Most parents know the trick to getting a stubborn toddler to do your bidding do what you ask is to turn the troublesome task into a game. Even in school, the best teachers were the ones who understood that learning was just better if it included the opportunity to beat classmates in a battle of wills in order to earn prizes.
Apparently it’s also a technique that works with adults.
Gamification, otherwise known as ‘making not fun things fun’ incorporates game mechanics into non-gaming contexts to help promote user engagement. Offerings from key vendors like Badgeville, Bunchball, Gigya, and Pug Pharm all incorporate elements like points, badges, leaderboards, challenges and rewards to get people to participate in anything from loyalty programs to training sessions.
It’s a popular approach, and the Global Gamification Market is expected to skyrocket at a CAGR of 68.4 percent from 2013-2018.
The market is split between consumer-driven applications, where a user downloads the game for their own purpose and enterprise-driven applications, where enterprises customize games for their organizations, with the consumer segment edging out enterprise applications, 58.3 to 41.7 percent.
However, by the end of 2018, enterprise-driven apps will be the head honchos, with a market share of 64.3 percent.
Why Are Enterprises Turning to Gamification?
Need to Improve Customer Interaction
More competition means enterprises are relying even more on consumer insights such as purchasing behavior information in order to understand what customers want. Decision makers can use information gleaned through gamification applications to monitor the effectiveness of marketing strategies and ensure the company is in line with its target customer base.
Need for Rapid Market Response
Enterprises have to react quickly to changing circumstances, and the real-time information about consumer behavior provided by gamification applications can be incredibly useful here as it enables improvement in market responsiveness as well as in decision-making capabilities. Organizations are using data gathered to gain competitive advantage and improve their customer-facing strategies. Sales, service, marketing, and customer data are efficiently being transformed into productive information because of gamification applications.
Need to Improve Customer Relationships
Customer experience management has become beyond essential, so many organizations are investing in customer management solutions. As a result, enterprises are placing more emphasis on marketing their products rather than merely selling them.
An effectively managed customer experience ensures maximized customer satisfaction, and this is critical to survive the competition in today’s challenging business environment. Gamification solutions helps enterprises to improve their customer relationships but providing real-time information about the customer experience.
Examples of Gamification in Different Markets:
- Recruitment and Training – These games are used in the US army to recruit and train its soldiers. The “Virtual Army Experience” game helps filter the US army recruits from millions of enthusiasts
- Motivation and Goal Tracking – Jillian Michael’s fitness program game is used to stay fit by tracking and monitoring every action. From these gamification techniques, people can have their targets and rewards, or they can participate in group challenges
- Social Loyalty and Customer Engagement – Samsung Nation is a social engagement game where users are rewarded for their participation in community services. It consists of participation in Q&A discussions, watching videos, and reviewing products
- Fostering Financial Independence and Goal Tracking – Mint.com has made financial planning for an investor’s future simpler and entertaining through gamification techniques. By employing a variety of goal trackers, spending habits and budget allocation can be tracked easily through chart representation
- Educational Achievement – Implementation of Badgeville solutions in Kaplan University in the US for the enhancement of course curriculum and encouraging more participation. This has helped students to get better grades
- Social Loyalty, Brand Awareness, Engagement, and Social Missions – In the 4food website, users can obtain discount offers, invent burgers of their own, name them, and tell the purpose behind the name. The company also donates 25 cents to a good cause every time a certain type of burger is purchased
