digitalshoreditch: the gamification of customer service
DESCRIPTION
This slidedeck was for a talk I gave at Digital Shoreditch about the gamification or use of game artefacts within customer service. I am still at the outset of this journey, but there is no doubt in my mind that game elements can be used to influence customer behaviour within customer service. The premise of my talk was exploring the idea of whether game elements (badges, rewards, levelling etc) can be used to influence customers to self-serve rather than call.TRANSCRIPT
…a thought in progress…
Digital Shoreditch Gamification Workshop: The Gamification of Customer Service
Guy Stephens04.05.2011
…a thought in progress…
Can we use gamification to influence or change behaviour from a customer service perspective?
© Foviance 2011
…stream of consciousness…I didn’t want to talk about the use of badges to engender loyalty and advocacy. I wanted to talk about the use of game mechanics to influence or change behaviour, as a directly attributable mechanic for a company to achieve cost savings.
After much thinking, I came upon the idea of the use of game mechanics to influence customers to self-serve. Not to self-serve once they are on the self-serving platform, as they are then simply using badges and rewards to encourage someone to simply do more of the same. Gamification becomes an end in itself, it is the destination, rather than being a mechanic to encourage someone to actually take a left turn when they would normally have taken a right turn.
What I wanted to think about was, would it be possible to use badges and other game artefacts to encourage, influence, change customer’s behaviour across platforms at the ‘moment of truth’.
Self-serve doesn’t start with self-serve. It starts with someone calling up, emailing in…essentially not helping themselves. Could I come up with a mechanic to encourage them at the point at which they might call or email to ‘trick’, ‘dupe’, ‘seduce’ them into changing their behaviour and reward them for their ‘moment of play’. Could I use and understand flow to influence their ‘moment of play’, so that the call or email was understood to be a necessary instigator of the game?
In this context, the ‘moment of truth’ becomes the ‘moment of play’.© Foviance 2011
My credentials
© Foviance 2011
Me
YouTube
Brightkite
Beingguy1067.com
FourSquare
Buzz
Where social media meets customer service
Social Media Governance Forum
Gowalla
Friendfeed
Posterous
Delicious
Digg
Stumbleupon
Listorious
Gist
TripAdvisor
Vark
Cofacio
Focus.com
SocialCRM Pioneeers
CustomerThink.com
Quora
Squidoo
Econsultancy.com
Best ServiceOne.com
MyCustomer.com
CustomerStrategy.com
LinkedIn profile: linkedin/in/guy1067
Google profile: google.com/profiles/guy1067
© Foviance 2011
Social customer care
Everything is the sameNothing is the sameWhat’s same?
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E = h
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Issue to resolution
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Resolution to experience
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I hate this company! No one ever listens
Complaints
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Creator
Participant
Promoter
Bystander
Voyeur
Passenger
Listener
Passerby
Pundit
Explorer
Roles are changing
Prisoner
© Foviance 2011
Customer service is changing•PR function•Decentralisation into the hands of people•Immediacy, spontaneity and empathy are currencies of service
•Transaction to experience, where experience is the service
•Cost saving to strategic business unit
The need for customer service to be redefined to a much broader company-wide proposition
© Foviance 2011
•50% of people login to social networking sites regularly throughout the day
•43% of people check social networking sites before going to bed, 1 in 5 check when they wake up
•28% of people have uploaded a picture of a meal they were eating to a social site, this increases to 47% for 18 – 34 year olds
•27% of respondents expected a response within 3 days when complaining via a company web site, 1 in 5 expected a response within an hour on Twitter or on Facebook
Source: Social Media, IAB UK December 2010
We record the minutiae of our lives
© Foviance 2011
A new type of customer service is emerging…
© Foviance 2011
Blurred lines, fragmented ecosystem
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Elements of gamification
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Transcended into modern day forum mythology
$60k - $100k cost savings
© Foviance 2011
Groubalution
“Gamification at its core is entertainment that engages the user; period. While they play, they learn intuitively.
Most important to note is the fact that the game play in and of itself weighs heavily on what people are thinking, feeling and saying about the largest brands and personalities in the world”
Robert Doner, Founder, Groubal© Foviance 2011
Gamification is vital!
Research by analyst Gartner predicts that 50 per cent of businesses will use gamification by 2015 to encourage staff to be more dedicated and innovative when managing customer relationships. “Where games traditionally model the real world, organisations must now take the opportunity for their real world to emulate games,” commented Gartner analyst Brian Burke.
Source: customerservice.co.uk
© Foviance 2011
Rewards existing behaviour. I get ‘kudos points’ for being there anyway.
But…
© Foviance 2011
…a thought in progress…
Can we use gamification to influence or change behaviour from a customer service perspective?
© Foviance 2011
Stop calling me!
© Foviance 2011
Self serve
© Foviance 2011
…a thought in progress…
Can we use gamification to influence or change behaviour across platforms?
© Foviance 2011
The easy part of the answer is “Yes”.
The hard part is “How?”Michael Wu, Chief Scientist, Lithium
© Foviance 2011
QR codes: Embed resolution
© Foviance 2011
How can I get a customer to stop using the phone and self-serve instead? The resolution becomes part of the ‘moment of play’?
The challenge
© Foviance 2011
I didn’t want to talk about the use of badges to engender loyalty and advocacy. I wanted to talk about the use of game mechanics to influence or change behaviour, as a directly attributable mechanic for a company to achieve cost savings.
After much thinking, I came upon the idea of the use of game mechanics to influence customers to self-serve. Not to self-serve once they are on the self-serving platform, as they are then simply using badges and rewards to encourage someone to simply do more of the same. Gamification becomes an end in itself, it is the destination, rather than being a mechanic to encourage someone to actually take a left turn when they would normally have taken a right turn.
What I wanted to think about was, would it be possible to use badges and other game artefacts to encourage, influence, change customer’s behaviour across platforms at the ‘moment of truth’.
Self-serve doesn’t start with self-serve. It starts with someone calling up, emailing in…essentially not helping themselves. Could I come up with a mechanic to encourage them at the point at which they might call or email to ‘trick’, ‘dupe’, ‘seduce’ them into changing their behaviour and reward them for their ‘moment of play’. Could I use and understand flow to influence their ‘moment of play’, so that the call or email was understood to be a necessary instigator of the game?
In this context, the ‘moment of truth’ becomes the ‘moment of play’.
Stream of consciousness…
© Foviance 2011
Designing the service experience with game elements placed strategically along the way that seduce, motivate, influence, change behaviour becomes paramount
© Foviance 2011
Customer service is not a game. Badges, rewards and levels of achievement are not a replacement for a resolution, but a means to get a customer from A to B
© Foviance 2011
© Foviance 2011
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Resolutions as locations: I check-in to a resolution
© Foviance 2011
Customer service 2015?
© Foviance 2011
customer service ≠ fun
