Interested in increasing your credit card sign-up four-fold? TMG client Heritage Family Credit Union just may have the answer.

That’s because the Vermont-based CU recently achieved a 400 percent increase in the cross-selling of its credit cards when it hosted the Heritage Thoroughbred Racing Series, a horse-racing themed employee incentive program.

Grouping CU employees to form horseracing teams, the CU encourages their staff to cross-sell products like credit and debit cards, e-statements and online bill pay for a chance to win weekly prizes. 

At the end of the eight-week racing series, the team who has sold the most, earning the highest number of “furloughs,” wins a trip to Saratoga Race Track via limousine with dinner and tickets to a race. 

Since the program first launched in 2005, the CU has repeated it on an annual basis in the summer months. During game weeks last year, the program resulted in a 60 percent increase in employee incentive payouts as compared to payouts during non-game weeks.

In addition, July 2009 (a game month) saw the following increases as compared to June 2009 (a non-game month): debit cards increased by 36 percent; e-statements by 153 percent; consumer loans by 157 percent; and the big one – credit cards by 400 percent!

Congratulations on such a successful program, HFCU!