Gamifying Business Applications and Systems
Gamification can jazz up all sorts of digital products like apps, websites, CRMs, online communities, e-learning courses, marketing campaigns, and even customer service portals. In this chapter, we’ll explore the diverse applications of gamification across various industries and discover top tips for implementing it in your digital product.
How companies use gamification to motivate user activities
Businesses across various industries harness the power of gamification to captivate their audiences, stimulate engagement, and catalyse desired actions.
In sectors such as retail and hospitality, gamified loyalty programs are often a winning strategy.
Meanwhile, corporations with training modules infuse gamification elements like badges and leaderboards, elevating the effectiveness of learning experiences.
Health and fitness apps like Fitbit leveraged gamification to set challenges and award badges, encouraging users to embrace healthier habits.
By seamlessly blending the gameplay mechanics with core business objectives, these companies were able to elevate the overall user experience. And it all revolves around successfully driving the behaviours they sought to inspire. In this Chapter, you will learn how you can do the same.
Continuous learning offers numerous benefits, but not everyone is enthusiastic to take it seriously. Employees would rather follow their routines than step outside their comfort zones while eLearning students only do the bare minimum.
Here’s how you can turn that around and ignite their enthusiasm with gamification:
Avatars and customisation
Learners can create avatars representing their progress in the app. The avatars have several customisation options, like their picture frame, background, and other design elements.
Completing lessons and modules offers a chance to get unique and eye-catching avatar designs.
Badges and achievements
Achieving 100% completion on modules awards learners unique badges that would visually recognise their accomplishments. These badges are on display on the user’s profile page.
In-app currency
Besides badges, learners can also earn redeemable points for virtual rewards. These rewards may range from customisation options to access to exclusive lessons.
Progress bars
Progress bars to employees the ability to track their progress in real time. They let learners know how far they’ve come in their learning journey and motivate them to reach 100% completion.
Certifications/titles
Learners can earn digital certificates or accreditations upon program or course completion. These certifications prove their knowledge and skills and can be put on the learners’ profiles.
Competitive learning
The app can include a learner’s leaderboard that tracks and displays the achievements and progress of learners. A competitive element such as this can motivate learners to outperform their peers and strive for the top positions.
Daily challenges
Getting started is always the most difficult part of learning. Daily challenges offering promising rewards are an excellent way to encourage learners to start their learning journey for the day.
Leaderboards
Users with significant achievements, like reading most modules, can have their names shown in leaderboards. The names in said leaderboard are updated weekly or monthly to keep the user base competitive.
Motivating employees to enhance their productivity and performance is an objective most businesses have. Here’s how you incorporate gamification to accomplish that objective:
Performance dashboards
Performance dashboards allow employees to track their progress in real-time.
That means they can see how close they are to achieving their targets. The closer they are, the more eager they will be to take the final step. It eliminates anxiety and drives motivation.
Redeemable points
Employees can earn points for completing performance-related tasks, such as hitting sales targets or receiving positive customer support reviews. They can then redeem these points for rewards.These rewards may include extra time off or a free meal.
Time-limited performance tasks
Time-limited challenges are an excellent way to drastically boost motivation, even for a short time. Employees can earn enormous amounts of redeemable points upon completing challenges.
Milestone celebrations
Employees can enjoy special rewards, like paid vacation or bonuses, upon reaching certain milestones. These milestones can be anything, from years of service to significant achievements.
Performance leaderboards
A leaderboard showcasing employee performance rankings can foster a sense of recognition in the workplace. It offers transparency and drives others to improve their performance.
The leaderboard can also be updated weekly or monthly to encourage friendly competition.
Peer-to-peer recognition
Enhance peer-to-peer recognition in employee performance by introducing gamified leaderboards, rewards, and challenges, fostering engagement and a culture of appreciation.
Team challenges
Teams can compete to achieve collective performance goals, with rewards for the winning team. These team challenges should encourage collaboration and establish trust among employees.
In consumer-driven industries, nurturing customer loyalty is paramount. Loyal customers not only provide a steady stream of revenue but also act as brand advocates.
The following gamification elements can be a powerful means of sustaining customer loyalty:
Loyalty points and rewards
Customers earn points for every action or engagement they take with your brand. They can redeem these points for tangible rewards, such as free products, discounts, or exclusive offers.
Loyalty leaderboards
Loyalty leaderboards showcase top customers or customers’ progress in the loyalty program.
Noteworthy achievements like spending the most money or making a set number of purchases get them on the leaderboard. This element motivates competition and encourages repeat business.
Tier-based loyalty systems
Tiered loyalty programs consist of different levels based on customer spending or engagement.
Customers can progress through the tiers by accomplishing various tasks, such as purchases and referrals. Upon reaching higher tiers, they can unlock even greater benefits and rewards.
Exclusive offers
The business app may consist of VIP areas that are only accessible to a select few. Only those who reach certain loyalty milestones, like purchasing a set number of products, can access these areas.
Referral programs
Referral programs reward customers for referring friends or family to a business. Customers can earn incentives for each successful referral, and referred individuals also receive special offers.
Birthday and anniversary rewards
Personalised birthday or anniversary rewards can help show a brand’s appreciation to customers.
Loyalty badges and achievements
Digital badges or achievements can showcase loyalty milestones and motivate customers to earn more. Specific actions, like making their first purchase or referring friends, can grant badges.
Gamified feedback and reviews
Providing feedback is often not incentivised. Gamified rewards, like entries into prize drawings or points, can help boost participation in these surveys, ultimately enriching the business.
Mini Games
Customer loyalty programs often incorporate a variety of mini games to engage users. Some commonly used mini games in customer loyalty programs include:
- Spin the Wheel: Users can spin a virtual wheel for a chance to win rewards, discounts, or loyalty points.
- Trivia Quiz: Incorporate quizzes related to your products or industry. Users earn points or rewards for correct answers.
- Treasure Hunts: Design interactive treasure hunts within the app, where users must find hidden items or clues to earn rewards.
- Virtual Collectibles: Users can collect virtual items, cards, or stickers within the app. Completing collections can earn rewards or exclusive benefits.
- Slot Machines: Implement a virtual slot machine game, allowing users to spin the reels for a chance to win prizes or loyalty points.
- Time-Based Challenges: Set up challenges or tasks that users must complete within a specific time frame to earn rewards or unlock special offers.
- Social Challenges: Encourage users to share their achievements or invite friends to participate in challenges for additional rewards, promoting social interaction.
App onboarding ensures that users, employees and consumers alike are well-equipped to navigate your product and utilise it effectively. You must not only make the process more engaging but also help the players retain the information.
Here are several ways businesses can implement game elements to enhance app onboarding:
Progress tracking
Users will encounter progress or completion trackers that will indicate how far they are in the onboarding process. This visual representation can motivate them to reach 100% completion.
Gamified quizzes
At the end of app onboarding, the app will present a quiz.
This ensures that the user can understand how the app works. Only after achieving a passing score can the user complete the onboarding process. Otherwise, they have to start over.
The user can also receive points relative to their score on these quizzes.
Rewards for completion
As users complete each step of the onboarding process, they receive rewards like points.
They can also get badges for 100% completion and a corresponding amount of points relative to their speed of completion.
Interactive elements
App onboarding consists of interactive elements like scenarios, storytelling, and game elements to make the process more engaging. For instance, a virtual character can accompany the users throughout the onboarding process, explaining app features.
In-app currency
Users can spend their accumulated points on an in-app store to purchase customisation options, such as unique avatars or backgrounds.
Daily check-ins
There’s a chance the user will stop using the business app as soon as the onboarding ends.
To sustain engagement, users who can check into the app every day will receive points. The amount of points they receive may increase depending on the daily streaks of the users.
Social sharing
Users can share their onboarding progress or achievements on social media platforms. This motivates the users to complete onboarding and promotes the app to social networks.
Feedback and support
Players can provide valuable feedback at the end of app onboarding. By engaging in this activity, they can receive additional points as a reward.
A sense of community is a valuable tool to drive engagement and strengthen connections. But an active community does not come easy. It requires participation from your employees or user base.
Below are some ways to encourage participation through gamification:
Points and virtual currency
Community members can earn in-app currency through community involvement and active participation. They can spend this currency on prizes like unique privileges or virtual items.
Personalisation
Members can customise their profiles, avatars, or signatures to make their community presence more unique. This way, other community members can remember them more clearly and easily.
Additional customisation options are available through events or the in-app store.
Top contributor leaderboards
Top contributor leaderboards highlight the most active or influential community members.
Recognising top contributors can motivate others to increase their engagement as they aspire to earn a spot on the leaderboard.
Periodic challenges
Community challenges or contests can encourage members to complete specific tasks or contribute content. Members who participate or win in these challenges will receive rewards.
These challenges are one way to prevent monotony in the community.
Community levels
As members increase their involvement, they can advance through different community levels or tiers, unlocking greater privileges and recognition. A clear indication of a member’s level, such as a profile badge, should foster a sense of recognition.
Interactive calendars
Community members have full access to an interactive calendar that showcases upcoming events, like challenges or promos. They can get unique rewards upon completing activities on certain days.
Mentorship programs
A mentorship or buddy program allows experienced members to guide and support newer members. Both mentors and mentees receive rewards for their contributions to the community.
This system promotes camaraderie and streamlines the onboarding of new members.
Social sharing
Members can share their contributions or achievements within the community on social media. This promotes the community to other platforms and drives members to showcase their involvement.
Exclusive content access
The community may include exclusive content, features, or areas that only members with a high enough community level can access. This creates a sense of exclusivity among the user base.
Finance
Finance apps, financial institutions, and fintech companies can help users secure their financial futures. Here’s how businesses employ gamification in the different facets of the finance sector:
Financial education and literacy
- Interactive learning: Digestible lessons with interactive elements, like quizzes, scenarios, and simulations, can make complex financial concepts easier to understand.
- Progress bars: Users can see their real-time progress with modules. As they get closer to completing the module, they feel more eager to take the final steps.
User engagement
- Savings challenges: The app may include periodic challenges where users must reduce spending or save money. These challenges offer unique rewards.
- Investment simulators: Simulators can help users trade stocks and practise investing without investing real money. Incorporating gamification elements, like scoring, competition, and achievements, encourages users to think of learning as an engaging and rewarding activity.
Behavioural nudging
- Points for positive actions: Taking part in positive behaviours, like making regular deposits and reading financial news, awards redeemable points to users.
- Financial reminders: Users can forget upcoming due dates and bill payments during busy days. Financial alerts and reminders for these events can help users stay on top of their financial obligations.
Customer loyalty and retention
- Tiered membership: A tiered system allows users to progress through levels based on their in-app financial activities. Higher levels offer more benefits, driving motivation.
- Referral programs: Users can receive rewards like discounts and exclusive access on each successful referral to their family or friends.
Debt reduction
- Interactive debt trackers: Debt trackers or progress bars show how much of the debt the user has paid off. These elements help eliminate the element of uncertainty and anxiety.
- Debt payoff milestones: Users receive virtual rewards upon reaching milestones like paying off a percentage of their debt (i.e., 20%, 40%, 60%).
Enhancing mobile banking
- Daily check-in rewards: Rewards for checking into one’s accounts every day can encourage daily engagement in mobile banking. Consecutive check-ins will result in streaks, and long streaks award users with rewards like points, badges, or virtual items.
Feedback and reviews
- Feedback rewards: Customers can get in-app rewards or points whenever they review financial products and provide valuable feedback.
- Reviewer badges: Users who consistently provide well-liked, valuable, and expert reviews on your financial products receive special titles or badges.
Onboarding processes
- Interactive tutorials: Step-by-step instructions can simplify the onboarding process of financial apps, while incentives can encourage users to go the extra mile.
- Milestone achievements: Milestones, like completing a percentage of the onboarding process, come with their corresponding badges or achievements. These achievements offer users a sense of progression whenever they accomplish a noteworthy task.
Security practices
- Training modules: Bite-sized lessons can go a long way in simplifying complex financial security terms. These lessons may come with rewards for completion to drive engagement.
- Online security simulations: gamification elevates online security training through realistic, interactive challenges and competitive elements like points and leaderboards. It offers immediate feedback for effective learning and motivates users to master cyber threat navigation in the financial sector. This method also improves retention and understanding of complex security protocols.
Education sector
Incorporating gamification into the education sector offers a way to transform learning into a motivating, immersive, and engaging experience. By combining educational content with game elements, organisations can enhance different facets of their business, such as the following:
Student engagement
- Immediate feedback: Students receive immediate feedback whenever they complete a quiz. The feedback may come as a score or a tip for studying based on the score.
- Student engagement badges: Students can gain badges for reaching milestones. These milestones can be as broad as completing a set number of quizzes. It can also be as specific as getting a high enough total score on the quizzes of a particular lesson.
Interactive learning materials
- Educational games: Educational games aim to reinforce the educational concepts that students have learned through previous training modules. For instance, a Math Quiz Show where students are allowed to participate either individually or by team.
- Educational rewards: In-game rewards, like points that contribute to the overall scores of their profiles, should encourage students to complete educational tasks.
Personalised learning paths
- Individualised learning paths: During the app onboarding, students can choose a learning path that determines their lessons. Examples of learning paths are accelerated, standard, steady, interactive and practical, and visual and multimedia.
- Progress tracking: The app visually tracks students’ progress with their chosen learning through progress bars. A sense of progression is an excellent driving force to encourage individuals to take one step after another.
Teacher efficiency
- Efficiency quests for teachers: Educators can engage in quests revolving around routine teaching tasks like attendance taking and grading assignments. These quests offer rewards upon completion, encouraging educators to complete them properly and more efficiently.
Skill development
- Skills badges: Students can get badges upon demonstrating proficiency or mastery. They can collect as many badges as possible, which other users can see in their profiles. This system fosters a sense of recognition and competition among users.
- Skills leaderboards: The app showcases learners’ names with skill development achievements, like having the most badges, through a dedicated leaderboard.
Creative expression
- Creative expression quests: The app presents quests where students must express their creativity through writing, innovation, or art projects. These quests offer rewards.
- Creative competitions: Students can participate in competitions where they must showcase their creative expression talents against other students.
Exam preparation
- Exam prep games: Students can prepare for exams more effectively through games and simulations with helpful tools like note-takers and highlighters.
- Study challenges: Study challenges motivate students to study and revise essential exam topics by offering rewards. That way, students have another reason to review topics.
- Exam success leaderboards: Students who perform well in exams would have their names on a leaderboard, fostering a culture of achievement and recognition.
Learning material sharing
- Learning material sharing quests: Students can receive in-app rewards or redeemable points whenever they share valuable learning resources with others through the platform.
- Resource-sharing leaderboards: Students who actively contribute to sharing learning materials with their fellow learners gain recognition through a resource-sharing leaderboard.
Learning progress tracking
- Learning progress stats: The app may contain a dedicated section with graphs, charts, and other visual elements. The section allows students to assess and compare their learning progress with other learners. This element fosters a sense of competition and progression.
Insurance and risk management
Gamification in insurance and risk management can enhance claims processes, simplify intricate policies, and reward safe behaviour. Here’s how the insurance industry can employ gamification:
Educating customers
- Interactive tutorials: Users would encounter quizzes periodically throughout training modules to ensure they retain the information they read. Since knowledge is imperative when choosing insurance policies, customers must pass these quizzes before proceeding.
- Simulations: Simulations would be a powerful tool to show users how different policies will work for each situation. The simulations may showcase insurance-related scenarios, like natural disasters or accidents.
Claims process
- Progress trackers: Progress bars allow customers to see their progress with the stages of their claim processing. This promotes transparency and creates a sense of progression.
- Virtual rewards: Claims processing involves numerous checkpoints the claim must go through before approval. Rewards for completing each checkpoint can make the process more exciting for users, not just the end goal.
Safe behaviour rewards
- Driving behaviour trackers: Auto insurance companies can utilise gamification by granting points, discounts, and other tangible rewards to those who practise safe driving.
- Health trackers: Health insurance providers can encourage regular exercise, routine check-ups, and other positive behaviours by giving rewards.
Customer engagement and retention
- Loyalty points: Customers receive redeemable points for each action or engagement with the brand. Long-term customers and customers who avail of multiple insurance products receive more loyalty points than most for each transaction.
- Referral programs: Customers who refer their family or friends successfully can receive incentives, like discounts or free products.
Training and onboarding
- Interactive training platforms: Training modules offer rewards to agents upon completion.
- Badge system: A badge system grants users unique badges or titles upon reaching certain milestones. For training, they can get badges for completing training modules.
Sales and performance
- Leaderboards: The leaderboard showcases the names of high-performing employees with the highest performance KPIs. The criteria must be clear to promote transparency.
Feedback and reviews
- Rewards for feedback: Customers who provide valuable feedback on their insurance experience can receive rewards and incentives.
Engaging millennial and Gen Z customers
- Mobile apps with gamified features: These apps incorporate gamified challenges and quizzes to maintain the interest of younger generations.
Risk assessment
- Interactive questionnaires: Customers can earn points upon completing forms to redeem for rewards. They can also track their progress with the form through trackers.
Legal compliance
Companies and consumers can suffer greatly from a single mistake while operating in the legal compliance sector. Gamification can be a powerful tool to minimise those mistakes in many ways. It can help educate employees and clients, foster policy adherence, and enhance reporting.
Companies in the legal compliance sector can improve this plethora of facets in the following ways:
Regulatory training and education
- Interactive compliance training: Training modules with game elements like points and progress trackers can help guide clients through complex legal compliance topics.
- Compliance quizzes: At the end of every training module, users will encounter quizzes that challenge their ability to recall recent knowledge. Only after passing can they proceed to more advanced topics, ensuring they retain the information from modules properly.
Risk assessment and reporting
- Risk assessment challenges: Gamified challenges can assess the user’s understanding of risk factors and ability to identify potential compliance violations.
- Risk assessment simulations: Users can participate in simulations that go through industry non-compliance risks.
Policy adherence and documentation
- Policy documentation quests: A quest system where employees must go through documentation and policy adherence is one way to make learning more engaging.
- Policy compliance certificates: Individuals who consistently maintain high levels of policy adherence can receive unique titles or certificates.
Regulatory updates and awareness
- Regulatory quizzes: Quizzes and knowledge challenges can help keep clients and employees informed on legal changes and updates.
- Regulatory change rewards: Users earn redeemable points or virtual rewards whenever they read the documentation regarding the latest regulatory updates via the app.
Compliance auditing and assessment
- Compliance assessment simulations: Users can use realistic simulations to assess their compliance knowledge through hypothetical scenarios.
- Auditing leaderboard: The auditing leaderboard recognises the top compliance auditors and assessors, fostering a sense of recognition.
Legal document management
- Document organisation challenges: Challenges in proper categorisation and organisation of legal documents can help motivate clients to hone their document management skills.
- Legal document badges: Employees who showcase excellence in consistently managing and maintaining legal documents efficiently can receive unique titles or badges.
Compliance reporting and analytics
- Compliance reporting dashboards: A dashboard with insights on compliance data can help employees visualise the current compliance trends. This dashboard may include visuals like charts for greater engagement and better visualisation.
Regulatory risk mitigation
- Mitigation strategy challenges: The app dispenses challenges regularly to test participants’ strategies in mitigating regulatory risks. These challenges grant users redeemable points.
Human resources management
Human resources management revolves around managing talent and employee engagement, making it the perfect target for gamification. Companies in this sector can benefit from gamification in several ways, from talent acquisition to performance management. Below are several ways the human resources management sector can incorporate gamification elements in business apps:
Talent acquisition
- Gamified job postings: Challenges and puzzles make job listings and posts more interactive and engaging. It allows businesses to challenge applicants right off the bat.
- Referral programs: Existing employees can refer candidates. They would receive rewards, such as a one-time bonus, for each referral the company successfully hires.
Onboarding and orientation
- Interactive training modules: Gamification elements like points and progress bars can make onboarding modules on company policies more engaging.
- Onboarding quests: Quests that new hires must complete create a more interactive and, at the same time, more challenging onboarding process.
- First-day badges: Completing essential onboarding tasks on their first day awards new employees unique badges, encouraging them to go the extra mile.
Learning and development
- Reputation points and leaderboards: Employees earn reputation points for completing training modules. These points would count on their total points. Those with the highest will have their names on the leaderboards to recognise their dedication to learning.
- Microlearning challenges: To reinforce continuous development, the app may periodically present short, game-based challenges that only take a few minutes to complete.
- Levelling up: Employees can level up or gain ranks based on their training and development accomplishments. The higher their levels, the better the rewards they get for accomplishing tasks within the app.
Performance management
- Gamified appraisals: Game-like interactions, like simulations and quizzes, can significantly enhance employee performance appraisals.
- Recognition badges: Employees who consistently meet or exceed performance targets can receive badges or unique titles.
Employee engagement and well-being
- Engagement surveys: Points, prizes, and participation badges can maximise employee engagement during surveys.
- Wellness challenges: Wellness challenges on physical fitness, stress management, or healthy eating can help promote employee well-being.
- Happiness metrics: Business apps include a section where employees can track happiness and engagement scores from past surveys, encouraging improvement.
Career advancement and promotions
- Career path quests: Employees can complete quests to progress along their chosen career paths. These paths set clear expectations on what promotions await them.
Employee recognition
- Peer-to-peer awards: Employees can reward their colleagues by gifting virtual awards/points to other users on the app.
- Recognition wall: Top-performing employees have their names on a virtual wall, reinforcing a culture of recognition.
Healthcare sector
The healthcare sector deals with various facets such as medical training, administration, patient care, and more. Gamification can play a pivotal role in these facets, given the right elements.
Let’s explore these elements and how this sector can incorporate gamification:
Patient engagement
- Health tracking rewards: Patients earn points for tracking their health metrics consistently. These points are redeemable for physical rewards, like discounts on healthcare services.
- Gamified wellness challenges: Wellness challenges can go a long way in motivating patients to adopt healthier habits and lifestyles.
Medical training and education
- Medical simulation games: Healthcare professionals can use interactive and realistic medical simulations to train and familiarise themselves with real-life scenarios.
- Training quests: Medical students can take on quests that guide them through complex medical procedures and concepts.
Administrative efficiency
- Administrative task quests: Routine administrative tasks, such as follow-up calls and medical transcription, become easier to complete when employees view them as quests.
- Administrative leaderboards: Members of the administrative staff can earn rewards relative to their performance in task efficiency, organisation, administration, and management.
Patient empowerment
- Patient empowerment quests: Quests with tangible rewards can make it easier for patients to take an active role in their healthcare journey. Rewards may include free screenings.
- Patient empowerment progress tracking: Progress indicators help patients track and visualise their progress in their healthcare journey.
Healthcare awareness
- Health education games: They offer patients valuable information about common health conditions and their prevention methods while still engaging.
- Health awareness challenges: Quizzes and challenges can help assess individuals’ knowledge of general healthcare facts.
Patient care excellence
- Patient care excellence badges: Healthcare professionals who consistently provide exceptional care can collect excellence badges.
- Patient satisfaction leaderboards: Patients can provide feedback on their experiences, making it easier to recognise the healthcare professionals who go above and beyond.
Health and fitness apps and wearables
- Fitness achievements: Users can collect achievements based on their fitness and health statistics. Naturally, these achievements correspond to having the ideal vitals.
- Health app data rewards: Users who consistently track their vitals using the apps and wearables the business offers receive incentives, like free products.
Retail
By integrating game elements into retail strategies, businesses can create more immersive shopping experiences that appeal to customers. Let’s explore some of the ways to do this:
Customer engagement
- Customer engagement rewards: Customers who engage with your brand receive redeemable points for physical rewards. These may include discounts or free products.
- Customer interaction rankings: A leaderboard will showcase the customers names who frequently and actively engage with your brand via the business app. The rankings will depend on the points of each customer, and the app distributes points for each transaction.
Loyalty programmes
- Gamified loyalty schemes: This will involve a tiered system where customers can progress through different levels the more frequently they engage with your business. Redeemable points become easier to earn and more valuable (higher reward ratio) in the higher tiers.
Product discovery
- Discovery quests: Customers can partake in quests to explore the brand’s product catalogue. These quests make uncovering items and promotions more enjoyable.
- Product scavenger hunts: Scavenger hunts challenge customers to discover a specific number of new products within a set time frame. These hunts offer rewards.
Personalised shopping recommendations
- Recommendation rewards: Purchases on items in the personalise recommendations section will grant customers a set amount of redeemable points.
- Personalisation badges: Customers receive points after using the personalised recommendations section to discover new products receive points a set amount of time.
Social shopping and sharing
- Social shopping rewards: Customers can share their shopping experiences and purchases on social media. Doing so grants them points redeemable for various prizes.
- Social shopping badges: Upon engaging in a social shopping activity a set number of times, the user receives a unique and eye-catching badge.
Exclusive promotions and offers
- Promotion-based games: Mini-games like ”spin the wheel” and “scratch it” where customers can unlock exclusive offers and promotions, can drastically boost motivation.
- Promotion rewards and recognition: Customers who successfully unlock and redeem exclusive promotions will have their names appear in the notification feed of the app
- Exclusive promotion rankings: The rankings leaderboard displays the names of customers who frequently participate in and benefit from exclusive offers.
Shopping feedback and reviews
- Review rewards: Providing valuable feedback and reviews on any product available on your app grants the customer’s reputation points. Other users can rate these reviews, and the reviewer will receive extra points for each positive rating.
- Feedback badges: Customers who actively offer feedback have a chance of getting a unique and eye-catching badge. These badges will be on full display on their profile.
Professional services
Professional service firms are known for their commitment to delivering top-quality client service, solutions, and expertise. Gamification offers unique opportunities to enhance the overall quality of these services in the following ways:
Employee training and development
- Gamified training modules: Gamification elements like progress trackers and virtual characters can make training modules more engaging and add a sense of progression.
- Skill mastery badges: Employees who can reach 100% completion on training modules can get skill mastery badges. Each module has its corresponding badges to signify mastery of its related topic.
- Training leaderboard: Employees who stand out when engaging in training and development activities are shown in the leaderboard.
Knowledge sharing and collaboration
- Collaboration quests: Examples of collaboration quests include complex case studies requiring employees to work together or create learning materials. These quests encourage collaboration among professionals.
- Knowledge sharing rewards: Contributing and sharing expertise within the organisation distributes points to employees. These points are redeemable for tangible rewards.
Project management and delivery
- Project excellence badges: Employees who consistently deliver projects on time and with high client satisfaction can get badges.
- Project performance leaderboards: The names of top-performing employees in project management are shown in the leaderboard. Updating the in-app leaderboard daily or weekly should also foster a sense of friendly competition among the user base.
Client relationship management
- Client satisfaction rewards: Maintaining a specific client for the longest time grants the employee handing the client a chance to get rewards. Since this achievement is noteworthy, rewards must be the same. Examples are paid vacations, service upgrades, and bonuses.
- CRM leaderboard: Employees with significant CRM contributions to the company will have their names on the leaderboard. Contributions qualifying for a leaderboard shoutout can be anything from having the highest-paying client to having the most clients.
Time and task management
- Task management quests: Challenges or quests, like breaking down complex projects into smaller tasks, can encourage efficient task management for employees.
- Time management rewards: Employees can receive rewards for consistently meeting deadlines.
Professional growth and certification
- Certification progress games: New employees can rely on narrative-driven games or realistic simulations to guide them through certification processes and professional growth.
Performance evaluation and feedback
- Performance scorecards and metrics: A visual scorecard system tracks key performance metrics of employees. They can earn XP points that contribute to their levels based on how well they meet or exceed these metrics. Their levels reflect their overall performance.
- Feedback challenges: Employees can receive rewards by providing honest and valuable feedback regarding their colleagues.
Mentorship and leadership
- Mentorship matching: Long-time employees can participate in a mentorship system matching them with a new hire based on skills, goals, and interests. This information would come from a form they must fill out on the app before matching.
- Mentorship badges: Employees with significant contributions to mentorship would receive badges. For instance, there can be badges for the number of new hires an employee has mentored.
Travel and hospitality
Travel and hospitality businesses thrive on delivering top-notch customer services and exceptional experiences to tourists and guests. But it suffers from having an incredibly competitive market.
Gamification offers ways to create memorable travel experiences, allowing firms to stand out from the competition. Let’s explore the gamification elements that can make this possible:
Guest engagement and experience
- Guest-to-guest challenges: Guests can challenge one another through the app in friendly competitions or games. It can be a trivia or location-based game similar to GeoGuessr. These are particularly effective at driving engagement in travel agencies like yacht charters.
- Guest loyalty rewards: Clients will receive incentives for choosing the same agency on multiple occasions. These incentives may range from discounts to free souvenirs.
Customer service and employee performance
- Upselling challenges: Employees can compete with their colleagues to see who can upsell more amenities to guests. Those who excel can win all sorts of prizes.
- Employee of the month/quarter: Employees who go above and beyond can gain the title employee of the month/quarter. On top of the recognition, the title also offers rewards.
Hotel and resort management
- Safety and emergency response drills: Educational games that simulate real-life safety and emergency scenarios can help employees practise effective responses.
- Performance dashboards: Dashboards display employees’ key performance indicators and achievements, acting as the visual representation to motivate them to excel.
- Resort stamp cards: Resorts benefit from active guests as they create a lively environment. A stamp card consisting of the different activities available in the resort should encourage guests to engage in resort activities. Guests can redeem the rewards after filling it out.
Travel booking and loyalty programmes
- Loyalty tiers: The loyalty program will consist of multiple tiers. Customers can advance to higher levels by booking more frequently with the agency, gaining access to more privileges.
- Itinerary puzzle challenges: The travel itinerary will have some missing parts that customers can only unlock by solving puzzle challenges. Each puzzle unlocks a piece of the itinerary. Guests can complete these puzzles during travel, and achieving 100% completion results in rewards and completes the itinerary. But of course, it is not mandatory.
Adventure and local exploration
- GPS geocaching: Guests can engage in GPS geocaching activities to search for hidden digital or geocaches in the region. Rewards await them for each find.
- Local history trivia: During the guests’ exploration, they can peek at the mobile app to learn trivia about the local region. They can then host trivia nights or quizzes through the app. That way, guests would be more motivated to learn about the local culture and history.
Feedback and reviews
- Feedback rewards: Guests can earn points for each review or feedback they provide. These points are redeemable for prizes like discounts or exclusive privileges.
- Photo recognition: Photos that guests post and their reviews can make it to the agency’s page or app. This should encourage photo reviews, which are often more valuable than reviews consisting purely of text.
Telecommunication services
Every company in the telecommunications services sector aims to reduce the churn rate as much as possible. Customer engagement is at the forefront of this mission to minimise customer churn.
Gamification offers innovative approaches to elevate engagement, both for employees and for customers. Let’s examine how telecommunication companies gamify their business apps:
Customer engagement and experience
- Customer recognition badges: Badges signify early adopters of new services, data-savvy users, or long-time subscribers. Subscribers with these achievements can get badges.
- Customer anniversary rewards: Subscribers receive various rewards on the anniversary of their first service. These may include exclusive offers, free bonus data, or discounts.
Service support and issue resolution
- Resolution rate contests: Support agents can participate in contests to see who can achieve the highest issue resolution rate during a set period. Winners will get prizes.
- Support agent of the month/quarter: Employees can qualify for the title “support agent of the month/quarter”. The title comes with tangible rewards, like bonuses or paid time off.
Telecom network management
- Resource optimisation contests: Network engineers can join competitions to optimise network resource allocation, like bandwidth or server capacity.
- Network troubleshooting quests: Engineers can complete network troubleshooting quests that efficiently identify and resolve network issues.
Mobile applications and value-added services
- User onboarding quests: The app utilises tutorials or quests that guide users through the different app features. Users receive rewards or badges for completing each tutorial step.
- Loyalty points and rewards: The loyalty program rewards users with points for using value-added services. They can exchange these points for discounts or exclusive features.
- Daily check-ins and streaks: Users can check into the app daily. Every check-in contributes to their streaks, with users receiving redeemable points, bonuses, or exclusive features for longer streaks. This system primarily promotes daily app usage.
Subscription plans and special offers
- Progressive discounts: Subscribers can earn discounts that increase over time as they remain loyal to their subscription, encouraging long-term commitments.
- Subscription leaderboards: Users with achievements, such as having the most extended or expensive subscriptions, gain recognition through the leaderboard.
- Trial period games: Trial subscribers can earn rewards during their trials based on usage and engagement with the service. These rewards may range from discounts to extra data. Users will only enjoy the rewards the next time they opt for a paid subscription.
Connectivity and coverage experience
- Network quality challenges: Users can engage in challenges where they must test network quality in various locations and provide feedback on coverage and speed. Completing these challenges would yield virtual or physical rewards to contributors.
- Coverage map contributions: Users can contribute to building a coverage map by reporting areas with dead zones or poor coverage. Valuable submissions yield rewards.
Feedback and reviews
- Review voting system: Users can offer reviews and feedback on the telecom company’s services. Other users can vote for the most helpful reviews. The reviewers with the most votes in their locality will receive in-app rewards like discounts or recognition.
- Feedback polls: These surveys will revolve around specific topics like customer service satisfaction or product updates. Users can get redeemable in-app points for participation.
Manufacturing and production
Efficiency is the game’s name in the manufacturing and production sector. With the integration of gamification elements, companies operating in this sector can unlock a new realm of performance and efficiency. Find out how to achieve this in the following sections:
Production process efficiency
- Efficiency scoreboards: Business apps consist of scoreboards displaying real-time production efficiency metrics, rewarding and recognising efficient individuals or teams.
- Productivity bonuses: Employees or teams that consistently meet or exceed production efficiency targets receive incentives periodically, such as bonuses or salary raises.
Quality control and assurance
- Quality audits quest: Employees earn points redeemable for physical prizes for each successful audit and adherence to quality standards.
- Quality inspector of the month: Establish a program for the “quality inspector of the month” to recognise and reward those who excel in quality control. The monthly element encourages competition.
Workplace safety and compliance
- Safety suggestions: Employees can submit suggestions for improving workplace safety. Those with valuable and compelling ideas will receive recognition and rewards. No one knows the current state of workplace safety and compliance better than they do.
- Safety drills and training: Employees can participate in games simulating real-life safety drills and training exercises. Those with effective and quick responses to safety scenarios will receive a corresponding amount of redeemable points.
Inventory management and logistics
- Inventory audits quest: Employees earn redeemable points when conducting successful audits and adhering to inventory accuracy standards.
Equipment maintenance and operation
- Maintenance challenges: These challenges encourage employees to perform regular equipment maintenance.
- Maintenance expert badges: The app bestows badges to employees who excel in keeping equipment operational.
- Maintenance leaderboards: Top-performing maintenance professionals would have their names on the leaderboard. This element encourages others to aspire for that same glory.
Process innovation and continuous improvement
- Innovation training modules: Gamified elements like progress bars and points can maximise employees’ engagement while teaching them the best practices in process innovation.
Employee training and development
- Skills improvement quests: Employees earn points or badges for each skill they enhance through corporate training.
- Training challenges: Employees can take training challenges at any time. These challenges assess the worker’s ability to apply what they’ve learned in real-world scenarios. Successful application of the employee’s knowledge will result in physical rewards, such as bonuses.
Collaboration and teamwork
- Peer recognition and rewards: Employees can give their peers karma or gift points for outstanding collaboration and teamwork efforts. This system fosters a sense of gratitude and recognition among employees and is an excellent method to establish rapport.
Media and entertainment
The media and entertainment revolve around captivating audiences, or in other words, driving engagement. By incorporating game elements, companies can unlock new avenues of interactivity and creativity. Below are examples of gamified elements that can yield your desired results:
Content consumption and engagement
- Watchlist sharing: Users can create and share their watchlists of movies or TV series with others. The platform’s user base can then rate these watchlists accordingly. The users with the highest watchlist ratings receive rewards like premium subscriptions.
- Music quizzes: The quiz tests users’ music knowledge or helps them discover their musical preferences. Either way, the results can help personalise the recommendations they receive.
User interaction and social integration
- User profiles and bios: Users can create profiles with customisable profile pictures, bios, and background images. This element encourages personalisation, self-expression, and, potentially, memes, which should contribute to the platform’s virality.
- Friend lists and followers: A friend or follower system allows users to connect with others who share similar viewing interests or habits.
Loyalty and fan engagement
- Loyalty program: The loyalty program rewards users with points for their ongoing usage and engagement of the app. Activities like sharing content, engaging with live chats, and commenting yield points. Points are redeemable for prizes like merchandise or discounts.
- VIP access: Users with a high level of loyalty, like having a long enough subscription, get VIP status. VIP users gain access to early screenings and other exclusive content.
Competitive gaming and challenges
- Interactive spectator experiences: Interactive features that allow viewers to influence or interact with live eSports events can help drive engagement. Examples of these interactive features include voting for the next eSports event or predicting match outcomes.
- Streaming challenges: Streaming challenges may include streaming a certain number of hours, gaining a specific number of followers, or producing creative content.
Content creation and user-generated content (UGC)
- Community voting and feedback: Users can like, rate, and comment on user-generated content. Content with high ratings or popularity is shown on the top page of the platform.
- UGC creator leaderboards: Content creators who consistently contribute and create popular or highly-rated content have their names on a dedicated leaderboard.
- Fan art galleries and showcases: Create a dedicated space in the platform for creative content, like fan art and cosplay. Users can submit their fan creations, and others can appreciate and discuss them. Change themes regularly or rotate featured fan art to keep content fresh.
Live events and experiences
- Live trivia and game shows: Live trivia sessions or game shows allow users to participate and win prizes. Prizes may include in-app rewards, merchandise, or virtual currency.
- In-app purchases and exclusive merchandise: Users can purchase exclusive merchandise related to the live event, such as limited-edition items, clothing, or digital collectables.
Monetisation and premium access
- Gift and gifting systems: The app allows users to gift subscriptions or premium content to others, fostering user-to-user generosity.
- Tiered pricing: Tiered pricing models consist of different access levels or perks based on the pricing tier. Higher tiers include more exclusive content and benefits.
Personalization and recommendations
User profiles: Users can create profiles that specify their interests, genres, favourite artists, or content types. Recommendations are based on this information.
Sports
Gamification in sports can be applied in several innovative ways to enhance engagement, training, and fan interaction:
Fitness challenges and apps
Sports apps often use gamification to motivate users. These apps can track progress, set goals, and reward achievements, like completing a certain number of steps or workouts. Leaderboards encourage competition among friends or within a community.
Virtual competitions
Especially popular in running and cycling, virtual races allow participants to compete against others globally. Using GPS and tracking technology, these competitions can simulate real race environments and offer rewards or recognition for achievements.
Training enhancement
Teams and athletes can use gamification in their training regimes. Implementing point systems, levels, and badges for achieving certain training milestones can motivate athletes to push harder and track their progress more effectively.
Fan engagement
Sports teams and leagues use gamification to engage fans. This could be through fantasy sports leagues, interactive games predicting match outcomes, or rewards programs where fans earn points for attending games, buying merchandise, or engaging with the team online.
Skill development games
Especially in youth sports, incorporating game-like scenarios can make skill development more engaging. For instance, turning a basketball drill into a scoring game, or using virtual reality simulations to enhance decision-making skills in soccer.
Wearable tech competitions
Wearable technology allows athletes to compete on health metrics like heart rate, calories burned, or distance covered, adding a gamified layer to personal fitness.
Social media challenges
Engaging with fans through social media challenges where they replicate famous sports moves, participate in virtual events, or share their sports achievements can also be a form of gamification.
Real estate and property management
Real estate and property management agencies require both attraction and retention to become successful. Gamification can help in those regards with the integration of the following elements:
Property attraction and marketing
- Property scoreboards: Users can rate properties according to different categories through the app. Only those who have visited that property via a house visit can rate. With this system, a buyer interested in a property can use the ratings of others as a deciding factor.
- Property auctions and bidding: Users can participate in auctions for properties and compete with others in real time, all within the app.
Tenant and resident engagement
- Community challenges and quests: Residents can participate in community challenges and quests within the neighbourhood or property. These challenges can range from participating in clean-up events to finding lost items or pets. Rewards await those who complete them.
- Community points system: Implement a community points system to reward residents for attending, contributing to, and engaging in community activities. Accumulated points can be redeemed for tangible rewards, like a piece of decoration or discounts.
Property management and maintenance
- Property improvement contests: Property managers can suggest improvements, and tenants can vote on their favourite ideas.
- Knowledge quizzes: The maintenance staff can test their expertise in plumbing, electrical work, or HVAC maintenance through quizzes. High scorers receive tangible rewards, while low scorers receive suggestions to take training modules within the app.
Lease and rental processes
- Lease document completion rewards: Tenants can engage in challenges where they must complete lease-related documents, such as move-in checklists, inspection reports, or utility forms. They receive points for each timely submission, which are redeemable for rewards.
- Tenant welcome challenges: The app welcomes new tenants with a gamified onboarding process. For one, tenants can earn redeemable points for completing tasks like setting up utilities or moving into the rental property.
Property investment and ownership
- Property investment simulation: Users can participate in simulation games within the app, where they must manage a virtual property portfolio. They can compete against each other to see who can generate the most profit.
- Property appreciation leaderboards: The app may include a leaderboard showcasing the appreciation rates of properties owned by users. It’s an excellent way to show potential investors the utmost potential of the real estate you manage, piquing their interest.
Client relationship management
- Client reviews and testimonials: Clients who leave testimonials and reviews about their experiences with the agency receive rewards like discounts or exclusive offers.
- Tenants recognition levels: Implement recognition levels based on how long they’ve been tenants. Those with higher-level recognition can enjoy better and more exclusive benefits.
Real estate agent and broker training
- Interactive real estate simulations: Trainees can practise various scenarios through interactive real estate simulations. These scenarios may include client interactions, property negotiations, or closing deals. Successfully and effectively navigating these simulations grants trainees reputation points, contributing to their ranks on the leaderboard.
- Real estate code of ethics quizzes: A quiz is a perfect way to test a trainee’s understanding of the real estate code of ethics. The trainee will receive a corresponding amount of redeemable points for demonstrating a solid grasp of ethical principles.
Property documentation and compliance
- Document accuracy contests: Users can review the accuracy of property documents. They receive a corresponding reward for spotting and correcting errors in these documents.
B2B (business-to-business)
With gamification elements, B2B companies can transform negotiations, partnerships, and interactions into rewarding and dynamic experiences.
Let’s identify the gamification elements that can elevate this industry:
Product and service selection
- Service bundle builder games: Clients can assemble custom packages, allowing them to bundle services themselves. They can share this custom package with other clients.
- Service onboarding quests: New B2B clients can engage in onboarding quests that guide them through selecting services. Clients earn points for completing these quests and can exchange accumulated points for discounts or exclusive services.
Employee training and development
- Certification levels for training: Each employee has a corresponding certification level for their proficiency in industry regulations, product knowledge, or relevant skills. They can advance to higher levels, which offer exclusive privileges, through corporate training.
- Knowledge-sharing platforms: Create platforms for participants to share their industry knowledge and insights through guides, articles, or best practices. Reward participants for their valuable contributions to the knowledge base with reputation or redeemable points.
Business process documentation
- Documentation module quests: Various quests guide participants through the different documentation modules. Participants can earn points upon completing these quests.
Sales and negotiation skills training
- Sales pitch challenges: Employees can compete in challenges to deliver the most compelling sales presentations. Those who excel in their sales pitches receive rewards.
- Sales leaderboards: Employees can track their sales and negotiation performance through a leaderboard. This fosters competition, driving employees to outperform their peers.
Supplier collaboration
- Joint marketing initiatives: Suppliers can earn incentives, such as longer contract terms, for successful co-marketing campaigns that were able to increase brand visibility.
- Collaborative product development challenges: Gamify the product development process by involving suppliers in ideation, refinement, and prototyping. Encourage innovative ideas and collaborative problem-solving. Suppliers can earn benefits such as co-branding opportunities or revenue sharing for successful product development.
#1. Start simple and gradually scale up
Begin with straightforward gamification elements and gradually introduce more complex features.
This allows users to become familiar with the concept and makes the transition smoother.
Starting simple can involve implementing simple challenges or basic rewards. You then add more engaging features progressively as users become accustomed to the gamified environment.
#2. Ensure your users are familiar with gamification
Before implementing gamification in business applications, ensure that your users understand the concept and its benefits. Provide training or resources to familiarise them with how gamification will work and the potential advantages it offers for engagement.
#3. Consider the possibility of short attention spans
People may have limited attention spans. So, it’s essential to design gamification in a way that provides short, quick bursts of engagement. This can involve offering quick rewards, creating micro-challenges, or allowing users to engage at their convenience in bite-sized sessions.
#4. Include a personalisation option
Recognize that individuals have varying preferences and motivations. Offer personalization options that allow users to tailor their gamified experience to their liking. This can include customising avatars, choosing different types of challenges or rewards, and setting individual goals.
#5. Do not force collaboration
While collaboration can be a powerful aspect of gamification, it should not be mandatory. Some users may prefer to work independently or might not have opportunities to collaborate effectively.
For instance, don’t make group work a prerequisite to participate in advanced training programs. Allow users to choose whether they want to engage in collaborative elements of the gamification.
#6. Understand your target audience
Tailor your gamification approach to the specific preferences and motivations of your target audience. Recognize what drives them and align the gamified elements with their interests.
Different demographics within your organisation may require distinct gamification strategies.
#7. Balance the difficulty of tasks and challenges
Ensure that the tasks and challenges in the gamification system are neither too easy nor too difficult. Tasks should be challenging enough to engage users but not so difficult that they become frustrating. Striking the right balance is key to maintaining user motivation.
#8. Maintain fairness and transparency
Users should perceive the gamification system as fair and transparent.
They need to understand how rewards are earned and the criteria for success. Avoid favouritism and ensure there are no hidden rules that could lead to distrust or disengagement among users.
#9. Offer tangible rewards
While recognition and virtual rewards can be motivating, tangible rewards are even more so.
Consider offering real incentives such as gift cards, bonuses, or career advancement opportunities. Tangible rewards can serve as a strong motivator for users to actively participate in gamified tasks.