The first time the term “gamification” was used was in the context of computer software in 2008. But it didn’t gain traction until 2010 when it was more closely recognizable when the social and reward aspect of gaming was paired with software. But how did gaming and better customer experience suddenly begin to work together? How can gamification improve customer experience?
It’s all about understanding the psychology behind gamification and how people enjoy recognition and competition.
Table of Contents
How gamification works
Gamification takes into account pieces of game design that people recognize and then input it into an app or online to create a community under a brand. Each piece drives connection and social interaction, word-of-mouth, sales, support, and crowdsourcing into one place that the customer and the company can track.
How?
Let’s take a look at gamification in its parts instead of the whole to make this a bit clearer.
Game mechanics:
- Goals – goals make it, so a player knows what they are trying to achieve: beating the level, winning against the boss fight, objectives to save a character. In customer experience, this typically shifts to rewards! You guessed it, loyalty and rewards programs are the goals and objectives of gaming. The idea is to make these achievable stretch goals, but also have to be worked toward, so there is a sense of accomplishment when a customer completes it.
- Feedback – seems odd, but it isn’t. Immediate feedback is had in games, such as hit counters, level numbers, or the HUD (heads-up display). This is similar to gamification for customers, where they get immediate feedback on where they are in their rewards or loyalty journey, perhaps what they’ve already done toward their goal, and what they still need to finish. This response to actions allows customers to interact with the company, even when it isn’t personal with an employee!
- Progress – everyone likes to know where they are and where they are going. Progress that can be tracked in real-time or compared to others in a leaderboard is nothing new to games, and it’s also been brought into gamification. Customers can compare themselves to others, see how high they rank, and spark their inner competition. Sometimes just keeping an eye on how close they are to the end can drive them to do more actions quicker.
- Learning – games are also an engaging way to learn. Children often use colorful characters, songs, and easy-to-learn mechanics to help them learn. Gamers use this familiar use in their design, and so does CX. Scavenger hunts, hidden discounts, rewards for reading, sharing, or commenting can be good ways for companies to teach customers about their brand or products, creating greater customer loyalty.
- Accomplishments – Trophies or achievements are commonplace for any gamer. Gamers challenge themselves to “platinum” or complete all achievements they can get on a game as a mark of price. This is no different than for your customers, but there’s a bit of an added benefit. People enjoy being rewarded and recognized for what they’ve done. Recognizing and rewarding customers for their progress in your program is the point here for gamification and CX.
- Leveling – think more about the status here regarding gamification and customer service. Loyalty and rewards programs typically have hierarchical benefits based on someone’s level or time spent on rewards. Charting their “level” also unlocks better perks, but it’s a great barometer of that customer’s loyalty to the brand, organization, and products/services. It also creates competition when their level is visible to others in the community.
- Community – perhaps one of the most critical pieces of gamification is creating a community under a brand. This community has its own lingo, buying habits, social presence, and collaboration. Your community can do wonders for your marketing department by sharing discounts, events, specials, and more with their community groups, expanding a company’s outreach exponentially.
- Sharing – they say sharing is caring, and there isn’t any difference here. Referring friends to the program, sharing achievements, or gaining points for social activities is gamifying word-of-mouth in ways that work for the company. It’s a powerful tool in gamification to control the narrative and work on online reputation management in ways beyond reviews.
Why do we gamify CX in the first place?
So why did gamification become a thing in marketing and operational strategies? Because these mechanics are something customers easily understand and improve engagement! Think of jumping rope, for example. You may not be the best at it, but you understand the point. If you’re playing with others, you need two people who work together to swing the rope at a consistent speed. Then you have at least one jumper whose goal is to jump as many times as possible and most likely have the highest number of jumps out of a group.
This same thought process can help you give your customers direction, streamline their approach, and make it easy to follow. Gamification can be a great way to help your customers do a few things:
- Make more purchases
- Learn about the company
- Join a community
- Get inducted into the brand culture
- Give more information to a company so they can get personalized experiences
- Spend more time on a company website or app
- See the brand (meaning, there is increased visibility because they are checking in more often because of gamification)
This isn’t an exhaustive list, of course. Still, you can start to see how gamification has an impact on customer service while also having a positive effect on engagement and interactions across customer touchpoints.
What benefits are there in gamifying customer experience (CX)
The benefits of gamifying customer experience can be seen in improvements within three key areas: participation, engagement, and loyalty.
Participation
No matter what the system is, a customer must participate for the gamification to work. This leads to a natural improvement in customer interactions across the customer journey map. When handled directly, gamification can take customers from the top of the funnel to the desired endpoint.
Engagement
Through participation, the customer now increases their engagement with the company. This engagement can be linked to higher customer satisfaction, and higher CSAT has also been related to higher customer experience. Take one of the most well-known examples of McDonald’s Monopoly game. Chances for money, cars, free trips, and more (which is harder to gain) are accented with free food and items across smaller objectives customers can enjoy. This success makes people think of McDonald’s first for lunch, if for no other reason than to play the game!
Loyalty
We talked about taking customers through their journey and the funnel, and loyalty is at the end. Loyal customers are high revenue-creating, social-driving, and brand ambassadors. They also have higher customer lifetime values (CLV) and stay with a company against competitors. They are, in many cases, the customers companies enjoy investing in. They also help with marketing by expanding reach and community connection. People will sometimes be more interested in influencers and real people than the company itself. This leads to customer acquisition at a lower cost for companies.
How to improve customer experiences with gamification
Now that you have your gamification strategy, how can you improve customer experience with gamification? You can follow these tips to help you!
- Innovate – you can use hashtag campaigns or drive social media awareness for your customers. A great example is #BookTok on TikTok, where authors have “show your book” challenges where readers make short videos holding their favorite books and tag the authors for a chance to win free signed copies of books from their favorites. They purchased the books to do this challenge, and a lucky few will get the signed copies.
- Personalize – you can get to know your customers, their habits, likes/dislikes, needs, and more through a rewards or loyalty program. This is an excellent way of personalizing their experiences on your app or website. They see information, sales, or products/services that are relevant to them, making it more likely for them to continue purchasing!
- Community – never forget the benefits and power of building a dedicated community. Push them beyond just products or services to the brand itself. Starbucks and Coca-Cola, for example, are great use cases of companies that have entire communities behind their brands and are voracious users of their programs. A community can help drive customer expectations and learning as new customers entire the community!
- Analytics – gamification isn’t just for revenue. It’s also a great source of customer feedback that a company can use to make changes or improvements. Analyzing customer behavior through the programs while also adding surveys can improve customer experience by proactively increasing customer satisfaction before fires can grow out of control.
- Gamify – only gamify what brings value to your customers. It’s not about making sure, as a company, you gain from it, but about making your customers happy. If they are gaining value through your gamification efforts, you will see greater tangible and intangible benefits. Always make sure the voice of your customer is the primary focus.
Be sure to share your tips and successes with others, and remember to game on! Your customers will thank you for it.
