Game On! 12 Use Cases for Gamification

By tapping into intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, gamification has been a tremendous help to managers in boosting employee motivation, engagement, and performance.

But what does this mean in day-to-day contact centre life?

To find out, we asked our industry experts for their top ways gamification is making life easier for contact centre managers right now.

Here’s what they said…

1. It Makes It Easier to Action New Agent Skills – Straight Away!

Gamification is a powerful tool for enhancing knowledge retention.

Gamification isn’t just about hitting targets or boosting engagement; it’s a powerful tool for enhancing knowledge retention.

By integrating whole company targets with microlearning or personalized challenges with training schemes, contact centre managers can create a dynamic learning environment where new skills are immediately actionable, helping to cement them in long-term memory.

Contributed by: Ali Kamaley, Senior Sales, Odigo

2. You Free Up Time for Higher-Priority Tasks (Like Targeted Coaching)

As employees earn rewards by learning new skills and independently improving their performance, supervisors can devote less time to oversight and focus on higher-priority tasks like targeted coaching and helping employees exceed their basic KPI goals.

Contributed by: Liran Meir Frenkel, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Performance, WEM, NICE

3. You Can Celebrate Agents More Often With ‘Kudos’

Gamification moves the middle by driving targeted improvement through a progressing game narrative, team competitions, personal challenges, and segmented leaderboards.

Managers can easily celebrate milestones by giving employees ‘kudos’. Employees are also more motivated and engaged when rewarded with points, achieving a new level, and receiving new badges and real-life rewards.

Contributed by: Andrea Meyer, Content Marketing Manager, Centrical

4. It Makes It Fun to Fix Specific Problem Areas

Probably one of the main benefits of gamification is its ability to help contact centre managers target specific problem areas they might be experiencing, by making the process of fixing the issue fun and engaging for the agent. Not many other methodologies can say that!

So, for example, if your agents are routinely failing on compliance measures, assign points or badges for when they get it right.

You can do the same for acknowledging feedback, showing great empathy, increasing their pass rate by a certain amount… The opportunities are virtually endless in how you can tailor your own gamification programme.

The result? Agents feel more involved and visible, and you should see customer satisfaction rise as a welcome outcome.

Contributed by: Chris Mounce, Quality and Coaching Specialist, evaluagent

5. It Connects Agents and Fosters Inclusivity – Regardless of Age or Experience

It’s a great way to foster inclusivity, regardless of age, experience or background. Credit goes where it’s due, encouraging agents to connect, collaborate and engage in light-hearted healthy competition.

By leveraging gamification to facilitate social collaboration, contact centre managers strengthen team dynamics, leading to increased satisfaction and productivity among agents.

Contributed by: Ali Kamaley, Senior Sales, Odigo

6. It’s Quick and Easy to Align Individual Performance With Wider Business Objectives

Contact centre workforce management needs to adapt quickly in today’s marketplace of hybrid working environments and increasing digital personalization.

Gamification, with customized challenges and rewards, promotes greater employee engagement and self-motivation. The benefits extend across the organization, helping to bring performance goals into alignment with business objectives.

Contributed by: Liran Meir Frenkel, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Performance, WEM, NICE

7. You Can Reinforce Learning With Customizable Challenges and Rewards

Gamification offers new techniques for contact centre managers to streamline operations and enhance team performance.

By integrating gaming elements into daily tasks, managers cultivate a lively and competitive atmosphere, boosting agent engagement and morale.

Through customizable challenges and rewards, managers can incentivize top performers and foster camaraderie among team members.

Gamification also reinforces learning by providing interactive training modules and simulations, ensuring agents are equipped with the skills needed for success.

By harnessing the power of gamification, contact centre managers can drive productivity, reduce attrition, and ultimately deliver exceptional customer service.

Contributed by: David Johnson, Strategic Program Director, Five9

8. It Adds a Layer of Fun to the Daily Grind

Gamification brings a playful, competitive edge to the work scene.

Imagine having leaderboards, earning badges for your wins, and scoring points for hitting your goals. It’s like adding a layer of fun to the daily grind of being a contact centre agent or salesperson. And for managers, it’s a powerful tool to boost agent motivation.

When agents get into the spirit of this friendly competition, they’re more driven to hit and surpass their targets. This not only increases productivity but also positively impacts the customer experience.

Contributed by: John Ortiz, Technology Sales Manager, MiaRec

9. Agents Can Take Ownership of Their Professional Development (in Real Time!)

Clear, achievable goals paired with the tools, tips, and training to succeed mean that game dynamics like points, badges, and leaderboards don’t just signify success but actual professional development.

This allows supervisors to tailor training but hand over some of the ongoing coaching to AI, microlearning platforms and agents themselves, who become empowered by real-time visibility on their progress.

Clear achievable goals paired with the tools, tips, and training to succeed mean that game dynamics don’t just signify success but actual professional development.

This visibility allows them to take ownership of their performance, set personal milestones, and strive for continuous improvement, making management’s job easier in motivating and retaining talent.

Contributed by: Ali Kamaley, Senior Sales, Odigo

10. It’s Easier for Remote Teams to Collaborate – From Anywhere

No matter where employees are located, collaboration is enhanced through multiplayer or team-based games.

Furthermore, as employees are empowered through gamification, work becomes more fun and employee retention increases, reducing the costs of frequent onboarding.

Contributed by: Liran Meir Frenkel, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Performance, WEM, NICE

11. Agents Get a More Personalized Experience That Keeps Them Engaged

Real-time performance insights give a snapshot of an employee’s progress toward goals.

Real-time performance insights give managers and employees a snapshot of an employee’s progress toward goals.

Gamified learning and development and social sharing give employees a personalized experience that motivates learning and collaboration and keeps them engaged.

Contributed by: Andrea Meyer, Content Marketing Manager, Centrical

12. You Can Even Explore VR as the Ultimate Way to Onboard New Agents

Gamification is evolving, so supervisors can look forward to ever more engaging and multipurpose gamified content.

For example, could immersive experiences like VR training quests become a reality? Could it become the ultimate way to onboard new agents or simulate complex tasks?

Imagine a role-playing game, with a range of ‘characters’ to interact with, full of enjoyable and humorous examples of real-world scenarios, all in a controlled environment.

By immersing agents in a virtual environment where they face customer service challenges as part of a game, learning becomes more engaging and information retention rates improve.

Could simulated exposure to unpleasant interactions, or those that go sideways, even help with stress management?

Contributed by: Ali Kamaley, Senior Sales, Odigo

For more great insights and advice from our panel of experts, read these articles next:

• Tackle The 3 A’s – Absence, Agent Burnout, and Attrition
• How to Take Your Performance Management to the Next Level
• Stop Spamming! 10 Better Ways to Collect Customer Feedback