It’s difficult to pin down when Gamification appeared in modern times, maybe it was The Scouts in 1910, the completion of tasks and activities rewarding children with ranks/badges. Although the word itself is a 21st century addition to the English Lexicon, the practice has been around for many years.
Playing games and competition is something that is a part of most of us, if not all. From a young age we made up games to pass the time and still today the same happens.
The evolution of Mobile Games, affordable Games Consoles and Game Based Learning has resulted in a general populous that plays more games than ever before.
Gamification in the work-place
Gamification is more prominent in office environments which have a competitive culture such as the Sales industry; incentives to drive productivity and leverage the employees desire to win. For instance a game played in the 1990’s, mostly in outbound sales call centres known as Pass The Bottle (currently banned). Played with a bottle of alcohol handed out to an employee, every time a rep made a sale the bottle would be passed to them. Eventually at the end of the day the last person with the bottle would win the prize.
Still today similar happens, if you work in the recruitment sector then you’ve probably taken home your fair share of proseccos. Some companies however are taking a different angle, for instance; Amazon this year introduced pilot Video Games in to their warehouses. Games with retro graphics work together with Amazon’s facility technology to track employees work and compare it with other employees. Those with a high score get bragging rights and “swag bucks” which can be turned in for Amazon-branded gear and clothing. The aim of this is to remove the monotonous nature of the job, to increase productivity, reward hard workers and increase employee satisfaction.
From leaderboards to interactive dashboards, the face of the challenge is changing, although the nature remains the same… How do we further engage our employees? The Customer and Employee Experience are coming to the forefront of all organisations today, both sides working in conjunction with one another, affecting the final outcome. In order to deliver exceptional customer experience, you must have an exceptional employee experience to support.
With many solutions designed to increase employee engagement in day to day tasks, companies that don’t offer these levels of engagement will ride the slippery slope of high labour turnover in the coming years as Centennials enter the labour market. The contact centre industry already experiences some of the highest rates of labour turnover for any industry, yet implementing Gamification could lead to a turnaround and a competitive advantage over the competition when recruiting.
Gamification Technology
I spoke with Stephen Ireki, Director of Global Customer Operations at eMite to better understand their Technologies capabilities. Quickly I learned that eMite offers a solution to engage, encourage and develop the employee experience. “An advanced CX intelligence dashboarding solution, like eMite, helps you make all of this happen.
It’s visual, flexible, and highly configurable by the business. eMite’s intuitive HTML5 interface allows users to create their own real-time agent leaderboards. Team leaders can recognise top performers with gold, silver and bronze podium positions. eMite’s built-in KPI editor allows users to design their own points-based reward systems. And eMite’s growing library of data connectors means that users can gamify their entire organization in one central place, not just their contact centre.” The innovations are available and the technologies affordable, what is holding organisations back? Why aren’t the majority beginning to gamify (where applicable) their operations?
The labour market is changing and contact centres must position themselves one step ahead in both Customer and Employee Experience, should they want to remain in a future with less brand loyalty, self aware consumers and a workforce that changes jobs like the weather.
Would you like to know more about implementing Gamification Technologies? Cloud Contact Centres? Artificial Intelligence? Contact Centre Analytics? Or any of the research/topics discussed in this article? Contact richard.bird@acrinax.com or call on +44 (0) 7960 285 338.
