Step 0: Survey your users
We’ve said it again and again…but surveying your users is critical to getting the most out of your reward and incentive programs. Before you even start planning your programs, and far before launch, make sure you understand your target audience as best as possible.
Check out the example survey we’ve put together and edit for your users with specific questions and answers. Once you’ve collected your responses, you’ll have a better idea of what kind of programs to run.
Step 1: Design and Implementation
From short-term to long-term and incentives to point programs, RideAmigos can power a multitude of differently-designed programs. Use these resources to determine what might work best to engage your commuters, then set up your program within the platform.
- Incentives – What? Why? How?
- Incentive or Point Program – How to Choose
- Creating and Editing Incentives
- Creating and Editing Point Programs
Pro Tip: If you haven’t done so already, create a private test network using the Admin Dashboard then make yourself a member. Limit your new program to just the test network while you’re tweaking your language and configuration options. Once you’re ready to launch you can change the eligibility criteria.
Step 2: Launch your program
Engagement depends on users being aware of and excited about the programs being offered.
For long-term, ongoing incentives and employee benefits it is important that literature on those exists with HR or another employee-facing department of the organization, and that someone is available to answer questions at least periodically about employee benefits. You should also make sure information about these benefits is included in any new hire literature. Any time a new benefit is introduced, all employees should be notified. Additionally, every time a commuter survey is conducted (at least annually), it should include a list of offered employee benefits to gauge employee awareness of them.
Short-term programs intended to catalyze mode-shift or another behavior (such as referring a friend, etc.) should be advertised as heavily as possible. It is critical to the success of such initiatives that users are excited by/about them. Email announcements, postings around the office, campus, etc, as well as kick-off events are a great way to go. Kick-off events might include food, some flyers or a person staffing a table to explain what is happening.
Additionally, any way to tie marketing back to the incentive is terrific. For example, a kick-off event for a bike to work incentive might involve a visit from a local bike shop for free tune-ups or to give a bike maintenance demonstration.
Step 3: Maintain the excitement!
This step pertains almost exclusively to short-term incentives. If your program lasts for a month or two, you don’t want your users excited for the first week and then losing steam. You want to keep everyone interested and engaged throughout your incentive period to see the best results. To do that, periodically remind your users that it is happening through email nudges, surprise catered breakfasts, or random drawings from active users for small scale prizes (think $5 giftcard to the coffee shop around the corner).
Step 4: Assess results and repeat
The MOST important part of having a successful programming is learning from what you’ve done, making educated adjustments and starting again. Hopefully you’ve given some serious thought to what your goals with your incentives. If so, you likely already know what metrics you plan to look at to assess the success of your program.
RideAmigos reporting tools are excellent at providing you with whatever information you need to assess your program. You can access reports specific to your program or use system-wide reporting tools to create customized reports containing whatever information you need to determine if you’ve been successful. Additionally, a follow-up survey or even your annual survey are great ways to learn about the perception of the program you’ve run, what worked, and what might work better in the future.