As businesses start to reopen and resume their operations; albeit with a reduced workforce, massive surges in customer interactions and expectations is a highly likely scenario. With many employees on furlough still (roughly 8.9 million jobs from 1.1 million different employers, Statista) and some likely to not have a job to return to, the strain will start to mount on those that remain.

Gamification has been overlooked in the past, but now is its chance to step into the limelight and aid employers in managing and motivating through the new normal. This article looks at how businesses and contact centres can utilise gamification to address new customer expectations and level up lowered morale post-crisis.

Customer Expectations and Experiences in the New Normal

We are about to enter a completely new way of working, with there likely to be more homeworkers, increased flexibility, industry overhauls, automation increases and a demand for more self-serve options. But how are new shifts due to COVID-19 going to affect customer expectations and experiences?

Digital Interactions will Increase (Even More)

If you thought digital interactions were already on the rise before COVID-19 hit, in a post-pandemic world they will be increased even more. Digital will continue to rise as a means of service. This will be particularly true for industries like retail where social distancing must be present on shop floors. Consumers are much more likely to turn to online channels where they can browse from the comfort of their own home.

But it’s likely that digital interactions will increase across all industries. Since lockdown customers have had to rely more on companies’ digital ways of service rather than channels like calling since they could only use this for certain enquiries.

Accelerated Customer Offerings

To compete in this new environment, new CX offers will become accelerated. Businesses realise, after enabling thousands of employees to work from home in a matter of weeks in some cases, that they can deliver projects quickly when they need to.

And with the way the economy is going to be looking as we exit out of COVID-19, the environment is going to become even more competitive than before. This means that businesses will need to ensure their digital offerings to customers are the best out there and that their customers are engaged.

Social Media Connections Become More Important

After a long period of needing to be socially distant from friends and family, people have had to turn to other methods of communication. Social media has seen a huge rise in the amount of time spent within apps during lockdown, with Instagram benefitting the most. Projected time spent on the photographic app is expected to grow by 14% this year, which is equal to over 3 minutes of additional time spent by each user each day (Search Engine Journal).

Due to this period, people will place more value on continuing to keep in touch with friends and family by social media and video conferencing tools like Zoom. It is likely that this trend is going to continue, long after the lockdown continues to be lifted further.

Gamification has a Large Part to Play

As we are moving away from the COVID-19 crisis, there is going to be a lot of emphasis on productivity. Not only to make up for the hours lost, but to meet the evolving customer expectations we mentioned earlier. Couple this with a reduced workforce due to employees being on furlough or made redundant and the stress will begin to mount on staff.

To assist with this, we’re not only going to see an increase in automation, but gamification too. Gartner previously outlined that 50% of corporate processes would be gamified in the future and that 40% of global 1000 organisations would use gamification to support business transformation strategies.

Raising Morale

Due to the uncertainty of the business climate, employee morale will be at an all time low. With many returning to mountains of work and incoming digital enquiries to solve from customers.

Gamification solutions will provide employees with a point of focus. Helping them as individuals with tailored channels of motivation. For example, employees that are motivated by competition can set up tournaments or game battles with colleagues.

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Drive Business Goals

Successful gamification is goal orientated, not game orientated. You will achieve business objectives but only if it is approached in the right way.

For example, with mounting digital enquiries, you might want to improve the resolution time of incoming social media interactions. This sets a specific area of focus for agents in the contact centre responding to social media messages.

Suitable for the Flexible Workforce

With many teams likely not returning to the office ever again, or at least for a lengthy period still, gamification has a key part to play in connecting the new remote workforce.

Keep your teams aligned with their key areas of focus and business goals by implementing a gamification solution. Using the cloud your teams can view personalised dashboards to digest and learn from data.

Appealing to Contact Centre Millennials

According to SmartCustomerService.com, millennials make up for nearly 70% of the workforce! Since we know this generation likes to game and are motivated by digital methods of tracking progress, it makes so much sense to introduce this into their work environment. Better engagement returns employee loyalty, resulting in a lower turnover of agents for the contact centre.

Encouraging Positive Attributes  

Gamification is great because it helps to encourage the attributes you would like to bring out in your employees. Whether it is adhering to the tone of voice of your organisation by using certain phrases or motivating people to get back to their workstation after a break on time, gamification solutions can help! These can be completely personalised from person to person.

Motivate and Managed Effectively in the New Normal

As the way we work evolves after the lockdown, gamification is going to increasingly play an important part in how we motivate and manage employees effectively. Done in the right way, it is a digital solution that has got a proven track record of success. Not only achieving key goals around productivity, but also making businesses more profitable.