Thank you card

Finding the perfect gift or incentive to reward employees and valued customers is a challenge for many companies.

Not everyone shares the same ideas on what is an incentive – an action incentive trip for one member of staff maybe torture where a luxury island break for another may be boring.

Employees are often looking for choice and convenience when it comes to any incentives or gifts they receive through their employers, whether it be freedom to buy what they want, or when they want to use it.

The US pre-pay card market is currently estimated to be worth more than US $5 billion. Corporate pre-paid spending is making significant strides across the world and is expected to reach at least $14 billion by 2010 in Europe. The pre-paid card phenomenon is certainly making an impact in the rewards and incentive industry.

Business performance improvement company, Grass Roots, specialises in tailor-made motivational programmes for clients and helps businesses identify who and how to reward.

It has introduced the ‘pure’ card, which carries the Visa logo, providing access to millions of outlets around the world as well as allowing companies with international offices run one reward scheme.

“The card has the flexibility of cash, but confers a more tangible and direct relationship to performance in the workplace,” said Grass Roots Middle East general manager, Jason De Winne.

“Today, pre-paid cards are the fastest-growing segment of the card business. They are being used for services such as gifts, for payroll disbursement, as general-purpose cards for spending; they are also the perfect way to deliver incentives and rewards. The first pre-paid cards began in the incentive industry about 10 years ago and since then, they have grown in popularity as an incentive product,” he added.

The pure card can be used by all types of incentive programmes and all industry segments, and unlike traditional incentive methods, such as vouchers or cheques the card is easy to use.

Pre-paid cards are not linked to accounts, but look like standard debit or credit cards.

Once loaded, the card can be used just like a debit or credit card at cash points or to purchase goods or services across a great range of the shops, supermarkets, petrol stations, or the internet for online purchases.

The Grass Roots pure card can also be customised to feature a company logo, programme theme and personalised with the participants’ names.

Reward earners are able to carry the card around with them with the idea being, when they use the card it will instantly remind them how they earned it – every time they open their wallets the corporate brand is reinforced.

“The pure card is a powerful way of saying ‘thank you’ in any language, while allowing the recipient the freedom of choice. Versatile, quick and convenient, the Grass Roots pure card makes reward and recognition simple and cost-efficient.

“We believe the pure card will revolutionise the way in which global companies reward the loyalty and efforts of their staff, customers and important business partners,” De Winne concluded.