National Tyres rewards scheme

Tony Neill, Managing Director - Retail, National Tyres:

"The scheme has proved very successful in driving our business forward in a number of areas. The flexibility of the scheme will ensure it continues to be a motivational and aspirational reward system."

Overview

National Tyres and Autocare or NTA is part of the Axle Group and is the largest independent fast-fit tyre specialist in the UK. National Tyres service one million retail customers a year, from a network of over 200 branches throughout the UK.

NTA run a number of different staff reward and recognition schemes including long service, branch of the quarter, and branch manager of the month. They also run several different incentive schemes over and above the existing bonus structure. These incentive schemes were often sponsored by their suppliers so that for example, if staff sold a premium brand tyre, they would receive a gift voucher. However, this approach was very ad hoc, had very little structure and was very difficult to administer, measure and monitor.

The Solution

The first step was to introduce a universal currency that could be used as a reward for all the various incentives and recognition schemes.

Inconnection created the ‘Driving Ambitions’ points-based scheme which was launched to nearly 1000 users across 200 branches nationwide.

Driving Ambitions offers NTA a flexible and structured way to reward its staff. NTA employees now earn points to redeem against a vast choice of rewards listed in a manual held by each branch or on the dedicated website.

Via the website, participants in the scheme can check their points balance, review their details and see the points values of all the rewards.

Users receive regular newsletters, featuring competition stories, branch profiles, and updates on winners and rewards. In addition, they are sent an individual monthly points statement by post or email.

To keep all participants incentivised, the scheme offers a wide range of rewards, from the latest ‘must have’ items such as newly-launched CDs and DVDs, the hottest concert tickets, and the latest games consoles all the way through to higher-value luxury holidays, plasma TVs and home computer systems.

The Results

The scheme has been a major contributing factor in motivating National Tyres branch staff. This has brought about benefits to the company such as better staff retention, high morale, better team-working and better attendance records.

The scheme has proved so successful that NTA are looking to use the reward currency in other ways including a ‘recruit a friend’, branch scorecard and mystery shopping schemes. They are also exploring rolling out the scheme to other Axle group divisions.

The Feedback