FIVE KEY BENEFITS THAT GAMIFICATION BRING TO BUSINESSES

Despite the buzz and the potential, many companies are not gamifiying. Firstly, they might be hesitating because they can't see the ROI of gamifying their website or product. Secondly, we can think that others may be waiting for a big success story from another big company so they can mimic their strategy. However, if the company has a desire for growth and customer that gather information, gamification should be considered.In this short article, we will try to highlight the five main benefits that gamification can bring to businesses.

1. Gamification can help collect powerful customer data.

Most gamification platforms require users to log in with either social media credentials or a valid email address. This enable companies to both gather data on users and see what they do on their website. Each user will be associated with clicks, badges, achievements or points and this generates big data, which represent valuable customer information and insights for companies. Large amounts of data will be generated through gamification but it will be pointless if it cannot be analyzed correctly.

Nowadays, some gamification vendors offer analytic tools together with their products. For example, Badgeville offers the Behavior Analytics Software to measure customer behavior, engagement, growth and user activities. Bunchball offers Nitro Connectors, a product that connects their gamification platform to enterprise software such as SAP, SharePoint or Yammer to collect employees’ activity and behavior.

"Gamification provides real-time feedback about the world we live in." Mike Hugos

2. Gamification can be a way toward crowdsourcing to help companies solve complex business issues.

Another benefit having customers log in and participate on a company’s website is that it allows the firm to use them as a sounding board. Gamification can lead to crowdsourcing if the company uses customer feedback from games and applies it to a business issue. 

  

“Companies cannot innovate all on their own; the notion that any company can be innovative through their internal R&D efforts is an obsolete notion." Mike Hugos

Crowdsourcing can be use to train computers to generate more accurate answers. « Game with a purpose » is a gamification site where there is a game called "ESP Game" where two people see the same image and are asked to type in various one-word captions regarding it. Once the two people agree on a caption, they get points and move onto the next round. The agreed-upon images are made into tags that get recorded so search engines have a better idea of what each image contains.

3. Gamification can be an educational tool.

Gamification is a creative and useful way to introduce customers to a new product a company want to launch. Instead of giving a free trial for their product, companies can let users test their product through a game designed to teach them how to use it.

"Games are providing the achievement that's connected to a motivation." Jennifer Wise.

For example, Adobe provide its Photoshop current and prospective users an onboarding program called “LevelUp” that teaches people the basics by giving them tasks with assignments where they can earn points and badges once completed.

However, companies have to be careful and don’t offer too much to their potential customers. For example, some companies are giving discounts on products in exchange for a person's email address. The problem is that this person can provide his email, get the 10% off offers by the company but then just unsubscribe from its emails right after. So, if the company is offering a reward, it needs to make sure it is targeted to the right audience.

 4. Gamification offers a way to companies to give back to the community.

Rather than just benefitting themselves and solving their business problems, some companies are giving back to the communities connected to their industry by using games.

For example, Opower, a Software-as-a-Service company that works with utility providers, has been using Facebook to encourage people to track and share their energy consumption and compete to be the most energy efficient. On its side, RecycleBank decided to reward people with gift cards and discounts to stores and restaurants for being green by recycling paper or using less energy in their homes.

 5. Gamification offers a way to stay relevant with customers.

Gamification can help companies remind their customers that they are present and engaged with them. Companies need to keep regular content up on their websites in order to stay top of mind.

"The rewards are more than smiley faces and thumbs up and likes. They turn out to be stuff the company can take to the bank." Mike Hugos

Though there are strong benefits to gamification, there is a way to go until it will be fully evolved.

"Games are a perfect organizing paradigm for unpredictable environments and that's the strategic element we're missing. There is a whole strategic element we've only started to touch on." Mike Hugos