know exactly where they stand in terms of progress towards the next prize.

Another advantage of a mobile app is that you can use it to offer more and varied opportunities for performance incentives. For example, you can create online quizzes and even online classes, with the ability to earn points upon successful completion. In pursuit of points, many of your employees will learn vital work-related skills at an even faster rate.

There’s a reason incentive rewards are more effective than cash bonuses: they leave a memorable, emotional and psychological imprint, according to research. Let’s use the example of new patio furniture. It can produce lasting memories of spending time with friends and family. It also starts conversations about your reward program, because people are happy to boast about being rewarded with trophies for their professional achievements. A $200 bonus quickly burned through due to utility, gas and grocery expenses doesn’t have the same appeal.

Mobile apps to incentive warranty registration

Let’s take a deeper dive into how mobile apps can encourage the input of warranty registrations. This is important for many reasons, from increasing customers’ satisfaction, to collecting data about end-users, to boosting profits from warranty sales.

The main obstacle to securing product warranty registrations is that people view it as a waste of time. But a well-designed incentive program using mobile apps will simplify the process and give your sales channel partners the incentive to submit them.

Mobile accessibility is very convenient for busy contractors and distributors, who likely already use their smart phones frequently for GPS directions to job sites, tracking orders, and staying in touch with suppliers and clients. Just as all these actions are simplified and consolidated with mobile technology, a reward program app makes the warranty registration process easier.

All contractors and distributors have to do is scan the warranty’s quick-response graphic, bar code or serial number directly at the site of install. The reward program app technology can then recognize the HVAC unit, the distributor who delivers it, the contractor or dealer overseeing the installation, the address of the installation location and warranty registration. As soon as your channel partner hits send, you have your consumer’s warranty and contact information.

You reward the distributor for gathering more warranty registrations from contractors; the distributor rewards contractors for submitting the warranties. Contractors and distributors both have the opportunity to rack up program points and redeem those points for gifts such as Blu-ray players, camping gear and airline tickets.

Program participants can exchange their points for these items and many more in an online catalog similar to Overstock or Amazon.com.

Mobile app features and benefits

Many incentive providers, such as Atlanta-based Loyaltyworks, offer mobile app versions of their online reward programs. When designing your incentive program, look for these features:

An online document upload tool allows participants to upload sales claims, warranty registration, invoices and other documentation to quickly validate reward claims.

Participants can receive instant push notifications alerting them to new sales promotions, program updates and more.

The reward app product scanning capabilities allows participants to scan products in-store and automatically add items to their online wish list or purchase in person.

Participants only have to log into your program once through their phones, then they are logged in whenever they open their reward app.

You can configure the look of your incentive app to reflect your brand imagery and message.

These days, convenience plays a big role in the choices that people make. If your participants can’t use your rewards or incentive program quickly and easily, they probably won’t use it at all. By engaging mobile apps, your rewards program is more easily accessible and never leaves your participants’ side. Instant, 24/7 access boosts program activity, making a rewards app the best way to reach your business goals and incentive program ROI faster.