How Can You Use Gamification to Boost Customer Engagement?

Firstly, what exactly is gamification? Gamification is similiar to what its name suggests, as it involves the application of the typical elements of game playing. For example, point scoring, competition with others, and rules of play. Gamification is typically used as an online marketing technique to encourage consumer engagement with a product or service.

According to a recent Gallup poll, brands that manage to engage their clients better enjoy 66% higher sales growth and 10% higher profits than their counterparts who fail to do so.

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‍Popular Game Elements Used to Boost Gamification in Customer Service

• Challenges

This is gaming in its most basic form. Challenges can be either team-based or individual and can range in difficulty from very complex to extremely simple.

• Levels

Using levels is a tried and trusted way to employ gamification in customer service. Reaching a higher level in a game gives users a sense of gratification and encourages them to keep on playing to reach the highest possible level.

• Points

This is another great way to keep players involved. When combining points and levels, where a higher level corresponds to more points earned, customer engagement can be boosted even more.

• Rankings

By using ranking in your games, users will be able to compare their performance against that of their competitors, and this keeps them coming back to beat the higher-ranked opponents.

• Badges  

Websites such as Foursquare originally made badges popular and they have now become a popular tool to boost gamification in customer service.

And now for a few specific examples of gamification in customer service:

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Reward Regular Customers with Loyalty Points

The concept of issuing loyalty points to regular customers is well established. Instead of just doing that, a business can employ gamification in customer service and making it more fun for customers to engage with the business. One example is a game where customers have to search for a daily deal and if they find it, they can earn loyalty points, coupons, or significant discounts.

Another option is to use a sweepstake, where you award big-ticket items such as paid holidays or tickets to a popular event to the winners. Every time a customer buys from you, he or she could, for example, earn one more chance to win a prize. Apart from adding to the excitement, this will also enhance the overall customer service experience.

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Use An Enjoyable, Informative Game to Promote Your New Service or Product

Let us assume, for example, that you are a sports retailer who wants to promote your new running shoes. Why not launch a racing game? This will provide your company with an opportunity to advise players on the best running shoes for the different terrains, to highlight your products along with the game. Players who participate could win prizes directly, or earn points that they can later redeem for other prizes.  

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Use Games That Teach Specific Principles

If you are a bank that is trying to expand its customer base, you can run a series of ads that try to explain why you are better than other competitor banks. An alternative is to create an online game that enables players to build a huge investment portfolio by making the right investment decisions. Branded advice can be introduced in the game to educate players about your bank’s offerings such as loans, investment advice, and so on. Your customer service skills will come in handy here.

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Use Competitions and Sweepstakes

Apart from being popular among members of the public, sweepstakes and similar competitions also provide your business with the opportunity to collect more information, such as the participant’s name, email address, and other information. Instead of big ticket prizes, another option is to award lotto tickets to the winners. This is a much more affordable way to introduce gamification to customer service, while leaving the door open for players to potentially win a huge amount of money. To keep players engaged, why not have a game with different levels, where higher level comes with the benefits of more free lotto tickets, for example?

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Sprout with Us!

We hope we have successfully explained what gamification is, and shared helpful examples of ways in which you canuse it to engage your customers across a range of different industries.  

When in doubt, reach out to Sprout. We offer a complimentary consultation allowing you to seek advice on our services depending on your business needs, we’ll respond within 24 hours.