Agents are the backbone of your contact center and business. They are often the first point of contact with customers and their interactions can make or break the customer experience.

Unfortunately, agents are also hard to keep involved. According to a recent study, two-thirds of contact center agents say they do not feel engaged at work.

That lack of engagement has negative consequences, such as reduced productivity, quality and customer satisfaction. It can also lead to high staff turnover, which is a big problem contact centers.

The average annual turnover rate in the contact center is 30%. For every 10 agents in your contact center, 3 leave within the year.

That’s a lot and it costs money. Finding good replacements is not easy and also time-consuming.

Gamification is an effective tool for keeping employees engaged and increasing retention. By adding elements of competition and reward, gamification can help motivate agents and reduce turnover.

An IBM study found that games can increase employee productivity by as much as 15%. The University of Colorado also found that games can also improve problem-solving and decision-making skills.

So if you are looking for ways to increase engagement and motivation, gamification is a very good step.

What is gamification?

Gamification is the use of game mechanics and elements in non-game contexts to drive engagement and motivation

It involves using fun and rewarding elements, such as points, badges, leaderboards, and so on to encourage desired behavior

The goal is to make tedious or monotonous tasks more fun and appealing so that people are more likely to do them

It can be used in all kinds of contexts, such as education, fitness, business, but thus also in the contact center.

Within a business context, gamification can be used to increase employee productivity or sales.

How to do that, we’ll tell you later.

The benefits of contact center gamification

There are many benefits to using contact center gamification. Gamification can:

• Improve agent productivity
• Encourage agent upselling
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Accelerate training time for new agents
• Reduce agent turnover

Agents are often the first point of contact with customers, and their interactions can make or break the customer experience.

By adding elements of competition and reward, gamification can help motivate agents and sell more products/services to customers.

A University of Colorado study found that games can also improve problem-solving and decision-making skills.

By using gamification, you can make agents better at their jobs and increase customer satisfaction.

Gamification can also be used to speed up training time for new agents.

By making training more fun and engaging, agents are more likely to remember what they have learned and quickly put it into practice.

Does contact center gamification create more loyal customers?

Yes, absolutely!

An Accenture study shows that companies that use gamification strategies have more engaged and loyal customers.

Also, 68% of customers involved in a company’s gamification program say they are likely to stay customers longer.

So a win-win!

12 examples of contact center gamification

Now that we’ve gone over the benefits of contact center gamification, let’s take a look at some specific ideas you can get started with

1. Use a leaderboard to track agent performance

The first simple way of contact center gamification is to use a leaderboard to track agent performance.

This is a great way to encourage friendly competition and motivation among your agents.

You can track various metrics, such as number of calls answered, sales made, customer satisfaction scores, and so on.

At the end of each week or month, you can award prizes to the best achievers. This could be anything from a gift certificate to a day off – it’s just how crazy you want to make it.

2. Give agents points for each task they complete

Of course, you have to fill that leaderboard with badges and points. Inventory which actions are worth the highest points.

Of course, an answered call is worth less than a 5-star review or a sale.

The more you encourage the right behavior, the more likely your agents will do it.

3. Give agents badges for achieving certain goals

In addition to points, agents can also receive badges for achieving certain goals.

This could be anything from taking a certain number of calls to achieving a certain sales goal.

Above all, again hang rewards on certain badges, such as when they have achieved x number of calls per week.

4. Hold a contest to see who can close the most deals

This one is especially effective if you work in telemarketing.

Hold a contest to see who can close the most deals in a week/month/quarter.

The winner gets to drive around in the boss’ car for a week or sit in his chair for a day. Bet it increases your sales rate? 😉

5. Give agents rewards for upselling customers

A very good way of gamification is to reward your agents (generously) when they upsell a customer.

This can be done in a number of ways, such as giving them a certain number of points for each upsell (which in turn goes into the leaderboard) or giving them a percentage of sales.

6. Give agents time off for good performance

This may not immediately come to mind in the context of staff shortages and high workloads, but it is, of course, the ultimate reward.

A good work-life balance is vital, and if you take good care of your agents, they in turn take good care of your customers.

What else do you want?

7. Give discounts to customers who use self-service

Gamification can also be used to encourage customers to use self-service options, such as your company’s website or app.

Let them use the FAQ and solve things themselves, which in turn saves your agents (somewhat boring) actions.

For example, you can give them discounts if they use these options or work with a loyalty point system.

For example, give them 10% off their next purchase or let them save up for a company outing.

Guaranteed to increase loyalty!

8. Use a “ticket to leave” system

A very good way of contact center gamification is the so-called “ticket to leave” system.

This means that customers cannot leave the contact center until they have completed a particular task required in solving their problem.

This way, you can make sure they actually use the self-service options and don’t just hang up as soon as they hear your message.

Of course, this requires some training for your agents, but it is well worth it!

9. Use contact center gamification to train new agents

You can also use contact center gamification to train new agents. How about a private, online academy where they can earn points for their progress?

This is very stimulating and you will see that they learn even faster!

10. Use games to de-stress

In addition to training new agents, you can also use games to de-stress your agents.

Set up a dedicated gaming room where you can play games during your break. This is also great for team building!

11. Work with a buddy system

Are there skill or order score differences in your sales team? It is incredibly smart to work with a buddy system and pair more experienced agents with the somewhat greener ones.

Divide your agents into buddies with different skill and experience levels. Make sure they have a common task and reward the best team in a competition.

Thus, the somewhat less experienced agents learn from the experienced agents. It is good for cooperation within your team, which you will reap the benefits of later.

12. Raise money for charity

A game does not always have to be about individual wins. Sometimes it is also just fun to contribute to a common goal.

Have everyone vote for a charity your company will donate to. Then hang sales promotions and thresholds on them and determine how much money goes to your charity.

With each goal achieved, you donate to the charity. The team that manages to donate the most money wins the internal competition.

This is a game without losers, as even the team that finishes last still contributes to the higher goal. Thus, they learn to work together and learn how effective teamwork can be.

Finally

There are many different ways to use contact center gamification. These were just a few examples, but the possibilities are endless.

Most importantly, you need to keep your agents motivated and engaged so they can provide the best possible service to your customers.

Gamification is a great way to do this and should definitely be considered for your contact center!