Every company has incentives. Some are obvious: bonuses, commissions, contests, scorecards, performance reviews, and promotions. Others are quieter: praise, attention, flexibility, and who gets celebrated in meetings.
But here is the real question: are your incentives creating the customer experience you actually want?
In this episode, Denise Thompson and John DiJulius unpack how incentives drive service behaviors, why companies often reward the wrong things, and how customers ultimately feel whatever the organization values internally. John shares examples from Starbucks, Spirit Airlines, Blockbuster, Charles Schwab, Amazon, John Roberts Spa, Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, and The DiJulius Group's own methodology.
You will learn why speed, efficiency, sales, and profit are not bad metrics, but they become dangerous when they are the only metrics that matter. John also explains how leaders can recognize and reward the right behaviors, including ownership, personalization, follow-through, referrals, retention, service recovery, and Above and Beyond moments.
Key Takeaways
- Your incentives reveal what your company truly values.
Leaders may say customer experience is a priority, but employees follow what gets measured, rewarded, promoted, and recognized. - Customers feel your internal reward system.
They may never see your incentive plan, but they feel it when employees rush, enforce policy over empathy, or focus on transactions over relationships. - Efficiency metrics can create unintended consequences.
Metrics like average call time, speed, and volume are not bad, but they become dangerous when they are the only things that matter. - Not all profits are good profits.
Hidden fees, late fees, rigid policies, and short-term revenue plays can damage trust and exhaust frontline employees. - Recognition is a powerful teaching tool.
Culture is shaped by what leaders notice, celebrate, repeat, and turn into stories. - Great service must be behaviorally defined.
"Deliver great service" is too vague. Leaders need to define and reward specific behaviors such as ownership, empathy, personalization, follow-through, teamwork, problem prevention, and service recovery. - The best service incentives align with retention and referrals.
Repeat business, referrals, renewals, and earned sales growth are strong indicators that the experience is working. - Stories make culture scalable.
Recognition systems like the Milkshake Award and Bear Claw Award help employees understand what Above and Beyond service looks like in real life.
Quotes
"Customers do not experience your mission statement. They experience what your company rewards."
"What gets recognized gets repeated."
"If you reward speed, you get speed. If you reward shortcuts, you get shortcuts."
"Not all profits are good profits."
"Recognition does not always have to be financial. Sometimes culture is built by what gets noticed."
"Great service is too vague unless leaders define the behaviors behind it."
"The customer is the benefactor of what the company rewards internally."
"Your incentives should be aligned with the experience you want delivered."
"Profit is the byproduct of the experience you deliver."
"Employees will do what you tell them is important."
