Purchasing Life Science Products
The following are Science Advisory Board members’ responses to the question “What incentive purchasing plan(s) do you believe life science companies should offer to their customers? For instance, for every $5,000 a lab spends with a supplier it would receive a 12-month subscription to a journal of its choice. Another example is that when a scientist has ordered the same item 100 times, he or she receives a $50 voucher, which could be applied to a conference fee of his or her choice.” Members are identified only by their screen name, job position, and geographic location.

"Frequent buyer" points and redemption towards a variety of options.
Lillian, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

"Reward Points!" We get them at the super market, Bevmo, airlines...you name it. And the best part, they're redeemable. I think it's time for life science companies to "step up to the plate" and start offering redeemable points to their costumers.
Roger, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

$50 voucher for purchase.
Baby, Principal Investigator, North America

$$$ to support publication if their products are cited in the manuscript. Registration fees at meetings for predetermined amount of purchase. Gift certificates.
Floyd, Professor/Teacher, North America

1. For every $1,000 spent with a supplier you receive an extra discount. 2. Offer occasional buy 1 get 1 free specials or (buy 2 get one free) for commonly used items. 3. Host a lab meeting for regular customers.
Maureen, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

1. Websites need to provide a phone number for ready customer assistance with questions, etc. Many times, I have not bought an item from a particular company because I could not get my questions answered in a timely fashion. Websites are great for repeat ordering, but horrible for questions that lie out of the website box. 2. For incentives, offer discounts on orders. I don't need journals or vouchers. Give me a discount on my orders, say, when I spend over X dollars.
Beverly, Principal Investigator, North America

1. Buy 1 get one free or buy 2 get one free. It will really work. Because we come across these schemes all the time in the stores, so why not in the lab. 2. Buy 400-500 $ worth of stuff and get a free gift for the lab. For example, a microwave, a small radio or music system, a 50-dollar voucher to be applicable to your next purchase. 3. Free shipping on orders worth 1000 $ or more. 4. I don't think offering special prices on orders more than 10 (or 20) works that well coz generally there is so much problem of space in the labs that if I need 5 cartons of pipette tips I wont buy 11 just to get a special price and then be worried about where to store them for the next 6 months.
Tarandeep, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

1. Free access to the technology symposia to regular customers 2. Free trials for new or improved products 3. Free subscription to the journal of choice. 4. Reduced prices and free shipping 5. Helping with techniques and troubleshooting with the products they sell.
Dhananjay, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

1. Give 1-3% money back when the purchase reaches a level (e.g., per $1,000) 2. Give points based on money spent on the purchase and the points can be redeemed. The idea is that the offer will allow customers to get something they really need instead of getting too many pens, cups, etc.
Zhong, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

1. Increasing discount 2. Bonus for journals, conference fees, etc.
Luigi, Principal Investigator, Europe

1. The organizations should be able to send their representatives (technically trained) for direct interactions 2. Free shipment should be considered (depending on the bulk of the order). 3. The products should be made available at a short time (maximum two weeks) and the prices should be in local currency only. 4. In case of new products the representatives should be able to solve technical problems (troubleshooting).
Tuhinadri, Professor/Teacher, Asia

1. With equipment purchase, maintenance should be free (or some short of such commitment by the company) that will assure the customer the quality of the product and no risk is involved in purchasing it.
Basant, Staff Scientist, North America

12-month subscription to a journal of its choice.
Anita, Professor/Teacher, Asia

12-month subscription to journal of choice for a certain amount spent.
Shanta, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

3% rebate to be applied to future purchase.
David, Principal Investigator, North America

A $100 voucher to be applied to a conference fee or a subscription to a journal is a good idea.
Lamar, Staff Scientist, North America

A 12-month subscription to a journal of choice and pizza gift certificates.
Renee, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

A big incentive would be free shipping because this is one expense that is difficult to budget (its different for every company) and which can eat up a big chunk of the budget. In addition, our purchasing agent is required to put an order on hold and get a separate authorization if the percentage of shipping cost relative to the items order is high (I forget the actual number) and this can hold up orders unnecessarily. This would also be a good reason to switch vendors. I currently have done that with oligo orders-I don't want to wait until I have four to order before I get free shipping.
Julie, Professor/Teacher, North America

A catalogue with price list, specifications with genuine comments from the users of the equipment.
Venkateswara, Staff Scientist, Asia

A credit point for every dollar purchased, with a bonus of twice the value for a new item purchased.
Stanley, Principal Investigator, North America

A discount or free item when a large number is purchased.
Mollisa, Staff Scientist, North America

A discount plan, for e.g., if we purchase a certain number of kits or spend a certain dollar value we get a rebate on a future purchases. Another suggestion for getting scientists to try new products: make trial sizes available, or offer a first time discount (50% off), etc.
Farida, Principal Investigator, North America

A discount should be awarded to repeat customers. For example, for every $100 spent 10 dollars are awarded to your account. The award money can be cashed in after $1,000 total has been spent.
Michael, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

A discount should be provided for frequent purchases without any compromise on the terms and conditions of the purchase or quality of the product.
Gopalakrishnan, Professor/Teacher, Asia

A graduated system of discounting which increases as you order more products from the company.
Auriol, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

A great incentive would be a promotion to buy 3 or 4 of the same product and receive one free at equal or lesser value. It is a great way to stock up on frequently used items every 6 months.
Melanie, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

A hint would be supporting the participation of researchers in conferences for every $5,000 the lab receives $75 to attend a conference of its will. Another would be to have special prizes in accordance to customer consuming rates. Another possibility would be offering a useful tool for the lab for every $5,000 spends (like pipettes, small centrifuges, magnetic plates).
Ana, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

An incentive plan that allowed flexible rewards: subscription, gifts, supplies based on: volume/frequency or by sub-categories, standing order or kits.
Alex, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

A journal subscription would be very valuable to companies like ours without an on-site library.
Kathryn, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

A lab clean-up offer, where a day is set aside for a thorough clean-out of the lab, and a company rep comes and discusses the latest deals, etc. but also puts on free beer and pizza!
Monaz, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

A loyalty scheme-monitoring of items purchased, and automatic discount once certain levels of purchasing are reached.
Tracey, Principal Investigator, Europe

A point system similar to what Science Advisory Board is doing would be great. Rewards should be oriented towards science, for example a one-year subscription to a journal, free registration for a meeting.
Stefan, Professor/Teacher, North America

A point to experiment and run trial runs on their products. Take tests and also provide questionnaires that they could run past their companies. Also take examples back to their companies to help them understand your product better. Provide the statistics on the tests that were run and give them a chance to run and prove your hypothesis that this product is the best one that they can choose, is the most cost effective and will provide that best service to them.
Daphne, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

A principal investigator should be able to nominate a PhD student as the beneficiary of his/her frequent buyer program. The PhD student could then in his/her last year of work make free purchases.
Stefano, Professor/Teacher, Europe

A reduction in function of the amount of product people purchase! A multiple laboratory (e.g., from the same organization) reduction.
Frank, Principal Investigator, Europe

A reward points system, like nectar points. Points for each £1 spent, and special extra points for promotion items, etc. Companies selling different but related products could join together using the same rewards system. This would encourage use of the companies in the group (as opposed to competitors).
Samantha, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

A rising bonus percentage.
Kaj, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

A scientist would receive some discounts or new (upgraded) product if they spend more than a sum (say, 2,000) in a year. Besides, the system of points that The Scientist use, is perfect. Say, if the same scientist who crosses the limit sum (2,000, as mentioned), for every 10,000 may have a few points of fixed discount (say 3-5%). Another way is in invitation of a scientist to participate on the conferences sponsored by a supplier, or to give an interview in a sponsored journal.
Dmitry, Principal Investigator, Europe

A set percent back on every purchase, like some credit cards offer. This would reward regular purchasers.
Linda, Professor/Teacher, North America

A slot machine style reward system where each order could result in the customer getting points redeemable for prizes.
Scott, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

A small gift e.g., ipod, watch, etc. could be given to entice the buyer to purchase again, a thank you gift.
Steven, Principal Investigator, North America

A sort of "frequent client" program, where we can get more for our money.
Carlos, Principal Investigator, Asia

A subscription of my choice for a certain amount of goods purchased.
Robert, Principal Investigator, Europe

A subscription to a scientific publication with a set limit of purchase order.
Sumeet, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

A supplier benefits from publications and authors benefit from exposure, so having up-to-date information on a supplier web site regarding publications that have used their products would be of mutual benefit. Linking an additional benefit to a publication e.g., discounts might introduce a conflict of interest, especially if it is simply a "methods" paper extolling the virtues of a particular piece of equipment, so it is debatable whether suppliers should consider "rewards" linked to manuscripts. One tried and tested formula for mutual benefit and "loyalty" is that a supplier provides necessary equipment...e.g., a free fridge or freezer for storage of reagents and an inventory service. It would be of interest to see whether this may ever be extended to "an incubator to grow cells in our tissue culture plastic and medium" or "a free power pack to run our precast gels" or schemes whereby such equipment is rented at favorable rates. Nonetheless, one of the best "incentives" for purchasing from any supplier is simply quality of product and service.... goods should be in stock, be sent expeditiously, arrive on time in appropriate packaging and be competitively priced.... traditional ideas perhaps, but no glossy web page or ordering perk will replace this bottom line.
Jorge, Principal Investigator, Europe

A supplier includes coupons or tickets with the purchase. The lab can reclaim rewards from a list of choices such as journal subscription, certificates for Pizza Hut or donuts store, T-shirt and so on.
Xing-Hai, Professor/Teacher, North America

A system which allows labs to accumulate points for every dollar spent. Points can be redeemed against future purchases or free shipping.
Karl, Staff Scientist, North America

A trip abroad with family.
Prabhat, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Asia

A voucher to be used for conference attendance for third purchase from the same supplier.
Lenuta, Professor/Teacher, Europe

Above examples sound good, although the real issues are everyday pricing and discounts.
Iain, Principal Investigator, Europe

Accumulate points for purchases to be used to claim against a useful set of gifts corresponding to the points. Could be useful lab manuals, products and electronics.
Sujaa, Staff Scientist, North America

Actually I like your example of giving the subscription to a journal of choice after spending $5,000 within a year with one supplier. Selection of scientific books could be also offered.
Ivana, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

Additional delivery costs such as a dry ice fee would be covered by suppliers for regular purchases.
Hyun Chul, Professor/Teacher, Asia

Additional warranty for all equipment purchased and attractive gifts such as latest electronic gadgets.
Anantharam, Principal Investigator, Asia

Admission to conferences where suppliers' products are on display. If you buy so much, you get a free pass to the meeting.
R. Benjamin, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

After a certain purchase amount all shipping is free.
Randy, Professor/Teacher, North America

After a given expense of a customer, companies could offer him the possibility to receive some complimentary or discounted items from a selected list.
Sanzio, Staff Scientist, Europe

After a lab spends a set amount of money (say $5,000) the supplier would forward a donation to the charity/non-profit organization of the labs choice.
Robert, Staff Scientist, North America

After a scientist has purchased the same type of product (like fetal calf serum) from the same supplier for the past 6.5 years, the supplier funds an all-expense paid vacation for the scientist and 2 friends.
Louis, Staff Scientist, North America

After purchase of a particular item so many times, the next time is free.
David, Professor/Teacher, North America

All of this discussion about alternate methods to purchase sounds great, but I have never worked at an institution where the purchasing wasn't held hostage by a looming bureaucracy requiring carbon forms and handwritten signatures and a lot of other 19th century ??XXJXX. The only online system that my current institution has is an oligonucleotide ordering system, and that system is based on the off-the-shelf system from the supplier, but due to the incompetence of our purchasing department (who don't even know what oligos are) they refuse to do something as simple as enabling the display of total purchase price. Keep in mind, the total purchase price is displayed when you order oligos through the supplier's web site directly, but my institution somehow disabled this function and refuses to activate it, instead telling me that I can calculate the cost of an order by adding up the number of nucleotides in each oligo and multiplying by the per-base cost. In short, these integrated purchasing solutions sound fantastic and wonderful, and I'm the type of person who does much of my personal purchasing online. But all of the institutions I know are held hostage by their purchasing departments, and if companies want to make headway with their online systems (which sound wonderful!) then there needs to be more marketing to the purchasing departments...I think that most of the scientists are already convinced. As for incentive plans, that sounds great too. But I'm not crossing my fingers, since the majority of orders I make have to pass through at least 3 administrators, inevitably acquiring errors and mistakes along the way.
Amy, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

Although I am as inclined to take "freebies" as the next person, I realize that it isn't actually free. I'd just as soon have the lower cost all along with no added costs to cover the cost of the "free" items or frequent customer discount. In one way, these offers are actually an insult to the consumers' intelligence.
Tim, Professor/Teacher, North America

Although I have no major difficulty with suppliers offering incentives to the LABORATORY, I do not really believe that incentives should be offered to individuals. I believe that incentives in the form of discounts off future purchases is appropriate if any are to be given at all.
Ken, Staff Scientist, Australasia/Pacific

Although the idea of a free subscription is attractive, it is hard to keep track of these kinds of things. The best plan would be a frequent-buyer program, where you get a certain percentage of your purchase back in the form of a certificate for free product that can be ordered online. That way you can save up a balance, and purchase an item you use anyway.
Oliver, Principal Investigator, North America

Amazon.com and phone card certificates go a long way in this lab. Not very lofty, but very useful.
Kary, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

An incentive could be to get some products gratis every tot. Of products bought or receive some money for some conference of choice.
Clara, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

An incentive I received recently was that I purchased so much of a particular chemical and also published a paper about a new assay using this chemical and the company said that was the best advertising they could have and so I get the product half price now.
Amanda, Professor/Teacher, Australasia/Pacific

An incentive to try something new from the company for free or at a reduced price. For instance, buy 10 antibodies from a company; get your 11th free or half-off. An incentive to provide a ubiquitous lab tool for free after a certain amount of money spent. For instance, a pipette tip company could offer a free pipetter after x amount of money is spent or a centrifuge tube company could offer a free mini desktop centrifuge that holds 6 micro centrifuge tubes after x amount of money is spent. An incentive to provide 10 (or some number) of pay-per-articles from an online journal for free after a purchase of x amount of money. An incentive to provide a science-related software program (DNA analysis, statistical analysis) for free after some purchase amount.
Madhuri, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

A purchasing plan that benefits ALL members of a lab (such as a journal subscription), rather than an individual, could provide incentive for everyone to order from that supplier.
May, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

ANY incentive offered towards the purchase of a product would positively influence my decision to buy that particular product.
Elyse, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

Any sort of discount or reward for repeat multiple purchases would be good, but what is most attractive will vary between different labs. So some choice would be best, e.g., a free or half-off order after buying 20 of a kit, or the conference fee voucher mentioned above. A choice is the key.
David, Staff Scientist, Australasia/Pacific

Anything will be a bonus!
Paul, Principal Investigator, North America

Apart from the quality of products and services, a supplier should offer a price really related to the amount of the order and account for the choice too.
Elio, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe

As a company employee I would have to say getting some added discount, or other added value (free shipping) would be the best customer incentive plan. As an individual or academic type I would have to go with some freebee thing, like shirts, gift certificates or something of that nature.
Matt, Staff Scientist, North America

As a faculty member at a major undergraduate university, I believe a nice incentive would be to offer travel awards to students within the labs of faculty that have purchased a certain amount from a given supplier. Presumably, this could be tax deductible for the company as well, if it is deemed a scholarship of sorts.
Guy, Principal Investigator, North America

As a graduate student, I was all about the T-shirts, laser pointers, and pizza coupons. Now that it's my grant that's helping to fund the research, I'd rather use a supplier that charges less per item, than one that charges more and then makes up the difference in freebies.
Michael, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

As a manager, I agree with your suggestions above; however, the lab staff love receiving T-shirts. My guess is that is a more cost-effective incentive to the offering company.
John, Principal Investigator, North America

As a PhD I believe that PhD's in general work on 'new' techniques. Therefore it may be a good incentive scheme to offer PhD's sponsoring for their promotion costs (in the Netherlands you have to pay for printing your thesis yourself). This way companies have an extra means to (start) become known, because PhD's would want to find out what's available on the market instead of going to the supplier which is the norm.
Alan, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

As a primary purchaser in a small company, every dollar I spend is one less dollar in my pocket. I think the best incentives are lower prices including free shipping. A lot of companies will tack on huge shipping fees, these can add up to 50% of the cost of some items. Just lower prices.
Ezra, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

As a researcher working down under in New Zealand, many of the products I use can be obtained from the same company, through agencies. These companies are often excellent at providing good, personal service and often do run incentive schemes, although not often with vouchers. The most useful thing that any company can do is to provide good feedback and troubleshooting for their products, so that the researcher can get the best out of a product. For example, we do a great deal of immunohistochemistry in my lab and information on the optimal conditions of antigen retrieval and Ab binding specificity is always sought. If provided, we are much more likely to return to that supplier for other things.
Jean, Professor/Teacher, Australasia/Pacific

As an educational institution we are not able to accept material rewards such as journal subscriptions, but incentives such as free shipping and discounted prices for repeat business would definitely encourage more frequent purchases.
John, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

As an incentive for using the same supplier in 5000.00 increments, I would suggest providing a 100.00 voucher to buy a product for lab use. For example, lunch refrigerator, lunch microwave, water cooler, lab copier, etc.
Julie, Principal Investigator, North America

As an industrial researcher, I have no strong vested interest in incentives for lab supplies/conference dues, etc., since I am not financially limited with respect to most purchases. Thus, the most likely incentives to get my attention are personal ones (e.g., rewards programs which offer merchandise for frequent purchases). Unfortunately, one has to balance these offers with ethical issues-that is, do I order more of a certain item than I need simply to get the free T-shirt?
Paul, Staff Scientist, North America

As I tend to stick to the products that I know work in my research (mostly cell culture) the issue is making it worthwhile to test alternate products/suppliers. The supplier will offer a "new/alternate" product free for testing and will offer a discount (say $100) on an order on the same "new" product if placed after testing.
Sean, Staff Scientist, North America

As most often research grants and budgets are limited, additional discount offers for meeting fixed purchasing amounts would be much better than personal vouchers or journal subscriptions which do not relieve pressure from project budgets. At all I'm not a friend of product promotion by ads gifts.
Roland, Staff Scientist, Europe

Automatic bulk discounts based on ordering history. Allow inter-institution bulk orders of custom items (e.g., short-life products in smaller package sizes). Free access to on-line journals, with number of articles available for download dependent upon amount spent.
Gordon, Principal Investigator, Europe

Automatic discounts based on volume of orders for single products as well as multiple products from same vendor.
Michael, Staff Scientist, North America

Automatic quantity discount. When a customer orders more than 20 kits per year, they should automatically receive a quote for volume discount.
Laurence, Staff Scientist, North America

Automatically dispatch significantly expensive orders with some free samples of related and new products (like they do in perfume shops!).
Sebastien, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

Based on purchasing patterns there should be special pricing on the items, and shipping and handling charges waived. Other incentives should include priority delivery of items and gifts such as T-shirts/pens/office supplies, etc.
Malathi, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

Because I work at a 4 year college, I'd like to see suppliers have more educational discounts. I admit that those of us working with undergraduates don't buy in bulk, but we are educating the scientists of tomorrow. If they work with a particular kit, brand, etc. they will be comfortable using it and probably want to continue in grad school or working as a technician. I'd ask companies to think of those of us teaching new scientists as an investment in their future.
Mary Rose, Professor/Teacher, North America

Being a lab head, a bigger incentive to me is to offer bulk discounts, or e.g., "buy two get one free" deals.
Catherine, Principal Investigator, North America

Being from a very small company (less than 10 people) it would take us months or even years to total up the purchases some incentive plans require. Incentive plans should be company-specific, at least in terms of company size. One idea to encourage customer loyalty is award us for placing an order for at least $100 every month for a year, and then send us free pizza or Mrs. Field Cookie coupons (something everyone in the lab can enjoy).
Barbara, Staff Scientist, North America

Besides T-shirts? Vouchers do sound good but as we are a small lab it would take some time (years) to buy enough.
Jim, Staff Scientist, North America

Best technical support, 100% quality warranty, free shipping.
Seshu, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

Beta testers for new reagents/products.
Jason, Staff Scientist, Europe

Better discounts for projected purchase, i.e., contracts and free shipping.
Dona Lee, Professor/Teacher, North America

Better of all it could be receive a voucher for the conference fees.
Vida, Staff Scientist, Europe

Better quotes and discounts to academic institutions.
Saikatendu, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

Better web sites seeing also the prices!-In many instances it is difficult to get the country-specific pricing, and there is always the problem with the hidden transportation costs! Suppliers should do it like online shops e.g., "AMAZON" and make their systems/pricing more transparent. In addition discount prices and rebating for frequently ordered products should also be possible when ordering online.
Andreas, Staff Scientist, Europe

Both examples are very good, but also travel or hotel vouchers for meeting, or discounts for products (1 free for 10, 50 or 100 depending of the product purchased).
Fèlix, Principal Investigator, Europe

Both of these sound good but may be a problem with our purchasing department, as a state institution. I would prefer to have credit at the vendor (e.g., for every 5000 I spend I would get a certificate for $100, or something). This would allow us to explore other products we may be interested in but may not be able to justify initial purchase.
John, Professor/Teacher, North America

Bulk discount e.g., buy 2 cases get 1 free or spend $200 or more and get 20% discount off order.
Laura, Laboratory Technician, North America

Bulk discount for future orders. T-shirts and similar incentives don't impress me.
Marie, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe

Bulk discounts for routine orders of the same items or for any single order of sufficiently large size.
Dirk, Staff Scientist, North America

Bulk purchasing incentives would motivate us to purchase higher quantities from one supplier.
Clint, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

Buy 2 get 1 free offer; always free delivery; voucher for lab meeting pizzas.
Gabriele, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

Buy 2 get 1 free or buy 3 get 1 free every quarter on different classes of items/reagents.
Yvonne, Laboratory Technician, North America

Buy 4 to get 1 free.
Weihua, Staff Scientist, North America

Buy one get one free is what people like the most.
Susan, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

Buy one, get one free/Buy one, get another product with discounted price? Get free samples before actual purchase/Provide data analysis for some sophisticated experiments/send pizza coupons.
Yavuz, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

Buy pizza for the lab.
Semra, Laboratory Technician, North America

By my opinion there must be more support of the purchasing company for congress attendance as well as for a routine experimental work.
Predrag, Laboratory Technician, Europe

Cash rewards are not always as frequent as material awards, so I think that an incentive such as journal subscriptions are more appealing. $50 towards a conference is not that much, and most grad students and postdocs can usually find some means of obtaining that amount of money towards a conference. Most PIs would not have a problem reimbursing their lab for $50, and there are several ways to reduce conference costs by only $50 (departmental awards, early registration, etc.) Journals that are not available online or are specific to the discipline we study can be difficult to obtain, so it would be much more useful to be able to get that as a reward for customer loyalty.
Bernadette, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

Certificates to places like Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com or Office Max.
Loleta, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

Chance to participate in congress or conference, offering the option to you give a speech or show your current studies project.
Juan, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

Clear and honest information about the product rather than market jargons are valued more by the users of life-science products and that is where companies need to put emphasis.
Rajiv, Staff Scientist, Europe

Companies could offer specials for frequent purchasers, for example, a buy 2, get one free type promotion.
Carol, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

Companies introduce new reagents frequently, usually accompanied by performance claims that make the reagent appear very attractive. However, often these new reagents are expensive, and do not perform as described. Purchasing new reagents requires an act of faith that frequently results in a wasteful expenditure of research funds. If companies would routinely make samples available when new reagents are introduced, a customer would have the opportunity to try the reagent before making a purchase commitment. This would build strong customer relations, and for new reagents that did perform as described an incentive to purchase.
Ronald, Principal Investigator, North America

Companies like Abcam offer already awards like travel money to conferences. My comment: For research, it is important to have access to information and availability of the most recent developments and related products. Companies that make these items easy to find on their website do a good job.
Jean-Paul, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe

Companies should offer incentive plans that are easier to obtain, even if they are lesser in value. I would rather have a small reward for spending $1,000 than a larger reward for spending $5,000.
Dave, Laboratory Technician, North America

Companies should offer the ability to designate individuals as members of the same lab, and for a certain amount of purchases made by these individuals, a "gift" to the lab, e.g., coupons redeemable towards future purchases or lab equipment of supplies, could be offered. I don't like individual gifts (e.g., CD players, cameras, etc.) because they blur the line between personal and business purchases.
Ioannis, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

Companies should try to keep permanent customers with some discounts and maybe they should promote attending courses, where companies represent their newest products and equipment.
Arvydas, Principal Investigator, Europe

Companies that receive orders in the thousands of dollars per year from the same lab should abolish shipping fees.
Giuseppe, Principal Investigator, North America

Competitive pricing with standing orders for some common reagents and consumables. A discount or bonus (other "free" equipment or reagents or consumables) should be offered as an incentive for brand/supplier loyalty.
William, Principal Investigator, Africa

Conference vouchers are good; T-shirts, bags, etc. are very popular as well. I usually prefer those!
Carmen, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

Companies should be able to earn points based upon the amount of money they spend with a company and use it towards a variety of items, including discounts and rebates.
Cindy, Staff Scientist, North America

Cost factors are always the most important in providing incentives.
Sue, Principal Investigator, Europe

Customers like to get incentives. And it is also a good way for companies to promote their products. I like to get some free stuff, like a hat or something the Science Advisory Board gives for people who answer questions.
Yongmin, Staff Scientist, North America

Cumulative cash incentives for future purchases.
Shankar, Staff Scientist, North America

Customer perks like mugs, etc. are popular, but I'd rather see loyalty incentives like buy 4, get the 5th free.
Timothy, Principal Investigator, North America

Customer specific permanent (1 year or more) discount on all products.
Joachim, Staff Scientist, Europe

Customers should receive points for purchases based on how much they spend, to be redeemed for either products from the supplier, or other interesting items.
Lars, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

Depending on how old a customer you are, and the company having set a minimum limit of money spent each year, I would offer products that the customer usually buys at reduced prices.
Alice, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

Depending on the items if I am using the same company over 100 times to buy several different products they should offer free shipping. And if they are out of stock for any product that I buy from them they should find that product even if it is from a competitor company and send it on time.
Efe, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

Depending on the total dollar volume spent per calendar year (in hundreds of thousands), a 15-20% discount from the catalogue price on each and every item purchased.
Louis, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

Discount for every $ spent.
Maria-Elisa, Professor/Teacher, Europe

Discount for paying in cash, taxes reduction and free shipping.
Ana, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Central/South America

Discount on further purchases from the same company.
Mikael, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

Discount on future purchase.
Monique, Staff Scientist, Europe

Discount on products that are purchased at a high frequency. Keeping track of coupons and vouchers is too difficult. I would rather have a 25% vendor discount for using that vendors products or deferred shipping costs for using a specific vendor. Journal subscriptions and travel money is budgeted differently from costs of research. Fischer has a nice point system. If you accumulate a certain number of points you can apply them to a list of products--like a frequent flyer mile program. I like that a lot, especially at the end of a grant--I can use points to keep the research going while I wait for the next grant to start.
Jeanmarie, Principal Investigator, North America

Discount program that included 'buy a certain amount of a specific item within a certain period of time and get one or more free.' The supplier would keep track of the amount you purchase and offer the free item when qualified. It is nice to obtain something free that your lab is going to use not just a T-shirt or other promotional item that is offered by the gross at conferences.
James, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

Discount with certain amount spent.
Kitty, Staff Scientist, North America

Discounts.
Jutta, Principal Investigator, Europe

Discounts for bulk purchases, or free evaluation kits.
Mark, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Australasia/Pacific

Discounts for frequent users. Free trial samples of products.
Robert, Principal Investigator, North America

Discounts for products after accrued spending reaches certain limit.
Haitao, Staff Scientist, North America

Discounts for recurrent orders (or loyalty plans).
James, Principal Investigator, Australasia/Pacific

Discounts on commonly used items or free shipping, which I believe is the more costly option for the lab since it depends on where the item is coming from. For a supplier who receives a lot of orders from a particular lab, free shipping is the most direct incentive to offer. Fisher Scientific as our main supplier of most lab equipment and consumables is very good in keeping this on our account. They give it to us for all orders since we primarily deal with them in our purchasing.
Steve, Staff Scientist, North America

Discounts on future purchases when a particular dollar value of previous purchases has been reached (spend $500 and get $50 of your next order).
Eric, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

Discounts on items purchased on blanket orders.
AnnMarie, Professor/Teacher, North America

Discounts on massive ordering, like if you buy 10 identical items over a certain period, you should get a 50% discount on the 11th purchase.
Oistein, Principal Investigator, Europe

Discounts on products of the company, promotional kits, journal subscriptions and/or vouchers.
Silvia, Principal Investigator, Central/South America

Discounts on repeated orders of the same product.
beauven, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

Discounts or credits on products from supplier, journal subscriptions. Something that would benefit a lab as opposed to a single person because I order for multiple people in a lab group.
Meredith, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

Discounts or loyalty programs.
Midori, Principal Investigator, North America

Does not apply for me, as this depends on having a contract with our procurement organization.
Volker, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe

Don't provide incentives, just reduce the cost of essential consumable items. Incentives are no good if your lab is shut down due to insufficient funds.
Patricia, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

Don't waste time on promotional items. Just give me the lowest price possible and free shipping. Also, don't hide the pricing info on the website. I absolutely hate having to call the company to get simple price info.
Phillip, Principal Investigator, North America

Each time a purchase is made the lab would be credited by points according to the sum of money spent. These points could then be exchanged for useful laboratory gadgets or discounts in life science product prices.
Raimo, Principal Investigator, Europe

Either discounts on future purchases or vouchers to spend on what ever you want.
Ben, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

Establishing a payback system.
Matthias, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

Every $5,000 a lab spends with a supplier, it would receive a 12-month subscription to a journal of its choice.
VitoEnrico, Professor/Teacher, Europe

Every lab works on a fixed budget. Shipping costs are a big headache for most labs. Often, when you buy a product, the company does not indicate the cost of shipping until after the goods have been received. In cases that involve dry/wet ice shipment, the cost can add up to quite an amount and final amount on the bill can be a shock. Why not have program that gives free shipping if a certain amount (e.g., $500) is spent, or include the shipping cost in the price of the product?
David, Principal Investigator, North America

Every supplier at least once in a year should offer huge discounts like by one and get one/two free (same/similar item by prize) and these special discount offers should be intimated to the all consumers by mail/other effective communication methods.
Satish Kumar, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Asia

Every Tuesday morning we look forward to our Invitrogen reps. bringing donuts. Talk about incentive to keep buying Invitrogen products! Few things can come closer to keep us buying from a company than food (short of just handing out cash).
Jeff, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

Extra discounts on new products directly relevant to scientists work.
Simon, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

Faculty usually have the major things they need, but incentives for a loyal customer should include little items in the $25 to $75 range that faculty could give out to their staff, graduate students and post-docs. For example, flash memory for a digital camera, USB memory stick (e.g., JumpDrive), or gift certificate to Apple's iTunes. These items could arrive pre-boxed so we could give them out as rewards for hard work or a creative idea.
Brian, Principal Investigator, North America

Fidelity card...more you buy, more discount you have (e.g., $1,000-1%, $10,000-10%, $25,000-25%, etc.).
Luc, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

For every $5,000 a lab spends with a supplier it would receive a 12-month subscription to a journal of its choice.
Kshitish, Principal Investigator, Asia

First time buyers should receive a 25% discount for 12-months on the purchases.
Allan, Professor/Teacher, North America

Food vouchers are the favorite in my lab.
Lawrence, Principal Investigator, North America

For $ spent a voucher should be sent to the lab to be used on additional purchases. This frequent buyer program (for example 1% rebate of total purchases) would encourage loyalty to a vendor and reward labs that spend more with one company. T-shirts/journals/cash should not be an incentive. It is lab money spent and the "reward" should go to the lab, not an individual.
Hal, Staff Scientist, North America

For $1,000 in supplies purchased you receive a $50 gift certificate from Apple's iTunes music store.
Randy, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

For a certain amount spent perhaps a credit of a certain dollar amount toward the purchase of future product.
Thane, Laboratory Technician, North America

For a repeated (say, ten times) purchase of the same item from the same supplier I would like to get a 10% discount for the next order.
Ioan, Professor/Teacher, Europe

For certain products, a company could offer "buy-one-get-one-free" (or buy two or three, etc.) incentives for bulk orders. Alternatively, there could be a "frequent shopper" incentive; for example, after the tenth order of a particular product, the next order of that product would be free. Free shipping is always a good incentive, too.
Suzanne, Staff Scientist, North America

For commonly used lab items, I would like to be able to setup a standing order. A price discount for a 1 year subscription would be great, but even better would be an assurance that in case of a backorder, the standing orders would get filled first and enough stock would always be held in reserve to cover these orders.
Joleen, Staff Scientist, North America

For customers who use kits and reagents as teaching tools, special discounts, free on-site workshops or demonstrations, and customer contact would be very important to me as a consumer. Don't wait for me to look for you at an ASM exhibit. Competition is fierce and I am apt to change loyalties to the agency which acts as the "squeakiest wheel".
Susan, Professor/Teacher, North America

For each item ordered from a supplier earn bonus points which can be used to purchase discounted items.
Steffen, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe

For every $1,000 a lab spends, they receive 10-15% off next order.
Meri, Laboratory Technician, North America

For every $10,000 a company spends with a supplier the lab should get a free dinner for all together to meet and speak.
Gudrun, Staff Scientist, Europe

For every $10,000 a lab spends with a supplier it would receive a $100 voucher, which could be paid for buying books.
Zhaowen, Post Doctoral Fellow, Asia

For every $1,000 a lab spends with a supplier it would receive a 3-6 month subscription to cookie of the month club or similar types of treat. This way everyone in the lab could share in the prize.
David, Principal Investigator, North America

For every $1,000 a lab spends, points are given that could be accumulated towards the future purchase of expensive lab equipment (e.g., plate reader, incubator, imager).
Jennifer, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

For every $1,000 spent with a supplier you receive vouchers ($50) towards products of the purchaser's choice either from the same vendor or a group of collaborating vendors. You can chose to use them right away or bank them for an extended period of time and use them all at once. This way you have a choice to purchase from multiple vendors so if you can try new products.
Sheri, Staff Scientist, North America

For every $1,000 spent they get a honorarium for them personally for a gift certificate for a major department store or restaurant. I think this would sway people to make choices on a personal basis if the institute would allow this.
Wendy, Laboratory Technician, North America

For every $1,000 spent with a supplier a lab would receive a $50 gift certificate.
Dorinda, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

For every $15,000 a scientist spends for supplies with a supplier, (which is about 2-3 years) he or she gets to pick a conference (that the supplier sponsors) to attend at the supplier's expense.
Carolyn, Staff Scientist, North America

For every $200 a lab spends with a supplier it would receive an electronic article (PDF reprint) of its choice.
Hector, Professor/Teacher, Central/South America

For every $3,000 spent by a lab for primers the price of the primer is reduced by 5 cents. This will be an incentive to remain with that company for the duration.
Tina, Laboratory Technician, North America

For every $5,000 (at least $10,000?) or more spending the suppliers can offer to sponsor money for the publication of an article of the lab in a reputed open access journals or else arranging or sponsoring a student from the concerned lab for a specialized training in a techniques in different labs.
Rangasamy, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Asia

For every $5,000 a lab spends with a supplier it should receive $150-250 off the price of equipment (list price $500-2,500).
Robert, Principal Investigator, North America

For every $5,000 a lab spends with a supplier it would receive a 12-month subscription to a journal of its choice sounds good.
Christina, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

For every $5,000 a lab spends with a supplier it would receive a 12-month subscription to a journal of its choice.
Alicia, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Central/South America

For every $5,000 a lab spends with a supplier it would receive a 12-month subscription to a journal or a textbook of its choice.
Massimo, Professor/Teacher, North America

For every $5,000 a lab spends with a supplier receive a 12-month subscription to a journal of choice.
Carlos, Principal Investigator, Europe

For every $5,000 a lab spends with same supplier it should receive credit towards future purchases, retroactive discount instead of 'bulk discount' set before purchase.
Jaana, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

For every $5,000 spent with a supplier, it would be nice to receive an incentive such as a voucher (say to a value of $150-250) to use against air travel to a congress of choice (this should not exclude use to purchase special fares or have any other restrictions, apart from perhaps a 1 year validity). Also, it is important that the voucher can be used by investigators working outside of the US as well (for example, I am answering this questionnaire from Germany). This voucher should be sent directly to the investigator (companies usually do receive information/names about/of individual scientists making the order) to avoid their loss in the Administrative labyrinths.
Osborne, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe

For every $500 a lab spends with the same supplier, it would receive a redeemable gift certificate (with $100) for academic use (for example, it could buy a academic book), or a free dinner coupon(with the same money)for each member to have lab size party.
Xiao-Lu, Staff Scientist, North America

For every $5,000 a lab spends with a supplier it would receive a 12-month subscription to a journal of its choice.
Patricia, Professor/Teacher, Central/South America

For every $5,000 a lab spends the supplier helps defray the cost of organizing a small meeting or an honorarium for an outside guest speaker.
Austin, Principal Investigator, North America

For every $5,000 spent the lab should be gifted a small instrument of their choice for use in the lab.
Kiran, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

For every $5,000 that the lab spends at a vendor, the vendor would send a "goody bag" with things like pens, T-shirts, and other stuff you get at vendor shows as well as plastic items like tube racks and boxes and sample size plastic consumables, things that every lab could use.
Elizabeth, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

For every $xxx a lab spends with a supplier it would receive a scientific textbook.
Stefan, Principal Investigator, Europe

For every €5,000 a lab spend with a supplier it would receive a 12-month subscription for on-line access to scientific journal.
Grizeau, Professor/Teacher, Europe

For every €5000 a lab spends it receives a subscription to an on-line journal of its choice. And mugs of course, one can never supply a lab with enough mugs.
Peter, Staff Scientist, Europe

For every 10.000 to receive 12-month subscribed to journal.
Geiza, Principal Investigator, Europe

For every $1,000 a lab spends with a supplier it would receive x credits for purchasing full text articles at sites like BioMedNet, ScienceDirect or similar.
Pavel, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe

For every 20 (for example) cases of a particular consumable purchased, the next one is free.
Heather, Staff Scientist, North America

For every 5,000 dollars spent by the laboratory with a particular supplier, the lab receives a $50 voucher that can be used toward future purchases. Additionally, if the lab spends 10,000 dollars in a single year, a $100 voucher would be issued. A tiered system could be used like this to reward labs that chose to spend large amounts of money with a single supplier. (i.e., at 15,000 dollars, another 100 dollar voucher, etc., etc.).
Kevin, Laboratory Technician, North America

For every certain amount (e.g., $3,000) either a subscription to a journal of the lab's choice, or the full expenses for a conference.
D, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

For every dozen times a scientist orders the same item, they get one free. Labs spending more than $10,000 per year in consumables get free shipping.
Shelley, Professor/Teacher, North America

For every order over $250, have free shipping.
Jennifer, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

For every order the scientist receives points of determined value. These could be used for any scientific purpose (subscription, reduction of a fee, etc.).
Julia, Principal Investigator, Europe

For every US$ 1,000 that is spent, a 6-month on-line full access to a journal of choice.
George, Staff Scientist, Central/South America

For every dollar spent, give a % back as points to be applied for future purchases.
Ivan, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

For how much you buy from a supplier you should build credit toward a voucher you can use toward their products.
Mary, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

For instance, for every $5,000, get a $50 voucher to use at the next order.
Carina, Laboratory Technician, Europe

For items that are ordered regularly, the company should offer either a bulk discount or an "order three cases, get one free" type offer.
Jorge, Staff Scientist, North America

For me the bottom line is the bottom line, so price incentives and discounts for high volume and/or repeat orders would be most important to me.
William T., Professor/Teacher, North America

For more than $10,000, the company offers an invitation to a symposium connected to the works of the consumer.
Andrei, Professor/Teacher, Europe

For orders over a certain amount or after so much has been spent free shipping would be nice. Or if a certain amount is spent by the organization perhaps a percentage could be given back to the institution.
Michelle, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

For purchase orders in excess of USD 3,000. (for reagents not necessarily equipment) from developing countries, shipping and handling costs should be waved.
Sephra, Post Doctoral Fellow, Central/South America

For regular costumers 1-5% of total sum for online subscription or voucher, with possibility for choice.
Dragan, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

For regular customers who place at least one order per month for one year, the lab would receive a gift certificate for a pizza party, or some other type of lab gathering.
Kevin, Laboratory Technician, North America

For repeat buyers, a stagger discount price of total purchase, e.g., for reaching 100% of committed purchase, a 10% discount. for reaching 125% of committed purchase, a 20% discount. for reaching >125% of committed purchase, 25% discount.
Himanshu, Production/Manufacturing, North America

For repeat customers, "gift certificates" to that supplier might encourage experimenting with a new or different product (i.e., the money doesn't come from our own or the lab's pocket).
Sameer, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

For scientists who use the same reagents time and again, reward them with a buy 5 get one free type of deal.
Monica, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

For the equipment they should offer attractive renewal programs. Our lab spends should contribute to an international grant program directed to help scientists in emergent countries.
Javier, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe

For the mostly used products, providing an accurate list of publication in which the products are used (cite-tract like subscription). Also an estimation of consumption with a subscribe-offer (e.g., receive automatically the product each month, including two free deliveries).
Veronique, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

Free attendance to specific seminars/conferences after $3,000 spent.
Gemma, Medical Technologist, North America

Free journal subscription.
Andrew, Post Doctoral Fellow, Australasia/Pacific

Free Journal subscription of choice.
Nick, Staff Scientist, Europe

Free kits, more incentives like gift vouchers for company products or for coffee, pizza, etc., bulk order discount.
Deepak, Staff Scientist, North America

Free molecular biology kits (e.g., Long Range PCR) could be given to regular/big spending customers, or complimentary registrations at popular conferences for students in a big group.
Ed, Professor/Teacher, Africa

Free overnight shipping.
Sally, Professor/Teacher, North America

Free samples of latest products related/similar to the ones normally ordered.
Jennifer, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

Free samples of new products.
Julienette, Staff Scientist, North America

Free samples of new products for evaluation.
Diana, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Australasia/Pacific

Free samples of new products in the market should be offered to scientists by the companies.
Özgür, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

Free shipping and frequently used item list specific to a lab/PI (to reduce searching for items).
C. Harold, Principal Investigator, North America

Free shipping for every item purchased first time.
Virendra, Principal Investigator, North America

Free shipping for regular orders, free subscription to a journal and/or gift certificates for books.
Claudio, Professor/Teacher, Europe

Free shipping is a huge incentive-we always check the suppliers that offer us free shipping for a product before we look elsewhere.
Tricia, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

Free shipping is important-it is a substantial semi-hidden cost.
Gordon, Principal Investigator, Europe

Free shipping is the most attractive thing.
Sadanand, Principal Investigator, North America

Free shipping if you order X or more number of items. 10% discount if the number you order is over Y or the value of the order is over Z.
John, Principal Investigator, North America

Free shipping on orders over a certain threshold (e.g., $50 or $100) as Amazon.com does.
Theresa, Principal Investigator, North America

Free shipping upgrades for customer loyalty or for ordering a certain dollar amount in products. Our traditional ordering process can take a few days to a week before we order the items. Regular shipping can take an additional 2-5 business days, which can delay our research. Allowing free overnight shipping on certain orders would allow us to get items quicker and get our experiments underway.
Kathryn, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

Free shipping. Percent reduction of the total above a certain limit (e.g., 10% off for orders >$100, 20% off for >$150, etc.).
Luminita, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

Free shipping. Order same item 10 times get the 11th free. Life science companies should offer incentives that the end-user (not the stockroom workers) can utilize-discounts and/or free items.
Julie, Professor/Teacher, North America

Free stuff of your choice.
Yongjian, Staff Scientist, North America

Free subscription to a scientific journal.
Alberto, Principal Investigator, Central/South America

Frequent "flier" points usable for journal subscriptions or conference fees on items (e.g., similar to that offered by Gelman for filter purchases).
Danise, Staff Scientist, North America

Frequent buyer discounts (for example 10% off all purchases if you make a certain number of purchases per year), free or discounted shipping.
Kyle, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

Frequent buyer or volume discounts and non-profit company discounts.
Holger, Staff Scientist, North America

Frequent buyer points redeemed for Amazon.com gift certificate.
Dan, Professor/Teacher, North America

Frequent buyer program-for every $5,000 spent, get free tips/tubes/reagents that the lab is using-or pizza coupons-always popular for group meetings.
Robyn, Professor/Teacher, North America

Frequent ordering of the same product or from the same vendor should be rewarded with points similar to sky miles or frequent shopper points. Points can then be redeemed for merchandise from that supplier. Just like with sky miles, you end up being rewarded with something that obviously has value b/c the reward was earned by purchasing the product. These types of programs create loyalty to products and vendors.
Troy, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

Frequent purchase program for discounts on future purchase.
Gregory, Principal Investigator, North America

Frequent shoppers get free overnight shipping.
Eric, Professor/Teacher, North America

Frequently, the shipment of products is expensive (for example in the case of products that should be imported and this it is sent by international courier) I have carried out purchases on-line in which the value of the shipment has been equal or greater to the price of the product. I believe that life science companies should offer to their customers a system of bonus to reduce the prices and shipments on the products that their customers buy frequently.
Martha Lucrecia, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Central/South America

Full guarantee for longer time. Full service for longer time. Discounts or free samples of related products.
Falk, Principal Investigator, Africa

General low-level lab equipment, such as pipetting devices, table-top 6 vial centrifuges (quick-spin), timers, etc.
Martijn, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

Generally, I believe that using the web to order will take me more time to find the product and the information about the product. Therefore, the company saves time and money but not the person who is purchasing. The overall result is an increase in price if I count my or my personnel's time needed to complete this purchase. The only incentive that companies should strive to offer their customers is efficient and rapid service so the scientist can also perform our work in a competitive manner.
Andrea, Principal Investigator, North America

Gift for the individual researcher ordering product, not for the purchasing department.
Nancy, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

Gift voucher that can be encased against purchase of any goods from the same supplier.
Bhupesh, Professor/Teacher, Asia

Give a deep discount for future order of lab supply.
Qizhi, Staff Scientist, North America

Give labs a percentage of their total spending (i.e., 1% of total purchases) to use toward purchasing more items, or perhaps for rewards (such as pizza, gift certificates, etc.).
Todd, Laboratory Technician, North America

Give them cash incentives. Nobody really cares about magazines or money for a conference as a reward. We all work too hard--give us the cash.
Ginnifer, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

Give vouchers for journal subscription, conference fee or a specified amount of the same item ordered, according to the amount a lab spends with a supplier.
Casilda, Staff Scientist, Central/South America

Giving repeat customers even better prices than those stated in catalogs and online would be nice.
Oliver, Quality Assurance/Quality Control, North America

Giving small grants to complete studies or to develop small pilot projects using the reagents/equipment produced by the Company or two-three different Companies (for example, Qiagen itself or along with Sigma and Invitrogen would financially support a project that I want to develop). I am not sure that they accept this idea. If I were a manager of any Company, I would organize a small internal fund to support the constant and valuable customers.
Eugeny, Staff Scientist, North America

Good customer's lab staff should be rewarded by a supplier representative visit to the lab for social/business outing at supplier's expense.
Lester, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

Good for business. After certain $ spent send cups, caps, T-shirts, or item with advertisement of their web site, phone#, etc., in a conservative design. American Express gift certificate is a great gift!
Carmen, Staff Scientist, North America

Good price to enable us to buy more items required for research in the limited budget.
Shubhada, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Asia

Graded discounts on products would be more beneficial than "gifts".
Philip, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe

Great discounts and free shipping.
S.E., Professor/Teacher, North America

Greater discounts for more frequent purchasing. Or, send them free food. Pizza, burritos or something. I'm tired of donuts.
Andrew, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

Greater volume discounts and standing order discounts.
John W., Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Australasia/Pacific

Guarantee that their products meet the stated specifications with a liberal return policy, if, after discussion with the user, it can be determined that the product was used properly but did not perform as expected. Also be flexible in providing "test" kits at a reduced/reasonable cost so products can be initially tested in the user's experimental system to determine if it will meet the user's needs.
Howard, Principal Investigator, North America

Have a pizza/lunch for the lab.
Stacy, Laboratory Technician, North America

Help in conference fees for students is a good idea.
Karsten, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

Here in the UK ordering using traditional methods is very quick and easy. Faxing the purchase order to the supplier usually results in the item being sent the same day (if in stock). I would prefer that instead of gift or cash incentives for buying stock that the company reduces the price overall or gives free delivery (often a hidden cost of a purchase).
Lesley, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe

How about buy an item 10 times and get the 11th free. It's easy and basic. The spending for a journal subscription is not a bad idea though! To order something 100 times to get a lousy $50 is lame. It would take years...and $50 is nothing compared to the cost of most conferences these days.
Raina, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

How about randomly choosing a customer and giving him some kind of prize occasionally? It's difficult to keep track of orders over an extended period. And sometimes, ordering $500 to win that T-shirt or whatever is not always that easy, either.
Michael, Quality Assurance/Quality Control, North America

How about throwing in free pipette calibration/service when bulk ordering tips!
Julie, Laboratory Technician, Europe

I think the organization should be awarded for their spending and leave the personnel out of it, therefore X discount for Y spending should be in order on annual basis.
Thorarinn, Staff Scientist, Europe

I agree that a 12-month free subscription to a journal of choice is a great idea. I also think that if someone publishes a hot research paper in one of the prominent, peer-reviewed scientific journals, such as Science, while identifying the supplier's for the products used in the research. The supplier's will pay the lead author for the expense of a scientific conference of choice or donate certain amount of money to a charity of choice.
Feng, Laboratory Technician, North America

I agree with the above mentioned examples; they are very valuable for me.
Lidia, Staff Scientist, Europe

I am in a commercial setting. Such incentives are not allowed by my organization, rightfully I believe, so this in not applicable.
Charles, Principal Investigator, North America

I am in favor of frequent buyer plans. If an item is purchased on a regular basis for a particular period, then suppliers should provide vouchers to obtain the 10th order at no cost.
Melissa, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

I am interested in buy 2 get one free offer. Another example would be to offer a free bag or T-shirt.
Kathy, Professor/Teacher, North America

I am not interested in freebies, what I desire is a simple web based method of ordering that would enable purchasing to obtain a copy of what and who I ordered it from. Large corporations have difficulty in implementing "on-line" ordering, unless they use a internal "preferred" vendor. For example, ordering oligos, why do companies use radically different formats for order placement (file formats, procurement...). I'd suggest that they look at Amazon--a few clicks to complete an order! Sweet!
Kevin, Staff Scientist, North America

I believe a cash back incentive program at the end of every calendar year is an excellent way to benefit both the company and their customers. Customers would receive rebate checks based upon how much money in total they have spent in purchasing the company's products during that calendar year.
Lauren, Staff Scientist, North America

I believe incentives should definitely apply, but perhaps they can make a list of choices that the purchaser can select.
Daniel, Principal Investigator, North America

I believe life science companies should give promotional offers to their regular customers by offering them new life science products related to their areas of research or interest. This will encourage the researchers to explore new and better options. For instance, while buying Taq polymerase for a PCR reaction, the company can promote pfu polymerase or Pfx polymerase which has better proofreading function. The company can also send free samples of such products to the researchers for trial which will encourage them to try it. Also some concession should be given when a researcher recommends a particular company to a colleague or friend.
Sapna, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

I believe life science companies should reward customers by reducing/negotiating the price of those reagents/equipment that the customer purchases most often. Reward the good customers and keep them by continuing to provide good service, good products and very competitive pricing.
David, Staff Scientist, North America

I believe that labs should receive a certain number of "points" for the money that they spend. For example, for every $10 you spend, you receive one point. These points could then be redeemable for certain supplies from that company.
Matthew, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

I believe that life science companies should offer compounding incentives, similar to the SAB Viewpoints, to repeat customers. For example, if a company were to offer a certain number of points to the buyer per dollar amount spent, this could be an added incentive continue to make purchases from this company.
Brandon, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

I believe that the only incentive should be through purchase price.
Alan, Staff Scientist, Europe

I believe the best incentive plan would be to have scholarships (or travel allocations) to be used by the laboratory students depending on the amount spent.
Michel, Professor/Teacher, North America

I believe you should acquire points that go towards a credit line where you can choose anything you would like from the company!!!
Rhonda, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

I can envision a scientist whose grant proposal is accepted, let's say a 4-year period. The scientist knows he or she has funding for a certain amount of time in which so and so much of a range of products will be used. I think a contract can be drawn between customer and supplier to deliver these products on a special discount. In return the scientist is only allowed to order these products from this supplier (maybe mentioning the suppliers name more prominently in publications will increase the discount).
Marcel, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe

I didn't like this survey, because I don't think it covered all possibilities. I purchase all of my reagents through an internal purchasing agent. However, this is not an "Internal Hub" that you described. Therefore, the subsequent questions weren't as applicable as they should have been.
Shawn, Staff Scientist, North America

I don't have any specific suggestions, but incentive plans should also be developed for labs that don't have big budgets.
Vicky, Principal Investigator, North America

I don't like incentives, would much rather get the lowest price possible.
George, Professor/Teacher, North America

I don't think incentive plans are a good idea. These plans and "gifts" actually cost the consumer so instead, the providers should simple lower their prices and spread out the cost of the gimmicks in reduced product prices.
Charles, Principal Investigator, North America

I don't think incentives are a real necessity. Life science companies should focus on understanding your needs and be able to respond quickly to your orders and needs. They should be knowledgeable and be able to locate you requirements quickly and provide some degree of expertise in the products they sell. But if you are after an incentive, then those companies that are major purchasers should be rewarded first with a discount. Salespeople may consider simple coupon vouchers to be handed out to the lab workers who order the supplies. Vouchers should be more related to personal treats as opposed to work related. How about Dairy Queen voucher for a sundae or something. These little things mean more to the everyday worker than another journal put in front of them.
Donovan, Laboratory Technician, North America

I don't think incentives should be needed-the pricing should stand for itself. Otherwise, a points system that could be redeemed to purchase items. I don't think it is correct to encourage an employee to spend at a site for their personal gain. It just encourages the employee to spend for their best rewards and not for the good of the company.
Richard, Staff Scientist, Australasia/Pacific

I don't think lab purchases (often made with taxpayer-supplied funds) should be made based on any kind of financial/reward incentive.
Paul, Staff Scientist, North America

I favor the idea that for every $5,000 a lab spends with a supplier it would receive a 12-month subscription to a journal of its choice.
Mao Sheng, Professor/Teacher, Asia

I feel that a major discount should be given for large scale ordering of a given product line. This is by far the most useful incentive to the individual researcher, who could use the saving to attend conferences, purchase other reagents, etc., as he/she wishes.
Alan, Professor/Teacher, Europe

I feel that many life science companies offer bulk discounts. For a small Biotech company that doesn't work. Competitive pricing and loyalty to frequent customers would be nice!
Jessica, Staff Scientist, North America

I feel that the incentives should be aimed at the scientist and should not be a gimmick or a one off discount, I agree with your example comment that the incentives should be along the lines of a subscription to a journal or subsidy to a conference.
Graham, Staff Scientist, Europe

I feel the issue is not incentives as much as addressing the traditional purchasing department concerns about checks and balances as well as negotiating the best product price. For example, direct web commerce circumvents managerial approval. Also it can be difficult to reconcile a purchase order, the shipment and billing.
Harry, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

I feel the valuable customers should gain some sort of recognition. This can be accomplished by sending some freebies along with the purchase (e.g., T-shirts, bags, pens, mugs, etc. with a small inscription, for example--I am a Sigma Aldrich customer, etc.). Also these customers should get discounts on their orders.
Rachel, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Africa

I feel we should get a percentage of the years purchases post-rated discount check or credit for the upcoming year based upon how much we spent in the past.
Richard, Laboratory Technician, North America

I find it ridiculous when you spend hundreds of dollars on one particular item, and in return they send you a free T-shirt or mug that no one ever uses. I would rather them lower the prices of their items or give free shipping. I think a decent incentive plan would be like a frequent “fuel-er” gas card; you play a certain number of orders over a certain value; say 10 orders over $200 each, and in return you get a percentage off your next order, like say 5-10% or a flat $25 off. When it comes to the tight budgets that labs are operating on these days, even that little bit helps, especially when the alternative is 4 medium sized T-shirts.
Jeremy, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

I find what is most valuable is getting a preferred discount for bringing in orders from different departments. This benefits my organization by standardizing on reagents and also benefits the vendor. Another valuable incentive would be to get reduced or special pricing for standing orders.
Richard, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

I guess the second plan is quite interesting and attractive.
Uno, Professor/Teacher, Europe

I have always liked to look for the most unique giveaway (i.e., cups that change color, coffee mugs that look like beakers, etc.). Creativity is a must!
Helen, Staff Scientist, North America

I have no comment here. But, receiving a voucher from the supplier should not be restricted to just "buying the same item for many times", but any purchase exceeding certain limit.
Hikmet, Professor/Teacher, Europe

I have no problems!
Walter, Professor/Teacher, North America

I kind of like the "toys" you can get with orders. Sort of fun.
Rose, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

I like just having a good service (knowledgeable people and quick response to questions) and fair prices. I do like sample packs though.
Bill, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe

I like the $50 voucher to be applied to a conference of choice, or $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com.
Patricia, Staff Scientist, North America

I like the above ideas. Either a subscription to a journal (of choice with a lot of choice is important) or a voucher-either to conference fee or towards future purchases would be good.
Tanya, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

I like the first option you indicated above as long as there were no limitations on which journal we could pick. The voucher idea is good but using it as discount on more supplies sounds easier. Trying to apply it to a conference fee which is already complicated enough to administer doesn't seem to appealing.
Tom, Laboratory Technician, North America

I like the idea of a journal subscription-that would be an incentive to me.
James, Staff Scientist, North America

I like the idea of when the lab spends a certain amount (e.g., $10,000) with a supplier, that the lab receives a voucher, which could be applied to a conference fee of its choice.
Christine, Staff Scientist, North America

I like the idea that if you are going to stick with one supplier, then they should reward you with either a choice of applying a dollar amount towards future purchases or offering reward gifts.
Thomas, Staff Scientist, North America

I like the idea with a 12-month subscription to a journal. A really good discount for items, if it will be ordered often, would be nice. The possibility to test some products for free is interesting.
Olga, Principal Investigator, Europe

I like the journal idea. Subscription to journals sound like a good incentive to buy.
Mario, Principal Investigator, North America

I like the points program offered by Promega, and I think other suppliers should do the same. Every item purchased has points associated and those points can be redeemed for lab equip. or personal items.
Sandra, Staff Scientist, North America

I like the primer point program Sigma-Genosys is having. You get points according to the ordering times and the bonus points can be used for different types of things including having one oligo for free.
Elina, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

I like to see incentives like free products for purchasing a certain amount (i.e., 2 for one) or discounted prices for buying a certain amount of products from that supplier.
John, Laboratory Technician, North America

I ordered a special centrifugation tube for a trial experiment. The company rep stopped by to let me know that another department has a cabinet program set up and that tube was stocked there. So if I needed it again I wouldn't have to place an order just stop over and pick it up. I appreciated that the company noticed what I was ordering. When companies notice what you are ordering and can refer to other items that may be of interest. Just noticing you order the same item and possible cut the overall price would be helpful to labs everywhere.
Kendra, Laboratory Technician, North America

I personally like Promega's frequent buyer's program. Whenever I purchase products, I get point stickers that are redeemable to merchandise. I think this is the best way. Sometimes, I order some products, but credit goes to ordering persons even though I decide what and where to order and use them by myself. I am not happy with that.
Dohun, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

I personally prefer sales or special prices on the next big purchase or special vouchers for next orders from the same company. The bigger amount spent by me, the bigger sale price.
Pavel, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

I personally dislike any incentive plan that has a short duration. By the time you learn about them, it is usually to late to benefit for them. Moreover, these incentives are usually too restrictive (you need to order a large amount of a very specific product). I much prefer long term program, points programs, etc. with a wide variety of redeem items, some "inexpensive" ones (like T-shirt or mug) and some nicer ones (like CD player). It also need to be automatic, with no need to collect stamps or quote a complicate promotion code you are never able to find. Keep it simple and stop changing them every week. Everyone will be happy!
Stephane, Staff Scientist, North America

I prefer not to join incentive schemes like that, as I value the freedom to change suppliers based on the quality and value of their products.
Jeremy, Professor/Teacher, North America

I prefer on-line ordering for its discount and ease of use. However, it is not available in our organization. I suspect there are many mistakes made by the internal purchasing and I don't get discount too often.
Haiyan, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

I prefer the discount after some numbers of a kit bought.
Andrey, IS Manager/Specialist, Europe

I prefer to receive journals or a protocol book which can be shared by all the lab members.
Lihua, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America

I propose the supplier to organize fidelity bonus as air company; depending on the amount of points accumulated over months or years, the lab could receive discount or free item.
Dominique, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe

I really like Amazon gift certificates, etc. that can be redeemed with a code and that is e-mailed directly to the researcher. Incentives that have to go through purchasing tend to get "lost" in the system and never actually go to the product user.
Katherine, Staff Scientist, North America

I really like the idea of earning journal subscription benefits, and vouchers for conferences would be great, but the best incentives continue to be either discounted or free merchandise from the vendor. There are several vendors that we spend a lot of money with that never acknowledge our existence, let alone give us a price break. Many companies know the advantage of offering 'twofers' and incentives, but there are companies that don't go out of their way to let you know they value your service. I tend to look for alternatives to these companies even if their product is good, just because I feel that repeat business deserves some sort of recognition.
Lori, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

I suggest to offer more bonuses with possibility of customer choice (free samples, related books, journals).
Jan, Staff Scientist, Europe

I tend to not believe there should be any type of compensatory program for purchases. By making the lowest available prices, companies make it easier for cash laden labs to purchase products. Incentives, and reward programs only increase the overall price of a product, when it could be discounted based on the actual price to the seller.
Ali, Staff Scientist, North America

I think a company could offer points to their customers which could then be redeemed for items from a set catalog. For instance, with every taq enzyme purchased you would receive 25 points. For antibody purchases, you could receive 10 points. The points would vary with the cost of the product. Customers would then collect points and redeem them for stereos, appliances, gift certificates to retail stores or to restaurants, etc. This would certainly benefit companies which offer a variety of lab reagents/supplies and would make them more competitive with the specialty companies.
Anjili, Staff Scientist, North America

I think a frequent buyer stamp program is very valuable for the customer. For every $100 in product purchased the customer receives a stamp. The customer can in turn cash the stamps in for prizes such as CDs, books, movies, gift cards, etc. The customer can offer these stamps as rewards to their employees or as incentives to perform better.
Reid, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

I think accumulation of the points towards any product from the same company would be a good idea. In this case when company promotes some products it can not only give a good price but increase an amount of points for each $ spend on that particular product.
Elena, Staff Scientist, North America

I think any incentive plan is appreciated by the customers; subscription to journals of interest or value vouchers towards a conference fee are great ideas to be used by scientists or PIs. Another suggestion (to improve the daily life in a lab) would be material incentives like; electronics (timers, pipet-aids, organizers, etc.).
Lacrimioara, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America

I think both the examples you have given are excellent ideas.
Peter, Principal Investigator, North America

I think every researcher takes pride in a good collection of scientific books in their office that are relevant to their research. So, gift certificates to Amazon.com or BN.com to buy the most recent book related to their field would be a welcome treat, especially due to high price for scientific books.
Robert, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

I think for high volume purchases, the companies should provide substantial discounts, from 30-40% off. I find myself buying $5-10,000 in consumables and I get no offer for a discount for this quantity of purchase. I am turned off by this and usually look for alternative suppliers in this type of case.
Alex, Staff Scientist, North America

I think free journal subscriptions or free additional high usage consumables are a good idea. But the crux of forcing change will only happen if the suppliers of biotech materials convince central purchasing officers in big institutions that making the change to online ordering is a viable, secure and cost-effective. In a lot of institutions there is no direct contact between supplier and user, and purchasing decisions are being made by people on the basis of cost, or preferred supplier, rather than on the basis of what is best for the scientist!
Tracey, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe

I think if the scientist has ordered the same item 10 times, he or she receives a $50 voucher, which could be applied to a conference fee of his or her choice.
Intisar, Principal Investigator, Africa

I think it is a nice idea that for every $5,000 a lab spends with a supplier it would receive a 12-month subscription to a journal of its choice.

Zongbao, Principal Investigator, Asia
Jose, Professor/Teacher, Central/South America

I think it would be a good idea if for every $3,000 a lab spends with a supplier to have about $200 discount or some gift equivalent.
Evgueni, Staff Scientist, North America

I think it would be very interesting if life science companies offer special discounts or have a special programmed that includes vouchers/gifts for young scientists that are setting up research labs in developing countries such as Brazil.
Cláudia, Staff Scientist, Central/South America

I think it would the best offer would be journal subscription of choice.
Suhas, Staff Scientist, Asia

I think that a bonus of journal subscription is a good idea.
Joao, Professor/Teacher, Central/South America

I think that a direct line to some expert within novel fields and/or a subscription to a good peer review journal if a client buy products for more than a time (for example, a stable purchasing of enzymes over more than one year).
Sylvia, Principal Investigator, Africa

I think that a journal subscription would be very valuable. With tight research budgets and libraries reducing the journals that the order access to some journals is becoming quite difficult.
William, Professor/Teacher, North America

I think that a plan whereby a debit card is linked automatically to the lab's budget would be extremely helpful. For an incentive plan, I think that but so many get one free would be a good inceptive as well.
Pamela, Professor/Teacher, North America

I think that an attractive plan would be for the supplier to track purchases from a department or institute. At certain predetermined levels, useful promotions would be available, such as journal subscriptions or discounts.
Timothy, Principal Investigator, North America

I think that as an incentive, a life science company should offer "gifts" that a customer can choose from based on a running purchase total.
Gregory, Staff Scientist, North America

I think that companies should extend to their most loyal customers (that qualify either by amount purchased or number of years) a running discount of 10-30% on future purchases over a period of time.
Marianna, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America

I think that extra discount should be given to people who order always the same products from the same company. Another point is to receive as a gift other materials or consumables to be chosen from the customer.
Patrizia, Professor/Teacher, Europe

I think that good incentive purchase plans would be ones that provide the customer with additional discounts on product price or free shipping. I think that the incentive should be such that it encourages the customer to return and purchase again.
Kevin, Staff Scientist, North America

I think that incentive plans should be geared toward future product acquisitions. I don't like all of these silly promotions for free T-shirts, coffee cups, etc. Why not provide the lab with a $50 credit toward their next purchase after they have spent a certain amount?
Laura, Principal Investigator, North America

I think that incentive programs are useful and I would encourage companies to use them. One thing I often find is that when offered the choice between a premium product and a standard product that I often choose the standard one to save the money-especially if it is an item that I already use. I would encourage vendors to offer customers "free upgrade" options so that premium products can be tried as desired.
Cory, Staff Scientist, North America

I think that it should be something of "real" value versus T-shirts and trinkets.
Jeffrey, Staff Scientist, North America

I think that it would be a nice idea if companies would recognize the birthdays of those who do the ordering and perhaps send a little gift e.g., company T-shirt or lab coat. Perhaps the value of the gift may increase if the lab has spent a lot of money with the company that year. I would also like to see companies use a points system like frequent flyer points. So that the more you spend the more points you accumulate. The points could then be redeemed for small things like Eppen