It's long been said that work is no game, but with the concept of gamification, it's rapidly starting to look a lot more like a game, complete with winners and losers. Gamification allows a variety of different things—everything from watching television to taking Facebook (News - Alert) quizzes—to become more like games, and the call center is absolutely no exception here. In fact, some suggest that the call center could be one of the biggest new sources of gamification around, and some new moves from Arizona companies are making that clear.
For instance, Phoenix company Fiero builds gamification products direct from scratch for each individual client. It notes that, while some gamification products may not look much like games—particularly those for law firms or banks—it's more in how the experience works than in the look of the system. Fiero points to a concept called “opacity” to determine the difference between a game and an experience that's undergone gamification, and defines it as the extent to which the experience feels like a game.
For call centers, however, the name of the game—or the name of the gamification, rather—is training. Call centers often turn to gamification tools to give employees faster training that's ultimately more cost-effective. It's the use of gamification by call centers and by other corporate functions that will be the biggest growth opportunity according to Fiero's principle and strategy director Jason Edwards. Edwards called “corporate management and corporate engagement” the biggest likely beneficiaries of this concept since users interact with the system at a deeper level than would be the case with marketing uses.
Gamification isn't a new concept, Edwards elaborated, mostly because it takes so many forms. Airline mileage programs have been putting this concept to work for years, and elements of gamification can crop up just about anywhere. These elements include things like leaderboards, point systems to track progress, and badges to serve as rewards for reaching certain milestones.
Gamification in the call center can really perk up a training schedule, and get employees onboard faster. It's difficult to hold attention through something as comparatively dry as a training session, particularly in a call center environment. Thus turning it into a game can have some clear advantages for users and for companies alike. Everything from product knowledge to basic principles of customer service can be turned into a kind of game and applied, thus getting better employee engagement out of the process. Of course, there needs to be some care here; a Dilbert strip not so long ago noted that employees might care more about the cash value of said badges and gamification awards, and not providing rewards other than badges might be seen as an attempt to reward employees with “garbage”, trinkets that have no real value.
Still, the idea is a sound one, and executed properly, it can motivate employees to better succeed in a difficult environment. While there are some points to consider in terms of execution, gamification might well become the household word some expect it to be, and not too far away from now, either.
Edited by Maurice Nagle