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Combine gamification and technology to upgrade your business

November 09. 2018

It's a multi-billion dollar industry. It was a number one on the list of marketing trends worth your attention made by Harvard Business Review. It's no longer a hype but a sustainable marketing tool. It's a powerful tool that uses human's love for competing and game mechanics.

Can gamification increase consumer engagement? How does it affect employees' work?

See why it's worth giving gamification a try!

Gamification - what is it?

In short, gamification is all about tweaking everyday activities to involve an element of a game into them. This way, you get rewards for completing tasks.

Games create engagement. Have you ever found yourself losing to the problematic obstacle in the game? You probably didn't give up at the moment you failed at the first time but tried to overcome it. After all, you've come such a long way to get there!

This phenomenon is called loss aversion. When you put your back into engaging in something, you are not likely to abandon it, especially when high score record is involved. It is the most significant trigger to stay involved. You're lucky: everybody is wired this way!

Sounds interesting, right? But how can you implement gamification into your business?

Gamification and customers

Now you know that gamification increases engagement. How about involving some gamification into a loyalty programme? How about using the most absorbing medium we know - a smartphone? From experience in developing gamification business apps, we know how effective this method is.

People don't leave houses without the smartphone. It's today's command center. In Asian, the Middle East, and African countries, they are usually the first devices that allow citizens for access to the Internet. Application pop-up notifications have open rates reaching up to 90%, while the peak for emails is around 30%!(source)

Level up your loyalty programme

Forget about printing little cards for collecting stickers. An engaging app is a product that can advertise itself. Collecting points, completing levels and getting prizes is highly appealing to the competitive nature of humans. Moreover, filling blank spaces in achievements makes people increase efforts even more due to loss affection. It equals a rise in conversion and sales.

Gamification and employees

Game mechanisms in management? Why not?

The same rules that apply to your clients can be used for motivating your employees. In this case, gamification creates an environment in which workers feel rewarded and recognized for the effort they make.

An intuitive field to implement gamification into business is the sales department. Salespeople gain points for successful sales, complete other levels and are rewarded for excellent results with in-kind prizes or extra money.

Gamification - not only for sales

However, gamification mechanisms will also pass muster in HR teams and even during the recruitment process. Candidates can be rewarded for completing individual recruitment steps. This praxis fruits even after hiring a new employee. A person who knows that compelling tasks can bring a prize will increase efforts in their future work.

On the other hand, HR teams can use gamification to award best recruiters. Peer mentorship is the key. When employees see their colleagues achieve the new level and getting rewards, they are more likely to follow their role models.

In each case, central application or a system will do the job. It has many advantages. The digital version of gamification plan allows for easy storing of data. This way employees can follow their progress without effort and with full transparency. It is also a help for managers in enforcing who completed tasks and deserves a prize.

Great summary

Gamification gives many opportunities of building a loyal database of clients rather than involving people into one shoot campaign. It is also a tool for engaging your employees in increasing efforts at work. Think of the thing your business can offer, create a plot and use the possibilities that mobile applications can give you!