How Gamification Encourages Customer Engagement

Dear readers, the 8th part of ‘Smarter Customer Engagement’ series shows us how Gamification can improve customer engagement in businesses. Customers now expect more than just value, convenience and simplicity from their preferred loyalty programs and brands must do more to set themselves apart from their competition.

“According to Gallup, brands that successfully engage their customers realize 63 percent lower customer attrition and 55 percent higher share of wallet.” When embedded within customer engagement optimization, gamification can allow organizations to not only help track performance but to also drive action and, in turn, help improve customer sentiment and loyalty. Here are some ways to go by it:

1. Attract new customers with rewards

In order to achieve this, consumers should be rewarded with virtual items (like points) for specific behavior (e.g. buying something, signing up, using the product, filling out their profile), and those virtual items should offer access to exclusive privileges and rewards, such as levels or prizes.

2. Customer onboarding and training

If you’re in an industry where you must teach your customers how to use your product, deploying a gamified environment is a perfect solution, particularly within a B2B context. One basic method: apply an interactive game element to the instructions you use in explaining how customers can make the most of your product. You can also use this approach to recommend updates for existing customers when you have a new version of the product/service, or when your customers are renewing their existing subscriptions or purchases.

3. Gamification for customer loyalty

A form of gamification has long been part of loyalty programs in Starbucks and other retailers. Purchases are rewarded with points or “stars” which translate into free merchandise. As customers accumulate stars they rise in rank and can expect more rewards as they advance. The Starbucks “My Starbucks Rewards” program makes use a mobile app to offer rewards for purchases.

An engaged consumer is more likely to stay loyal and buy more products and services. By introducing games, businesses motivate shoppers to indulge their competitive instincts to drive engagement.

4. Make games mobile and social media friendly

Discerning the importance of going mobile, Kate Atty, vice president of marketing, Clutch, says, “Mobile scratch and wins are a clever way to motivate customers to interact with your brand.” Using a link from a mobile message, you can direct the customer to a mobile web page with a virtual scratch and win offer. The customer can actually ‘scratch off’ the cover image to reveal a prize that that they can redeem at the point of sale or online.”

Similarly, Alex Gault, vice president of sales and marketing, DeepMarkit, says, “Incorporating social sharing into branded games will boost your company’s social media presence.” Customers could tweet brand messages or post to other social networks, with a specific hashtag used for tracking. Each social post translates to points, which can then be redeemed for discounts, gift cards, and other items.

5. Gamifying the customer service

Businesses are gamifying the employee side of customer service, but it pays to explore a gamified environment for customers, too. Using an idea similar to AMEX’s “Tweet Your Way to Savings” program, companies could add some excitement to the on-hold experience for customers while they wait on the phone for a representative.

Conclusion

A gamified environment can drive customer loyalty, reduce the number of complaints, increase product knowledge, and enhance word of mouth exposure. Having said that, not all gamified applications manage to meet their business objectives, and designing an effective gamified solution requires informed application of game design. It is important to remember that you need to use right game elements in a right way to create a unique game experience, which is fun, engaging, and motivating.

This November, learn the ultimate insights on building customer loyalty and reap long term benefits, at India’s largest ecommerce & Retail conference – eTailing India Delhi 2017! Click here for more details!