Gamification can help boost morale, increase efficiencies and enhance the customer experience. Before you start, you need to make sure the right building blocks are in place. The good news is that contact centres actually lend themselves well to gamification.

1. The 10 Critical Rules of
Contact Centre Gamification
Every good game needs rules to play by
contact centre gamification is no different

2. Based on our experience, here are the
10 rules we believe will make gamification
a success in your contact centre

3. Rule 1
Think long and hard about the culture you
want to create

4. When it comes to changing behaviour, gamification can
be very powerful, so before you start, it is important to
think about the behaviour you want to encourage. This
comes back to having the right building blocks in place
and creating a very clear link between people,
performance and business outcomes.

5. Rule 2
Enhance, recognise and reward results
rather than actions

6. Actions may speak louder than words, but results mean
more than both. Make sure you recognise and reward
the outcomes of actions, rather than the actions
themselves. Make sure you don’t become prey to the
rule of unintended consequences; for example, if you
incentivise agents to close cases, you’ll get lots of
closed cases, but you may also get lots of customers
who are dissatisfied because their queries haven’t been
fully addressed.

7. Rule 3
Focus on improvement and consistency as
well as high performance

8. Gamification in the contact centre should be as
inclusive as possible. It is vital to reward consistency
and improvement as well as high achievement.
Gamification is about improving performance across
the board, not just for your start performers. In fact,
gamification’s ability to motivate new starters and
under-achievers is one of it’s main benefits.

9. Rule 4
Auto-assign points and minimise the
manual allocation of points

10. We know that keeping track of metrics on flip-charts
and wallboards can be an administrative headache. So
ensure you have the systems in place to auto-assign
points rather than allocating them manually. Aside from
minimising the effort required, automating the
allocation of points ensures that recognition is fair and
consistent.

11. Rule 5
Minimise the chance of cynical employees
gaming the system

12. We have alluded (in rule 2) to the unintended
consequences of rewarding actions rather than results.
Unfortunately, one of those consequences can be
agents gaming the system. Make sure you set up anti-gaming
controls and create a reward structure that
ensures you don’t end up incentivising the wrong
behaviour.

13. Rule 6
Encourage inclusive, healthy competition

14. This really goes back to the point about culture, but we
can’t stress it too much. Competition might seem
daunting to some agents, but by making it transparent,
inclusive and healthy, no one has anything to worry
about. You can do this by teaming up your high
performers with low performers to encourage peer
support and collaboration. Encourage everyone to work
together by creating supporting programs, and involve
agents in coming up with their own challenges and
targets.

15. Rule 7
Include real rewards

16. As we said earlier, rewards don’t have to be expensive,
but they do have to have value to the recipient. Think
about rewards that will encourage a more positive
culture. A half day off, parking spot closer to the office
entrance where a written letter of congratulations from
a CEO makes a huge difference. Involve the agents too
by asking them what rewards will motivate them.

17. Rule 8
Keep it simple

18. Like your customers, many of your agents may be at
home with the latest technology, but they are quickly
going to lose interest in a system that is difficult to use.
A simple and efficient user interface is especially
important for those less tech savvy team members.

19. Rule 9
Make it fun, compulsive, but not distracting

20. Gamification is meant to increase your agent’s focus on
customer service, not distract them from the task at
hand. By keeping it simple and easy but focussed on
results, you can ensure gamification doesn’t become
another ‘gimmick’ or an additional piece of reporting
software that is detracting from your agents’ focus.

21. Rule 10
Create a people-centric contact centre

22. This is the most important point. Gamification is a
fantastic tool for motivating agents and achieving great
customer satisfaction, but it is just that: a tool. It will
work if it supports clear operational goals and if your
leadership team embraces it with enthusiasm.
Remember for a call centre to be truly people-centric it
must recognise the needs of people, not technology.

23. EvaluAgent Contact Centre Gamification
Use EvaluAgent's game-based recognition & reward features to
create a contact centre culture where employees are rewarded in
fun and engaging ways for a job well done! Through a largely
automated process, this module ensures reward and recognition is
totally transparent and fair. And best of all, the process requires
little or no administrative overhead.
Find out more at http://www.evaluagent.net/