Gamification Comes to the Contact Center

The (lower than expected) cost of gamification

And the good news is that it doesn't take much to motivate and engage employees: For most, a kind word and public recognition go a lot farther than a hefty bonus, according to the "2013 Employee Recognition Study" by Make Their Day, an employee motivation consulting firm, and Badgeville. In the study, 70 percent of participants reported being motivated more by recognition and virtual rewards than by financial incentives, such as pay raises, bonuses, or company stock options.

In the same research, formal recognition by peers and supervisors was found to be the top draw. Other common rewards include online badges and titles or access to privileges like special parking spots or free lunches. Only 14 percent identified gifts or financial compensation valued at more than $1,000 as their preferred rewards.

According to Bhaskaran, some of FreshDesk's clients have offered gift cards and direct incentives to the top performers on their support teams, and a smaller number even tie the salary of support agents to their monthly game scores as a variable component on their paychecks.

"On a longer scale, though, intangible rewards, like seeing their names on top of a leaderboard and competing to win badges and bragging rights, are great motivators," he says.

Sims likens gamification to posting an employee of the month photo on the corkboard in the break room. "But we enable it to be digital and real time," he says. "You reward people for what they're doing and make it clear what they need to do next" to advance in the game.

For gamification to be an effective motivator, companies need to make all of the results public so team members can see where they stand compared to their colleagues, Bhaskaran advises. "Publishing scores for the whole company to see is probably not for everyone, but it definitely adds transparency and trust," he says.

This aligns with the Make Their Day study results. In that survey, 69 percent of employees said being recognized individually rather than as a team was more motivating; 76 percent were motivated by praise from their colleagues, and 88 percent found praise from their managers to be a big motivator.

That's why most gamification solutions offer a leaderboard feature. Freshdesk Arcade, for example, enables businesses to display a leaderboard of top performers in specific categories, such as speed in resolving an issue, accuracy in response, and customer-reported satisfaction scores, as well as the agent with the most overall points as the most valuable player.

Bunchball's Nitro solution also offers custom leaderboards that can be displayed publicly on dedicated monitors or TV screens. Or, with a single click on the user console, agents can see their current point totals, how many points they need to reach the next level, and the rewards toward which they are working.