Commissions to Non-Sales Personnel

HRanna

We are a garage door installation/service business. We have service people (paid hourly) who, in the course of their jobs out in the field, oftentimes have the opportunity to make sales. They have asked about the commissions for those sales, and we have been considering creating some sort of incentive program to reward them for the sales they generate.

Has anyone had a situation like this? What pay/commission structure have you used? And have you encountered any problems with the program?

I am concerned with offering the opportunity for commissions, then having these people spend a disproportionate amount of time trying to make sales instead of handling their service duties.

Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated.

System

I work for a newspaper and we have a similar situation with our circulation employees. Their primary duties are to deliver down routes, redeliver complaints, customer service type issues. We have contests periodically and either give away money or prizes for xx amount of starts. Years ago it was part of their job description to sell xx subscriptions, but then we had to start discipline if they didn't meet requirements.
Maybe you could try a contest?
the system we used was that they were paid a certain percentage for every subsciption they sold. It varied on the type, i.e. weekend only, daily, etc.
Hope this helps.