Best Gamification Platform in 2022 – How to choose yours?
#1. Which type of gamification platform to choose?
There are four key types of gamification software and the best gamification platform for your business depends on your needs. For most, budget and scalability needs will play a huge role in their selection process.
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Build your gamification platform
Here you have an external contractor or internal developers build a bespoke platform for you. Since it’s being made from scratch, it will take longer to create. Additionally, you will be responsible for upgrades, changes and maintenance ongoing.
However, this solution is the best gamification platform option if you’ve got a niche business with really specific needs that just do not fit together with an out of the box option.
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Open-source gamification platform
Since you’re paying little to nothing, you’re going to get little to nothing.
An open-source platform is quite restricted and relies on addons and external connections to expand its capability. But if you have no budget, it might be the best gamification platform for you.
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SaaS gamification platform
With software as a service, no upgrades are required as the platform always keeps itself up to date and maintained. In this fully managed environment, you’re paying only for what you need.
Therefore, this is the best gamification platform for you if you need to scale easily and ramp up or down as required. But it can be more expensive for very large organisations.
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On-premise gamification platform
Perhaps you have data security concerns like GDPR compliance or other regulation and oversight.
In that case, the best gamification platform for you is a data security solution that’s scalable at a lower cost via server rates versus user rates. It’s a good choice for big companies with large user volumes
#2. How flexible and scalable is the platform?
Having a scalable platform is more important than you might think. First, you’re working with one company during your journey and they’re familiar with what you do.
In short, they’re recommending the best gamification platform and strategies for you to adopt. All in all that’s less time-consuming.
Second, the platform is adaptable to your needs; you’re not working around it. That’s important for reducing training time and total cost of ownership.
Ultimately, you can adapt the platform across all the use cases in your business. That’s also good for keeping the costs down. Think you must have a different platform for your internal versus external customers?
Wrong.
The best gamification platform for you will enable seamless adaptation to both that maximises your ROI. Likewise it will be creative and fun, linking with everything you need it to.
Lastly, you’ll want a platform that centralizes all your initiatives into one simple dashboard across sales, training, performance and more. That makes management and improvement easier for your leadership team and employees.
#3. What about gamification platform pricing?
To begin with, a quick note: cost shouldn’t be the end-all, be-all of deciding factors. It shouldn’t even make the top 5.
While it’s important to look after the budget lines of your business, the best gamification platform for your organisation might not be the cheapest one.
At the end of the day, it has to meet your needs first. Everything else is second, including price. Certainly knowing what models you might run into is probably important so here’s an overview:
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One time buy
This is the all-in cost and includes perpetual licenses and that’s usually it. If you need support or upgrades, chances are you’ll pay on top later for those. In reality, this might be the best gamification platform option for a one-off project.
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SaaS
With this model, you pay for the licenses you need. As you add in more users or scale this platform across your business, you’ll pay more in relative proportion.
This may be more expensive over time than the perpetual licenses, but you have support and upgrades baked in which is the best gamification platform choice for a growing business.
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Server-based
This model usually only applies to bespoke and on-site deployments.
Often cheaper than SaaS over the long run, you’re paying for huge volumes of users by focusing on data storage and usage instead of licenses which might be the best gamification platform for an enterprise-level business.
Above all, this doesn’t take into account any extras. Those might include deployment and training costs, maintenance costs, upgrades when the software is out of date, support & help or premium features locked behind a paywall.
So, make sure you ask for all of these potential fees before deciding on the best gamification platform for your business
Check our Frequently Asked questions about pricing here.
#4. Can you customize your journey?
Every business is different. It might not seem so on the outside. But no two businesses operate the same way with the same structure and jargon.
Hence, it makes sense that you should take that into account when you’re sourcing the best gamification platform for your operation.
Just thinkabout what you want to improve. Do you need more engagement? Motivated partners? More loyalty? Whatever your goals, your gamification deployment needs to enable and track them.
And you need to talk to them at their level. So, the interface needs to understand what’s important to your line managers versus your call centre agents and adapt.
If your platform can’t personalise what each user sees and learn from the usage stats to better optimize for performance? You’re missing a trick.
#5. Is the software company reliable and stable?
New SaaS companies and development firms pop up every day. And that means there are hundreds of options out there, with new ones jockeying for position constantly. If you’re not overwhelmed by choice, you’re lucky.
While oldest doesn’t mean ideal, it’s worth considering the long-term prospects of any company you work with. Are they going to be around to service your SLA’s or update your products? Overall, the best gamification platform is one you can trust with your investment over decades.
Review their annual statements if they’re available. If not, have a look at their growth trajectory and level of investment. Are they on a positive path?
If so, you can feel confident that your data will be protected from loss and they’ll have the internal budget needed to improve the product. But give yourself an out.
Make sure that it’s possible for your data to quickly transfer to another provider if you need to make a change.
#6. Who has ownership of your company data?
With most gamification platforms running under a SaaS model, this is important. First, if your data is in the cloud, you need to know where.
This is because of GDPR and other regulatory concerns. And wherever it is stored, who owns that data? Is it you? If not, you might run into issues if you try to change providers.
To find out if they’re the best gamification platform for you, ask them direct questions about who owns the data and what the termination process is. If they won’t tell you or they don’t seem to know, then look elsewhere.
For most industries, you need to have some if not complete ownership over your data at all times. And it’s too risky to go with a solution that doesn’t have these policies established and enforced.
#7. Are there any trials or demos?
It’s not wise to buy anything without trying it first. And this couldn’t be more accurate with a gamification system. First, you’ll want to see if there is a demo environment or trial period where you could test the system in real-time with your team.
If not, perhaps this isn’t the best gamification platform for you. Next, when you do get access to the sandbox, come to terms with the navigation and controls. If you don’t like the way it runs, talk to the vendor about ways to customise it.
Only trust what you can try yourself. Too often customers are lured in with fake reviews and make a purchase based on someone else’s experience. Don’t fall for the trap. Try out any software before you buy it for yourself.
#8. Can I integrate the gamification platform into my system?
The best gamification platform for your business will integrate smoothly into your other software. This improves productivity at launch since your data will automatically be filtered in.
And the more companies that support a platform, the more likely it’s going to stick around for a while.
If your gamification platform has a range of API and direct connect integrations, that’s a good sign. No one bothers to connect to software that’s not on a growth path. So, look for a gamification system with a suite of API or out-of-the-box plugins to make onboarding a snap
#9. How’s your data covered in case of hacking and loss?
Earlier we talked about data ownership. And owning your data is important. But what about when your data is passing through their servers. The best gamification platforms out there will have bespoke insurance to cover you in case of loss and hacking.
It will protect you from any theft of data while it’s in your vendor’s systems. And it will help you enforce your privacy policy and terms of use. So, make sure that your vendor has that coverage and that it translates to your data as well.
#10. How easy is the platform to use?
According to Wyzowl, “In terms of functionality, Apple knows how to create a product that’s easy to use. Pick up an iPhone or log into an iMac and you can use it, without struggling to work out its features.
Apple is a company that is known to put ease-of-use as the main goal when designing a product.” And that’s made them ruthlessly popular. So, apply that same goal when choosing the best gamification platform for your business.
The best gamification platform will be one that’s just as easy to use as any iPhone. Make sure to test the program out with your team to see if they’re making use of any premium features. See how long it takes them to navigate around and if it’s saving them time.
#11. How’s the gamification platform support?
According to HubSpot, “The average call [centre] hold time is roughly 13 minutes, and most people are willing to wait 2-3 minutes on hold before getting upset.
However, 57% of customers find long hold times to be a frustrating part of the service experience.” And you’ll not be any different.
When you need to get in touch with support, how long does it take for them to answer? Do they offer first call resolution? How easy are the built-in help tools to use? Do you speak the same language?
All of these are important considerations when choosing the best gamification platform for your business.
#12. Does the platform meet your needs and requirements?
If it doesn’t do everything you need it to, run. You’re trying to achieve a goal with your deployment of gamification.
If this tool doesn’t have the functions and features you need or the team keeps promising them in a future update; don’t buy.
It’s clearly not the best gamification platform for your business and you should continue searching.
