British Gas Signs Up for P&MMís Spree Card

British Gas is the first confirmed client for P&MMís Spree Card - the first pre paid Visa debit card concept for the UK incentive market.

Two thousand cards were issues in the first week. This makes Spree the first prepaid reward debit card to be up and running in the UK using the Visa pre-paid platform. Branded ëQdosí, British Gas has personalised the Spree Card as part of a strategic internal rewards programme.

Nicola Mayling, Incentive and Rewards manager at British Gas commented: We have been delighted with the response to the new card. British Gas has long been committed to ensuring that staff are properly recognised for their contribution within the business and for delivering excellent customer service. We are constantly looking at ways to improve the benefits we offer ñand our research pointed strongly to a pre-paid card as the next step. Our staff have told us they want us to be innovative. We are pleased to be able to offer a leading edge product that we know will increase our staff satisfaction levels.î

The Spree Card management system has also run its full operational circle, with users being able to activate, check their balance and load their card either on line or via a 24-hour Interactive Voice Response (IVR) service. P&MM has also set up a working-hours customer service call centre to answer any queries or assistance with card activation, as well as a 24 hour lost and stolen help line. Over 3700 transactions were successfully processed within the first week of the card being issued to users.

The Spree Card concept, which was designed by P&MM for incentive rewards, bonus and commission payments, operates on the Visa debit platform. This enables users the freedom to spend their reward credit at any Visa card-accepting merchant and provides positive brand reinforcement every time a purchase is made.

On the issuing of the first wave of Spree Cards, John Sylvester, Director of P&MMís Motivation & Incentive division commented: ìWeíre amazed at the take up weíve had in the very first week of launching the card. Our research into developing Spree has indicated new areas of growth and development for the UK incentive market. Weíre also delighted at the level and quality of response now that it is fully operational and is proving a success.

Although P&MM expects to have up to 10 000 Spree Cards active across key UK companies within the next six months, the performance improvement company has further plans for the concept: ìIn the near future, we envisage the card to provide a much wider use as a promotional mechanism. With this in mind, we expect to see 75% of traditional incentive voucher business switching to plastic in the next five years. Whilst we have thought of a number of uses for the card we are coming across a whole range new requirements almost daily as we speak to our clients - of particular interest is the potential use to provide ’branded cash’ to support any type of cash back mechanism. I expect this to be of particular interest to the FMCG brands.î Commented John Sylvester.