It’s basic human psychology – everybody wants to be a winner. People are almost always willing to go the extra mile to win a competition, or to get a prize. While candy bars or other simple tokens do have the ability to motivate as prizes, the winner’s pay-off is much greater if the prize is lasting, like a trophy. Not only can the winner keep it forever as a reminder of their success - and a driver to push them to continue doing well - but others can see it, too, which provides another boost to the winner’s satisfaction with a job well done.
When considering how to motivate your contact center workforce to reach higher goals, it’s a great idea to throw trophies into the mix. They can be obtained as inexpensively or as expensively as you wish, depending on materials used, size, personalization, and other factors. And making a trophy the prize makes any competition feel more “real,” more substantial and meaningful, than if the prize were merely a small treat.
Trophies don’t have to be the standard golden cups, however. They can come in all shapes and sizes, so to help you wade through the choices, we’ve put together a list of the top five types of trophies you can use to motivate your contact center workforce.
1. Glass Trophies: Transparent glass trophies are the epitome of style and class. Perfect for a business award, they look great on any desk or bookshelf. They come in a myriad of shapes and sizes, and can be engraved with your contact center’s name, your employee’s name, or something even more basic, like “Excellence!” They can be a bit pricey, though, so these may not be the best choice for an award that is given out frequently.
2. Medals with Neck Ribbons: Nothing, and we mean nothing, is more fun than wearing an Olympic-style medal around your neck for a day because you won an award. Medals can be great motivators, because they stay with the winner wherever they go throughout the day, and can be hung up on the wall or displayed in some other way afterwards. They can be surprisingly cheap, even when personalized, and so are the ideal trophies for a competition in which more than one person can win.
3. Pictures on the Wall: Not only is it a great ego boost to see your own face smiling back at you from the wall, but the fact that an employee’s face is on display for everyone to see encourages other employees to comment and congratulate the winner. As a bonus, whenever upper management comes to call, they’ll be able to see at a glance who the top performers are.
4. Trophy T-shirts: Everybody wants the T-shirt, right? Been there, done that, got the T-shirt! Well, offering a personalized T-shirt as the prize for a competition is another way to boost engagement. Whether it simply names the company and competition, or is actually personalized with the winner’s name and accomplishment, your employee will wear it proudly. As a bonus for you, whenever he or she wears it outside of work, it will serve as advertising for your company, too!
5. VIP Parking Spot: This one might just be the most coveted of all trophies – not only is it highly visible, but it’s also extremely practical. Being able to park in the best spot in the lot will put a spring in the step of any contact center agent. And the best part of all for you? It’s completely free.
No matter which of these motivational tools you choose to reward your contact center workforce with, they’re sure to appreciate the recognition, and strive just as hard to retain their title the next time around.
