How PayPal and Its Agency Engaged Employees to Increase Revenue

In recent years, the tech-based payments and financial services space has seen dramatic growth and lively competition. Dynamic startups and established leaders are giving customers new payment options and continuing to drive innovation in the field. PayPal, while still an industry leader, came under increased pressure to innovate to maintain its position.

The company saw a unique opportunity to fuel growth by tapping its largest and most engaged asset: its employees. PayPal believed that inspiring employees to become active, passionate brand advocates would drive volume and provide valuable product feedback.

Rallying more than 15,000 employees across the globe to become brand advocates required clear objectives, careful planning and impressive creativity. But behind these noble ideas was a harsh reality the company had to face.

For one thing, not all of PayPal’s employees were also customers. And on a more fundamental level, many employees didn’t even know what the company offered because PayPal’s product set had become so vast.

To turn employees into passionate customers, PayPal teamed up with MSLGROUP to implement the “Be the Customer” campaign internally. The partners developed a weekly video that was sent to employees to generate pride in the company through updates from offices around the world. Monthly all-hands meetings were also broadcast globally to unify employees and an intranet was implemented to update employees on what competitors were doing in order to foster a competitive spirit.

To address the knowledge gap between employees and PayPal’s products, a product fair was hosted at the company’s offices where employees could learn about products and talk with the teams responsible for their development.

Through these efforts, PayPal employees’ use of the company's services at on-campus cafeterias quadrupled, totaling 66% of payments. Employees also identified 300 product bugs and suggested 75% more ideas for improvements than in the previous year. All of this employee engagement brought more than 14 million active users to PayPal’s offerings and 29% revenue growth. The partners were also awarded a 2015 PR News Digital PR Award for employee communications in recognition of their incredible work engaging PayPal’s internal communities.

Follow Mark: @MarkRenfree