Several years back, I worked with a Government Department on the development of a mobile game as part of a broader, more traditional education campaign that aims to drive behavioural change.
Geared around changing the habits primarily of youths and young adults in rural Queensland, the “Ride Ready” game tackles a relatively niche, yet deadly, topic of quad bike safety and offers a lesson not just in game development but in the theory of gamification.
If we park the delivery method (in this case a mobile app game) and concentrate on gamification we can see how it is an integral part of today’s broader customer experience (CX) journey – that is how our primary audience is influenced in their daily lives.
When we recognise that gamification encompasses some very specific psychological behaviours that drive enjoyment, motivation and fulfilment we can start to spot how we may subliminally or purposely introduce gamification into our daily working lives and business strategies.
Here are some basic correlations between game environments and how they apply to customer experience in a more corporate setting:
CHOICES:
In most video game environments, many offer different scenarios based on your nominated skill (knowledge) level or risk-propensity. Whatever you choose, there is a derived experience on how the user behaves in the game and a tailored reward for that behaviour.
Compare this to financial planning or self-managed super funds where a person’s risk profile will ultimately change their journey and final outcome.
REWARD STRUCTURE:
Doing ‘the right thing’ in the eyes of a brand – usually the repeat use of the brand’s products – invariably rewards the user in some manner.
Loyalty systems are just the tip of the iceberg, but gamification has introduced random rewards for visitors, referral bonuses (think of ride sharing apps giving discounts), people who visit more often than others, and of course rewards points for spending.
FEEDBACK:
Feedback in this sense is more about interaction feedback – providing a sense of surety to users – clicking on something and getting information quickly and how that’s intuitively included in the design experience.
Thinking about your website for example where a user submits a form or makes a payment online could manifest as a fun animation on clicking the ‘submit’ button, or an on-screen confirmation appears to let the user know that the action has been completed.
Thinking about how to give the customer clear confirmation of their action is an integral part of gamification.
BADGES:
‘Top fan’ badges on Facebook pages and groups were introduced in 2019 and is clear demonstration of recognising prominent users. Giving prestige or acknowledgement of a user and rewarding desired behaviour gives a huge boost to engagement and retention.
Airline frequent flyer points and status credits are a classic example of this recognition format, with more frequent flyers (Platinum/Emerald) expecting greater rewards for their loyalty or spend above bronze or silver.
ACTUAL FEEDBACK:
Although this isn’t necessarily a gamification feature, adding rewards to actual feedback is a nice way to encourage users to start delivering both quantitative (star reviews) or qualitative (unstructured text) feedback to help you improve your system/service/product, and are analytical gold when designing customer models.
When you start to consider your own business, clients and industry, you will recognise gamification at play and appreciate how it can reward and recongise loyalty.
