Gamification was a new term to me as of a few years ago. I thought “gaming” was what my teenage sons did when they were playing their favorite console system or messing around on their phones. As it turns out gaming is not just for teenagers, it’s for all of us! Specifically, gaming in a contact center is a way to challenge team members to reach certain goals throughout the day, as well as, just keeping work fun! Here are the Top 3 Ways Gamification Impacted Our Contact Center:
1. Transparency of KPIs Promotes a Competitive Environment
The tool we use features a dashboard where we select the top three key performance indicators (KPIs) for each contact center role and have them displayed for each contact center agent to see on their gaming home screen. Those KPIs share important measurables in a consistent way each day for each contact center agent. By sharing the KPIs the agents not only see their team’s performance, but also their individual performance. These KPIs have data fed into a leaderboard, which is displayed on TV screens throughout the contact center. By sharing who is on the leaderboard, we are instilling the competitive drive to be at the top of the leaderboard, and sharing what it will take to be considered “the best” in certain KPIs. The competition drives increased productivity.
2. Ease of Managing Contests and Incentives
With a gaming system that receives informational updates very frequently throughout the day, the contests do not have to depend on a leader updating a spreadsheet or manually posting an update on a board. Technology is used to feed data into the gaming system, which provides routine updates to all agents, across the contact center, so each person and each team knows exactly where they stand in comparison to their KPIs and the progress on their contest throughout the day.
By having auctions or using the store to distribute prizes, contests are easier for the supervisors to facilitate and keep track of, not to mention the results being more accurate. A deeper dive into contests and incentives will be presented at the CollectTECH19 conference. But I will say that it is fun to challenge your co-workers to certain “duels” in order to see who can reach the top results for each day. Plus, there is no supervisory involvement needed to make that happen!
3. Keeping the Contact Center Fun
Keeping incentives fresh can be a challenge and there are many aspects to gaming including earning points, leveling up, bidding on auction items, challenging teammates in head-to-head competition, and even having a bracket-style tournament. Being able to personalize your profile and engage with others through the system increases interaction among coworkers and gives team members something fun to talk about!
Gaming came to State Collection Service and it is here to stay! Some of our contact center agents were willing to share their feedback about gamification and here’s what they had to say:
“I love gaming,” said Jalisa Johnson! “When you work in a larger company it can be hard to get recognition for everyone, and through this system I can get recognition without waiting for a supervisor to notice my individual accomplishments. You get to customize the shelf that holds your awards and they stay as yours forever. You can even click on them and they tell you what you did to earn that one. It’s nice that they stay on the shelf so you can always see the milestones you have completed!”
“The system helps me keep myself personally accountable,” said Andrenia Morgan-Washington. “I like to see what I immediately need to improve on throughout the day. I can see my calls and payments during the day and know what I need to do to reach my daily goals. I really like that it’s immediate and gives you instant feedback.”
“Another thing I like is that it shows me what my personal best was,” said Jalisa Johnson. “Then, once I’ve outdone myself, it stretches the goal a little further so I keep increasing my performance.”
“I really need the immediate feedback and it motivates me,” said Andrenia Morgan-Washington!"
Tracy Dudek is the Chief Operating Officer for State Collection Service, responsible for overseeing the organization’s production and support areas including the company’s Extended Business Office and Third Party Collection divisions as well as Patient Engagement, Business Intelligence, Client Services, and Human Resources, among others. Tracy has been involved in the receivables industry for over 20 years.