Hello all,
I am looking for a fun creative in office incentive/competition. Anyone have some ideas? I'd love to hear some of your favorites and what your favorite prizes are.
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Hello all,
I am looking for a fun creative in office incentive/competition. Anyone have some ideas? I'd love to hear some of your favorites and what your favorite prizes are.
I worked in an office that did this. They made the contest goals completely unrealistic. One contest was to have the office sell an Rx and plano pair of sunglasses every day for 3 months. During that 3 month period, we had over 3 weeks where doctors were out on vacation. Some times, they were all out at the same time. This was an independent practice that was not located in an area where you could easily get walk ins. Some times they did contests and the prizes were small things like a $5 gift card to subway or a candy bar. People just laughed because the bar was set too high and prizes were things we could get for ourselves anyway. Not worth it. Also, the awards was for the whole office but the opticians were doing all the work. So, I would say, don't let the goals be too high and make the prizes worth it. How about an extra vacation day or something? Just a thought.
Maui Jim does a competition for its accounts yearly where you earn points based on items sold. So like a prescription sunglass sold is worth 3 points and a plano sunglass sold is worth 1 points, then at the end of the competition they count up your points and you get a 15$ gift card for every 3 points. Admittedly, this is quite generous and would result in some very large payouts if extended to all brands (especially if you are already paying a percentage commission) so perhaps you could tweak the prizes so that if you earn X amount of points then you get your pick of frame or you get a visa gift card. Or if you really want to stir up some competition than only the person with the most points gets the prize, with a possible second place prize too.
Our office is quite competitive so these competitions generally are very effective for Maui Jim.
Me. I don't.Quote:
Who doesn't like a little healthy competition?
I've been in offices with competitive goals, such as "sell the most AR coatings," "sell the most second pairs," "sell the most non-RX sunglasses to contact lens patients," etc. I almost always win. I hate them.
In my opinion and experience, better results are derived from team goals than individual ones. It only takes one person who is resentful or unhealthily competitive to poison the entire process. You want your staff lifting each other up, not trying to top each other.
Sometimes in our office we have a small fun competition. We work in a relatively conservative area and when we buy a frame that's a bit wild, whoever sells the frame gets a candy bar from the other opticians. This is done purely between the opticians though.
Also sometimes it doesn't work. So now I will never live down the fact that we didn't sell the Lulu sunglasses that were lip shaped.
That's a fun idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sledzinator
First price is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.
But in all seriousness I think you can have group goals that are tied to the office making money. Increase the sale of year supplies of contacts, optos/retinal scan percentage, increase in house finishing etc as long as there is something for everyone to do you can make it a group reward. Basically incentivizing things that make the practice more money as well as better for the customer.
I have thought about in house finishing as each sale I make where I can order semi-finished lenses I am saving the office a boatload of money. If I can get uncut lenses from the lab and edge them myself that also saves the office money, though much less (since talking to lab people on here I don't get uncut digital progressives to edge, especially in plus powers).
I worked for a national corporation for a few years. They had various district contests. But, there was always some lame excuse for not awarding the prize. There was only one time when the district manager couldn't figure out an technicality to finagle out of paying up. The prize for one when we met every, single stipulation was a pizza lunch. He still didn't ever pay up. Always going to do it the next time he was in. How long do you think it was before everyone just ignored these stupid contests. It was the only place I ever worked where every person in our branch was looking for a new job.
Hard pass.
In a pure retail setting fine, I would sill hate it personally though.
In a medical retail setting, it is inevitably going to lead to pushy up-selling. Not for me.
There is a fine line between enthusiasm for your product, and a hard upsell. My predecessor at a medical practice pole-vaulted over that line. It took a long time to repair the damage she did.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kwill212
+1Quote:
Originally Posted by waynegilpin
agree, I was lucky enough, most all my employees were competitive naturally, with no commission, ( never paid one, great salaries instead). We’d all get tickled to sell that “particular “ frame. Or have a great sale, or sales day as a team. Never pushy. I motivated by just trying to be a good boss. Give you paid time off, go home early, try to keep it fun and upbeat. But ultimately, suggest products by need of the patient, and go home and sleep good at night .Quote:
Originally Posted by Kwill212
Personally, I prefer team contests/incentives. When I worked for a regional chain, we had contests where whole offices competed against each other, and we had daily sales goals. If the whole team met the sales goal, we'd get $5 or something like that for the day. When it was bought out by MyEyeDr, they had unrealistic contests/competitions that there was no point in even worrying about.
I like setting a goal and a reasonable reward - say, if the team sells $10,000 in a day (or whatever is realistic for you), you'll provide a catered lunch for the office from Cracker Barrel or Olive Garden, or some place a little more exciting than just pizza.
A friend owns a painting business and offered $50 for the best idea to increase efficiency among the crews.
The winner?
Adult diapers to cut down on bathroom breaks!!!
You guys aren't already doing this in your opticals? Customers think I am giving them a weird smile, but I am just being efficient!
Almost 10 years ago now, I worked at Eyemart. They did a good job of incentivizing and actually paying up. When they first introduced the option to outsource for digital PALs (opposed to the in house, 1 hour conventional lens option) we killed it. As an office, they asked us to 'slow down' with our digital sales. The problem was, we were in an area that had previously been turning away patients already in digital PALs to avoid refund issues.
Around the same time, they did a promo asking employees to create their own Eyemart commercial. 3 of the 10 winners were from my office. I made mine in an hour on a broken iPhone. My commercial is still on YouTube if you look hard enough. The prize was $500 and to be flown to Dallas to be in a real commercial and get wined and dined by the big-wigs. They sent out the first group, which included the 2 other winners in my office but never set up a time for the second batch of winners to fly out. In the long run, they decided that the commercial wasn't going to happen and gave the rest of the winners $1,000.00 in leu of the trip.
This happened while I was finishing up my last two weeks before moving on to an optical that would let me grow. As much as I love my freedom, I sure do miss the opportunity to win actual awesome prizes for very little effort! In fact, that prize money was how I afforded to move!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Fester
Gonna bring this up at the next office meeting! :giggle:
Cracker Barrel? The company that makes those square bars of cheese you see in the supermarket, but never buy?Quote:
Originally Posted by KrystleClear