3 Gamification Types to Use in Your Contact Center

How boring would life be if there were only one flavor of ice cream?! Baskin-Robbins loved variety so much they created 31 flavors, and then Ben & Jerry had to do them one better with 50+ flavors!

So why subject your contact center to just one flavor of gamification? Studies show gamification positively impacts employee engagement, and employee engagement impacts the bottom line. According to Forrester Research, a 5% improvement in employee engagement typically results in a 3% increase in revenue growth.

With such clear benefits, incorporating gamification into your performance management program is a win-win situation. However, gamification—like ice cream—comes in a variety of “flavors” that are best suited for different data and engagement scenarios.

Agent Self-competition

With agent self-competition, each agent has equal chances to win. My success is not contingent on your failure—just because my cube neighbor wins the challenge or pursuit doesn’t mean I can’t. If each player hits their goals, we all win. And within self-competition, are two subcategories:

• Untimed Agent Self-competition: Each employee has a KPI goal and, regardless of how long it takes, they will eventually reach it and earn the badge/coin. Each agent works at their own pace, and each agent’s goal may be different depending on tenure, topic, etc. For example, an agent can earn 50 tokens once they make 10 sales. They might make 10 sales today or within the next month, but they will eventually get there. This challenge is ideal for less-tenured employees and helps to keep new-hires engaged and motivated.
• Timed Agent Self-competition: Agents still compete against themselves, but in order to win, they must hit the goal within a certain period of time. For example, if an agent makes 5 sales in the next 4 hours then they earn 50 tokens. This challenge is great for a time-sensitive, all-hands-on-deck scenario, such as achieving sales targets by the end of the quarter.

Peer Competition

To the winner goes the spoils! Peer competition is what most of us think of when considering gamification—a clear winner who earns the prize, and now your cube-neighbor is your rival as participants have a finite number of chances to win. Within peer-competition, you also find subcategories:

• Top-down Initiated:  Contact center leaders create and award the prize. Most KPIs lend themselves well to this gamification type. Making the goal challenging yet attainable will go a long way in engaging the entire team, regardless of tenure. If you make the goal too high, your top performers may be engaged but your lower performers or less-experienced agents may assume they have no chance of winning and may not even try.
• Agent Initiated: Put agents in the driver’s seat by empowering them to challenge their neighbor and wager some of their own points or coins. The loser pays the winner the quantity wagered. This option provides a low-effort way to engage your highly competitive agents and gamers.

Team Competition

Nothing beats a little friendly competition against common “enemy” to unite a team—even if that enemy is just another team within the contact center! With this gamification flavor, different teams can compete against each other, bonding agents behind a shared goal while promoting positive improvement, and hopefully lots of fun! Plus, this type of competition can foster team unity as members are motivated to either defend their winning title or defeat the reining champs. Just like ice cream flavors, you may need to try more than one to find your favorite. But regardless of the type of gamification you utilize in your contact center, each “flavor” introduces fun and rewards for your agents, and delivers bottom-line benefits for your business! So, roll the dice and try out gamification today—your call center is guaranteed to win!