Gamification in the Contact Center

Delivering excellent customer service in any industry starts with building an engaged and satisfied contact center team. That's why business leaders are exploring many strategies to help reduce team dissatisfaction.

One particularly popular strategy is gamification. Studies show that gamification can improve workplace engagement by 48%, boost productivity, and motivate teams. However, like any employee engagement strategy, there are right and wrong ways to approach gamification. 

The Benefits of Gamification for Contact Centre Employees 

Gamification in the contact center involves creating "gamified" experiences for team members designed to boost productivity and engagement. Common strategies include using leaderboards to encourage healthy competition among team members, rewarding those who get the highest customer satisfaction scores, or completing the most interactions. There are also ways to gamify the employee training experience, both in onboarding and in real time.  

Used correctly, these strategies can drive excellent results. For instance, 72% of employees feel motivated to work harder while participating in a gamification program. Gamification can also: 

Empowering Agents 

Providing agents with gamified experiences can help them understand their strengths, improve on areas for development, and progress toward professional goals.  

It can even help in offering the training teams need to thrive; by using gamification techniques, the training can be more engaging and help the user retain the information.   

Moreover, some tools offer regular quizzes for the agents, the results of which are used to develop customized training modules for them to improve in those areas.  

Improve Company Culture 

Creating a robust company culture within the contact center is crucial for cultivating a positive work environment and enhancing employee satisfaction. By integrating gamification strategies, organizations can establish an interactive, supportive atmosphere that elevates team morale and promotes collaboration. Gamification can be employed to acknowledge and incentivize employees who demonstrate behaviors aligned with the company's values, fostering a sense of belonging and camaraderie among team members. Moreover, gamified experiences can reinforce organizational objectives and instill a collective sense of purpose, resulting in a more united and motivated workforce. 

Increase Motivation and Engagement 

Boosting employee motivation and engagement is a fundamental objective for any contact center seeking to retain top talent and enhance operational efficiency. Gamification offers a dynamic and immersive approach to incentivizing employees, improving performance, and nurturing a sense of accomplishment. By incorporating gamified elements such as rewards, challenges, and recognition initiatives, contact centers can establish a vibrant work environment that inspires employees to excel. Furthermore, gamification can be a potent tool for enhancing employee morale, reinforcing favorable behaviors, and cultivating a culture of continual advancement within the organization. 

Potential Problems with Gamification in the Contact Center

Although gamification can benefit the contact center, it's not a catch-all solution to every employee engagement issue. A gamified experience can harm the customer experience and reduce employee engagement when poorly designed. Gartner suggests anywhere up to 80% of gamified processes fail due to bad design.  

One major problem is knowing what you should motivate your team members to achieve can be difficult. It's easy to track the employee who closes the most significant number of calls daily and reward them for productivity. However, you don't know whether that employee only achieved the highest number because they rushed through every conversation. You could end up actively rewarding employees for behaviors that harm your brand's reputation rather than focusing on what really matters.  

Additionally, it's worth noting that gamification replaces an intrinsic reward with an "extrinsic" one. In other words, instead of your employees doing something because they feel driven by a personal set of goals or ambitions, they do it for a reward. Ideally, you want your employees to care about delivering an outstanding experience rather than just giving them the internal desire to earn points and rewards.  

Gamification is not Always the Answer 

Gamification is about making the contact center job feel more "fun" and rewarding to your employees. Even if your gamification strategy motivates employees to do the right things, like focusing on increasing their customer satisfaction scores and earning more positive feedback, it has its limits.  

If your staff members are frustrated due to company culture or burned out because they're dealing with too many daily calls, complex technology, and limited support, they'll still abandon your workplace, irrespective of any gamification tools.  

Rather than focusing on gamification to rectify the contact center employee engagement problem, business leaders could be better served by taking an integrated approach. Look at ways to integrate gamification tools or programs alongside overarching engagement and communication strategies; they should elevate, not replace, existing approaches.  

Keeping Staff Engaged in the Contact Center

Customer service agents must be motivated and engaged to serve customers with ever-increasing expectations across various channels. Gamification can be a fun way to enhance the company culture and boost motivation and morale, but it's not the solution to every issue. When you implement gamification, pay attention to the results, gather feedback from your team, and continually monitor it to see if your strategy is effective.  

Gamification may be a valuable tool for employee engagement, but it's just one piece of the puzzle. Ensure you're taking a comprehensive approach to delighting and supporting your agents.