Gamification in business is a hot trend for engaging both customers and employees. Skillful use of game mechanics can turn boring, repetitive tasks into fun and exciting challenges, with meaningful rewards for the winners. What is gamification, and how can you use it to boost call center performance?
Let’s start with the definition.
Gamification – is a term coined in 2003 by Nick Pelling. It is “the concept of applying game mechanics and game design techniques to engage and motivate people to achieve their goals. Gamification taps into the basic desires and needs of the user’s impulses which revolve around the idea of status and achievement.” [badgeville.com/wiki/gamification]
Gamification – silly fun or a powerful game changer?
To answer that question, we’ll look at the video game market. It is, after all, the origin of the idea and mechanics of modern gamification.
The Global Video Game Market (according to the 2016 Newzoo report)
Total worth: almost 100 billion US dollars.
Eastern Europe: USD 3 billion, with a 7,3 per cent YoY growth.
Gamification in US corporations (according to a survey by Badgeville)
500 employees of various positions interviewed
78% use gamification mechanics
91% say it improves their work experience
Gamification Done Right
Improved employee work experience sounds tempting, but…
According to Gartner, 80% attempts at implementing gamification will fail. Mostly because of a bad concept and design.
Conclusion – do not implement at all costs. You need a good concept, investment of effort, and permanent involvement. Plus a system to manage the game.
Pen and paper won’t get you far.
But… we are lucky working in the contact center environment. The software we use for customer communication contains functionalities that can be employed to gamify the work of your agents. Just with a little touch of creativity.
Gamification in the Contact Center – Done Right in 5 Ways
Here’s five tips for using only the existing functions of the Focus Contact Center system and its Focus Desk ticketing module.
1) Have new agents learn about their work and the software with skill-based routing. Configure it to only send simple issues their way, so they can earn experience before going to the more difficult tasks.
You could even set multiple “levels” that the agents achieve after a set time or a number of tasks handled.
2) The Agent and Campaign Targets module is perfect for gamification.
Set a target – e.g. “make 10 product presentation in one hour” or “get contact data from 30 people”. The system will automatically keep track of the progress, and notify you and the agent when the target’s achieved.
3) The Focus Contact Center software collects all agent work metrics – the number of calls, ticket handling time, the number of tickets resolved, etc. Display them as statistics and rankings on the wallboard.
The system monitors them in real time, so any success is immediately visible.
And all agents see how far they are from reaching top place or beating their target.
4) If anyone comes first – in the number of surveys completed, for example – announce it!
Send a message to all agents or display it on the wallboard.
5) With the software’s work management functions you can reward your agents in a way that is meaningful and relevant to them.
Like… everyone likes taking a break at work. Did the agent make twice the average number of calls in an hour? Give her an extra break during the day, for the rest of the week.
The agent made the most sales, or got the best opinions from customers? Assign him to the premium customers queue.
Gamification – Do It Right or Not At All
And a bonus tip – remember these principles:
- it’s not just for fun – the game should help drive your business performance;
- the players need to understand the rules – keep them simple;
- your employees have to agree to participate – forced “fun” effectively kills motivation.
0
0
0