Don’t Employees Need Loyalty Rewards, Too?

While customers now expect positive reinforcement from loyalty rewards programs to keep coming back, there’s nothing wrong with giving employees some love, too.

Fortunately, Maritz’s RewardSphere solutions aim to do just that.

Forbes reported that Maritz Motivation Solutions, a retail tech group focused on driving conversions, overspend and general performance, has been seeing marked success with its RewardSphere feature that enhances user loyalty rewards for more than 180 retailers. However, not all iterations of RewardSphere are aimed at the consumer, as Maritz allows users to repurpose RewardSphere to provide a more engaging experience for internal employee recognition networks. The service is powered by the Oracle Commerce Platform, and Chip Schafer, director of rewards and fulfillment and vice president at Maritz, explained why a powerful engine is required to run a robust rewards program.

“We want the reward-redemption event to be as engaging as possible and act as a seamless extension of the entire client program,” Schafer told Forbes. “The RewardSphere platform … allows us to personalize item selection, communicate uniquely with participants and promote and engage with them on an individual level. We’re very fortunate to work with Oracle, whose platform was already powering some of the best retail sites.”

Earlier in 2015, Maritz President John McArthur told Incentive that even though RewardSphere is points-based, Maritz tries to model itself after any other consumer-facing reward site with easy navigation and a clear exchange rate between points and rewards. There’s an equally extensive suite of features for retailers to learn about their customers’ hobbies and interests, as Laura Quintero, a partnership marketing consultant for Southwest Airlines, explained.

“These insights lend to a more efficient and effective marketing strategy,” Quintero told Forbes. “We are consistently working toward understanding who our customers are and how we can better target them.”

If rewards programs like Maritz’s keep doing what they’re doing, it could be a win-win for customers and retailers alike.

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