UK-based consultancy Top 50 Companies for Customer Service has published a list of “four inescapable trends in the customer contact industry.” You’ll be familiar with the first three – cloud, omnichannel support, and channel convergence (enabling the customer to move between different modes of interaction with ease). But what about the fourth trend: gamification?
What is gamification?
Gamification is the employment of game mechanics to non-game environments such as innovation, training, and employee performance. According to the blogpost on Top 50 Companies: “The results of successful gamification can be staggering and there are countless examples of enterprises implementing game-based processes to great effect.”
The author, helpfully, also provides a link to “A comprehensive list of 90+ gamification cases with RoI stats.” However, none of these are contact centre specific. So just what does the application of gamification to the contact centre entail?
Gamification in the Contact Centre
This article on CRM.com says gamification means borrowing from video games the principles of virtual challenges, contests, and quests for the purpose of racking up points, advancing to higher levels, or earning rewards as a means of keeping contact center operators engaged.
“Gamification can be used as a means to get contact center employees more passionately involved with the companies for which they work.”
Meanwhile, Gartner has predicted that gamification will be a significant factor in customer engagement, not just as a call centre operator motivator. In 2012 Gartner said that, gamification would be an essential element for brands and retailers to drive customer marketing and loyalty.
Customer Experience Report identifies two fundamentally different approaches — co-operative and competitive — and concludes with some sound advice: keep in mind the end goal, namely “to incentivise results, encourage certain behaviours and ensure that all agents are engaged, whether they are the top performers, in the middle or an underachiever.”
Implementing gamification in your Contact Centre
With this in mind, it says: “A hybrid model of co-operation and competition seems to be the consensus in terms of best practice for contact centres … Understanding the culture of your contact centre and matching your approach to the desired outcomes are keys to ensuring that whichever gamification strategy you employ works for your organisation.”
And if you’re not certain whether gamification will work in a contact centre, this white paper from DMG Consulting has a handy questionnaire to help you make that assessment. The first five questions are real show-stoppers – and if you answer ‘no’ to any of them, DMG warns: “It will be very difficult to succeed with gamification in your company or department.”
Gamification in your Contact Centre
Implementing change starts with the right technology. Premier Contact Point’s cloud contact centre solution contains all the features you need for now and into the future. Contact us for an obligation-free demo of our powerful contact centre solution.
