Connecting gamification to business results
Written by: Todd Coffman, Managing Director, Decision Sciences; Derrek Helmin, Sr. Analyst, Gamification Division
(View Author Bio)
Beyond the inherent engagement that gamification and performance-based recognition bring to your organization’s programs, one major advantage of using gamification is the incredible amount of data that can be generated naturally within the program. User behaviors, such as how they engage with your program, what they are learning, their achievements, their preferred methods of communication and their retention are all insights that can be created from the engagement data generated through everyday activity. These millions of data points can turn into actionable strategy.
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Below are examples of how gamification and performance-based rewards drive behaviors with significant business value, all while delivering something fun, engaging and captivating.
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Affecting outcomes by influencing behaviors
In an ever-changing business landscape, the need to get the most up-to-date information to your employees can mean the difference between gaining and losing a prospective customer. One telecommunications client wanted to gamify their rewards and recognition platform to drive more engagement and develop a program that allowed them to elevate the company’s latest and greatest products and initiatives. Users were recognized for completing new available training within the first 30-days of launch with points and progression through their level structure, earning more points as they leveled up. The hypothesis was that a more informed audience would be able to deliver a better customer experience, whether it be through sales conversations in store or service technicians out in the field working on installs or repairs.
Prior to launch, the company saw an approximately 50% adoption rate of the platform over its lifespan across all roles within the company. After the program launched, word of mouth spread around about this new program and the opportunity to be recognized for consuming all the content their communications team developed; adoption began to steadily rise. Today, adoption sits consistently around 90% of the audience in the platform, with nearly 40% of the audience active in any given month. This boost to engagement within the platform and all the content consumed contributed to an 8 point rise in NPS scores after the first year.
Taking a closer look into this client’s inbound sales team (call center sales employees who were systematically directed to clients wishing to purchase service or change their current plans), we see the link of engagement leads to improved performance. After analyzing a year’s worth of sales data, we found that highly engaged employees in this group completed over 7x as many mobile-focused learning modules (missions) compared to less engaged users. When surveyed, 85% of respondents felt what they learned directly impacted their sales conversations and the data confirmed this. That highly engaged group of users delivered 70% higher performance in mobile units sold when compared to users who had engaged considerably less over the course of the year and continued to widen the gap consistently quarter over quarter.
Influencing channel loyalty with learning and performance recognition
Our clients who work with channel partners consistently have one thing at the top of their list of needs: loyalty and mindshare. In a sea of competitors, how can you capture the attention of channel partners and agents to be top of mind during conversations with their prospective clients? An agent’s time is limited and if they are going to spend any time researching a new product or personal line, you want them to spend it learning and earning with you. An insurance company wanted to gamify the experience to learn about their products and reward the time these agents were spending with their brand.
One personal and commercial lines client wanted to reward their channel partners for both writing new policies with them, as well as learning about new tools and initiatives going on at the company. They did so by developing missions around everything a new agent may want to know about: who their territory director is, what coverage options they have available, how to use their eSignature tool, how to insure specific businesses, etc. This resulted in nearly 90,000 hours of non-required education delivered to over 20,000 agents, with users getting recognized for every completion instantly. This saved the client over $6 million in projected instructor-led training costs. The client also saw a 90% year-over-year lift in policies issued after just the first year.
One of their most effective communication tools over the years has been a weekly newsletter emailed from the president of the company, highlighting the latest and greatest initiatives and products. Like most things, these can get lost in a busy inbox. After launching the gamification program and weekly missions, rewarding users for opening the newsletter and issuing a short knowledge check around its content, the newsletter web traffic increased 150% compared to pre-launch benchmarks.
Through gamification, overall mindshare and loyalty are greatly impacted. Another client in the channel space who added gamification around their training and knowledge articles surveyed their agents at the start of the program and again three months later. Over that time, agents who answered either a 9 or a 10 to the question “How likely are you to recommend us to your customers” rose by over 30% compared to the pre-survey.
Driving revenue and customer satisfaction through leaderboards and performance-based missions
Providing timely recognition around performance elevates every achievement and shows your employees or sales people how much each success means to your organization. Whether rewarding for hitting certain KPI’s or recognizing top achievers in the spirit of competition, receiving fast feedback that informs users of their progress helps them continue to do the extra.
A client in the cruise line industry wanted to gamify and recognize the hard work their call center employees were doing daily — fielding prospective client calls and helping them book the best vacations possible. To gamify this process, they implemented a performance-recognition set of missions, rewarding their employees for every perfect post-call survey score, for every booking over a certain value, keeping their average call time within a certain range and achieving certain conversion rates. They received award points to use for merchandise or experiences and saw their progress toward achieving meaningful metrics shared on leaderboards.
In the few short months after the program launched, they were seeing results. After two months into the program, employees receiving perfect post-call customer scores each month rose by 20%. The number of perfect scores earned in a month per user rose by 15%. This meant more people were delivering even higher levels of customer service, with the main change in their daily workflow being the addition of greater insight into their performance (every day) and recognizing their accomplishments in the moment.
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Gamification makes it easy to both capture the attention of your audience and recognize their progress by implementing quick wins and a drive to achieve that next reward or a higher spot on the leaderboard. Visit our gamification services page to learn more about using game mechanics to drive engagement and business results.
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