National City Bank�s Bravo! Recognition program

National City Bank�s Bravo! recognition program was designed to motivate 12,000 customer service representatives and customer service leaders to generate a 25% increase in referral volume. Located in 1,250 retail bank offices throughout the Midwest,these employees are predominately females between the ages of 30 to 40+ years. The theme of the program focused on acknowledging the customer service representatives and leaders for the important role they play in National City�s continued growth and success. Each month, during the course of the program, Branch Teams who achieved 100% of plan qualified to receive the Bravo! Party box. These custom-wrapped and designed boxes, themed by season or occasion (Valentine�s Day, for example ),contained fun items matched to the month�s theme, a congratulations note card, gift cards for movies and dining, a $100 National City Bank Visa Gift Card to use for the team celebration, and a personalized trophy. Each box was elaborately wrapped to complement the contents and featured messages that included �Hats Off to You!�, �You Deserve A Day at the Beach�, and �Smile � You Did It!� To further illustrate the value of the Team�s achievement, the Bravo! Box was hand delivered by an executive from the region. The Bravo! program incentives, which ranged in value from $5.00 to $500, were designed for both individual and team levels to foster competitive environments. Every quarter the 100 best customer service representatives and the 30 best customer service leaders received a trophy in addition to being entered into a drawing for 10 random winners to receive $500 awards. The program was launched with a four-color brochure that outlined the rules of the program and highlighted the incentives. Participants received continuous information about the monthly Bravo! Box and quarterly awards to assure the desired goals were �top-of-mind� throughout the program. And the results were impressive. As a result of the Bravo! initiative, 58% of the branch offices reached 100% of monthly plan at least once and National City Bank realized a 55% increase in gross volume of referrals.